Fractal Design R3 Power LED

DWorrall

DWorrall

DWorrall

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Hey guys. Does anyone know if its easy enough to replace the power LED on the Fractal Design R3, and what voltage the LED is?

Reason being is that the Blue doesn't match the ROG Colour scheme much and im also adding red LED's to the intake grills on the front of the case.


Thanks.
 
I know it has been done. I have just popped the front of my case off and I think the LED is going to be pretty accessible,but my cable management prevents me from getting a better look. I will upload a photo in a minute.
 
photocw.jpg


Using the flash didn't really help, I'm afraid my cables are routed too tightly to get a better shot.
 
Josh P said:
Using the flash didn't really help, I'm afraid my cables are routed too tightly to get a better shot.
Click to expand...

Mines the same, cant get a good look without cutting my cable ties.

Guess its re-routing time... i'll wait till ive gotten my new PSU though. Going for a red and black scheme :P. Heres what it looks like at the moment. Will have red glow from PSU from underneath and red glow from the side grills from LED's :P.

photo0019o.jpg


Thinking of lighting mu XFI card up in red too :P.
 
If it's at full brightness a blue LED will need about 3v while a red LED needs only about 1.8v. I'm not sure what the power LED header outputs, whether it outputs 3.3v directly from PSU supply or whether it is regulated by the motherboard. Using a red LED at 3v will reduce the lifespan of the LED. A 100 ohm resistor will however reduce the voltage by 1v (if the LED is a standard bright 20mA). You can quite easily add the resistor anywhere in the wiring between frontpanel header and actual LED.

The x-fi would look really menacing in Red. Again you might have issues with voltage differential between LEDs but I swapped a blue LED on my vapor-x to an orange LED without too much hassle, unfortunately the light doesn't bleed very well but at least it's not blue anymore.
 
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I'll get the output measured and buy the right LED for the job, thanks for the replies. Just trying to eliminate the blue lights from my PC.
 
DWorrall said:
I'll get the output measured and buy the right LED for the job, thanks for the replies. Just trying to eliminate the blue lights from my PC.
Click to expand...

Let me know how you get on as I wouldn't mind doing this myself tbh but more of a soft purple theme.

Planning on window modding mine sometime when I get some new discs to cut with and thinking about doing a purple-ish theme rather than the usual blue ive stuck with for the past 3 years :D
I managed to squeeze 2 side panels from fractal design :)
 
Purple LEDs need similar voltage to blue so that mod is simpler.

It's typical really that it is Red that require the lowest voltage and Blue/White that need the highest.

Anyway let me know (via trust if you like) if you need any guidance with this. I like this sort of thing. See my fan mod, click my sig.
 
Yup the reason is that they need to use different materials to produce different wavelengths of light. Different materials need different voltages to get excited and transmit ions and produce the light, or something like this.
 
Tealc said:
Yup the reason is that they need to use different materials to produce different wavelengths of light. Different materials need different voltages to get excited and transmit ions and produce the light, or something like this.
Click to expand...

Bugger wouldn't be a simple switcharoo then? :(
 
The current LED uses a resistor to drop the voltage down (the little bulge just behind the LED on the wire). The motherboard gives out 6.1v from the power LED header according to my volt meter (not going to be wrong, it wasnt cheap). When i get round to swapping mine i might do a small project log for it :).
 
Checked a few pages who say that the power led is 5v. Makes sense as it's a native power for a motherboard and is suitably high for every LED colour.

So if it is 5v and you have a red LED at 2v then given that most bright LEDs are 20mA you'd need an approx 150ohm resistor, or whatever is the closest standard to that.

Now you'd probably not want full brightness so maybe 250-300 would be even better.
 
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Yeah I did wonder that and that's mainly why I investigated as 6.1v is a wierd voltage for a motherboard to provide. If I were doing the mod (and I probably should) I'd check the voltage first then resistor accordingly.
 
I guess thats just what my board gives out, the light does look a little bright. Anyway like i said i will most likely post a short project log.
 
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