HAF 932 LED Mod

EniGmA1981

EniGmA1981

EniGmA1981

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Port Talbot - Wales
Hey guys, I'm quietly planning a small/simple case mod in the near(ish) future, I want to ditch the gay blue LEDs on the front I/O panel of my HAF932 in place of some red ones to match up with the red LED fan in the front of the case

Now, I know it's a 3mm 3v LED I need, but I was wondering, if I just go into ****** and get two 3v LEDs, are they all the same? Do I need to look at one with a built in resistor? or is it just LED>Solder>PCB>done?

Teal'c, you seem to be the LED master - any pointers?

Thanks in advance :)
 
Red LEDs are designed for a 2v nominal supply really. If you go slapping 3v or more through them they'll go pop pretty quickly I'd imagine.

Not sure how the existing LEDs are powered of course but you could try adding a resistor to the anode leg so that an additional voltage drop occurs in your circuit.

How do you know they are 3v? Did you measure?

To drop 1v you need about a 50 ohm resistor but for dropping a nominally volted blue LED (3.5v) you'd need something around 75 ohm, or whichever is the nearest standard resistor value.
 
Fair enough - I read a similar mod on a different forum, but I can't remember where it was now :(

I've looked around for various red LEDs and I've found some that are rated at 3v - are they lying to me?

I was hoping it wouldn't involve any resistors or anything complicated as I have next to zero electrical knowledge lol

Last time I did anything electrical I think I was 15 building a simple LED circuit in D&T in school LOL - scary to think that was 14 years ago!
 
If they are 3v red LEDs then they'll come pre resistored or have a resistor as part of the package. I'm not aware of native 3v LEDs as all red LEDs use the same material and as such require lower volts.

Are the LEDs mounted on a PCB or something? Is there a gap between PCB and LED package to allow you to mount a resistor somewhere? If no gap then it will indeed be tricky to add a resistor to the circuit without breaking tracks on the PCB.

It's possible that the existing circuit us undervolting the blue led sufficiently to allow you to directly use a red LED but only one way to find that out is to bung a multimeter in there and measure.
 
I'll have to borrow a multimeter and see what's happening in there then I guess

Thought it might've been just a simple job

The LEDs are mounted onto the pcb through a spacing block... the wires feed through the block to hold them in the right place for the holes on the case - unfortunately there's no space around that block to put anything else in :(

They'll end up staying blue at this rate lol

Cheers mate :) once I've got some voltage/resistance readings I'll report back ok :)
 
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I wonder why they have the panel illuminated blue and then gave fans red, bit silly that.

Anyway I'd be suprised if those blue LEDs get full voltage as otherwise the colour would be overpowering. That said I can't seem to find a picture of one illuminated to see.

I would have said this was a simple job to be honest but electronics can be a tricky thing to play around with, especially if you don't have the necessary tools.

You know what they say.... A picture speaks a thousand words.

Let's see what you are playing with and maybe I can give you ideas.
 
They are really bright... Light up the wall on the other side of the room even with the main light on!

If you catch one at eye level you're staggering around dazzled for about 20 minutes lol

LED1.jpg


LED2.jpg
 
Wow those are mighty bright aren't they. Yup I think you'll need to step down that voltage I'm afraid.

Hey I could practically come around and do the job for you mate and I have my own multimeter. Do you work in the daytime? Either me or Mrs Teal'c are down in PT every weekday morning dropping a kid off for the next two weeks.
 
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Very interested in how this turns out as red would be a better colour for me too.

All I did for the power was cut a little square of the optical drive bay side sticker things and put over it. Still blue but nowhere near as bright.
 
That sounds like a damn tempting idea Teal'c - I'm not working at the mo :(, will have to run the idea by the missus and see if she minds me meeting strange men on the net ;) lol
 
Tell her I'm a foster carer. I mean, how bad could I be after all these police checks and a long intrusive application process.

Anyway just a thought if you are having trouble, although I don't have any 3mm LEDs.
 
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LOL Yeah I'm sure she wouldn't mind... I'll run it by her when she gets home and take it from there :)

Thanks a lot man, really appreciate this!

Would we need to test the circuit before knowing what to get? Or is it just buy all the stuff we might need and just use the bits we do?
 
It's probably worth checking that voltage first before obtaining anything else. If you can borrow that multimeter you were talking of and probe one side of the LED to ground it should give you a readout of the voltage flowing to the LED. Once you know that you can then work out what you need. Do you feel confident enough to do that? It should be easy to find the ground as that'll be where the black wire enters the PCB and it will probably be marked - or Gnd or something, and then touch the positive side of the LED leg as it is soldered into the PCB.

This'll help you understand which side is the positive (anode)
led0.jpg


I've got dozens of 56ohm and 100ohm resistors here by the way but the only RED LEDs I have are about 20x 5mm and 30x 0605 Surface mount types.

Now if you were doing an Orange colour Mod then I could throw 3mm, 5mm, 3mm flat top, 5mm flat top, 4.8mm straw hat, rectangular and 1.8mm your way.
 
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hehe you love your orange LEDs don't ya :)

Yeah, I can get the voltage off there no problem - I'll try and get that multimeter over the weekend
 
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