I found a HDD LED(with 2 pin plug for mobo) from an old case.
My question is... how can i use it in my current case as "light" LED(to light up a section of the case, not as HDD LED)

It has the wire and plug still on it and everything, all I would have to do is plug it into the HDD LED but I already have one there(From current case)

Is there any other place on the mobo where i can plug it in for it to get power? All I want it to do is light up when the computer runs

thanks!

The easiest would be to use a resistor (~100 Ohm) and run it off the 5v supply

What does that mean to a guy who knows nothing about anything?

resistor?(sorry, english isnt my native language) 5v supply... where is that?


sucks to be a noob lol

It won't be bright enough to lightup anything. But yes use a 100ohm resister and run it off of the 5volt line on your molex (the red wire, and the blackwire next to it). Red is positive, the black next to it is negative(ground).

The cable that go from the LED are orange and white.
Which goes with black, which goes with red? Does it matter?

Also, how do i get it into the molex connector... Or how can I take the current wires out of the molex connector?
Where do I get resistors from and how do i put those into this whole thing? lol

Is there like a guide or anything to do this?

On my old AT case I had the same colour wires, Orange was postive for me, and the white negitive. It might be different than yous, you can try it with a 9volt battery, dont leave it on too log, just a quick tap to see if it lights (Ive done that before)

Well, some help from an x-noob lol!

First, if there is a chance, to do by yourself in the future, anything more than connecting a led, lets say lowering a fan from 12V to 7V (etc ...etc...), then i suggest to take your time and learn some basics about electrism. I don't mean to read a book or something. The next link, is the simplest guide in basic electrism i've found. Just give it a try
http://metku.net/index.html?sect=vie...oppi/index_eng

Or else, you could try the "empirical way", that is:
"Try 100 Ohm resistor"
"F***, it's burned man!"
"Oh well, your led was a 2.1 Volt not a 3 Volt after all. Try 150 Ohm next time."

You see, experience cannot always be of great help, despite the good will of the answerers (=us)


Anyway, to your problem
hawklen was right, usually the orange cable is the positive. The best way to be sure, is to see inside the led (if you can). There are two metal poles, one big flat and one smaller. The smaller is the positive and the other is the negative. Try to see to which pole the orange wire is connected.

Generally, i would recommend to test a led with a 3 volt battery not a 9 volt. It's just safer for the led.


To connect a led to power from molex you should know this:
Red wire = 5 volts
Black wires = 0 volts ("ground")
Yellow wire = 12 volts
If you connest a + wire to 12V and a - to a 0V you have (12-0=)12Volts. If you connect a + wire to 12V and a - to 5V, then you have (12-5=)7Volts. (this is much better written in the link above)


You connect led to molex wires by soldering them.
You can take the molex wires out of it by using a pin. Try to find a guide, cause it's not easy to describe it.
The resistor you can buy it from a shop which sells electronic stuff (don't know how they call them in english).
You connect the resistor between the 5 volt molex wire and the positive led wire (orange). Reisistors don't have polarity.



Again, i think reading the previous link will clear more things to you.

lol, Im right for a change! I still use a 9v battery for my tests, since its only connected for half a second, not long enough to burn the LED out. But you're right, If I had the proper testing equipment, I'd do it that way, or just solder up a small pcb, with different rating resistors..hrmm, getting ideas, must mean Im thinking, whats that funny smell??

Thanks for the info I think i've seen that site a long time ago but was too lazy to look at it !

That helps me A LOT.

One question though... How the freak do I get a pin out of the molex connector so I can add another wire to it?
Or can I just cut off a connector that I dont need (so I have just wires there) and then put them on that wire? (So that I dont need any molex's)
I hope that made sense.. lol

@pilsl
If you have a molex for a floppy (you know, the small ones) you don't need (usually, are in the end of a psu cable), then you use a pin to push the metal foils(?) so that the wires can get out of the molex. Then solder ...

Otherwise, use a "female"(?) molex, to connect it to a free "male" molex from your psu. The "female" will have wires getting out of it. Use them to solder things. If you don't have any, you could rip a female molex with it's cables, out of an old broken 80mm fan.

I think in shop with electronic stuff, you could find "female" molex and wires so you could make one.

I have a old fried PSU... meaning I have several Male molex and a floppy molex. But those dont help me.... or do they?

I dont have any old fans that dont work, plus all of my fans are 3 pins(becuase I use them with my digidoc5)

Also on www.conrad.at I looked for LED's/resistors.... and they dont tell me how many V/mA they use. So I'm just going by that chart on that website you gave me saying that RED LEDs are 1.6V. (Lets hope they are right?

About the resistors... that site has so many different kinds of resistors.. I have no idea which one is the correct type/kind.

Tooooo confusing
I dont wanna buy them from a Case Mod page because there the things cost like 5-10 times as much as it would at a electric store like Conrad

If you have a free floppy molex you don't (and won't) use, cut it and connect whatever you like. It's not a big deal after all

About leds
For maximum performance without any danger (=PUFF!), you should have specifications. Otherwise, calculate according to that chart. It has the average volts for every color.
But why don't you try to find a local shop in Austria so you'll know what you're buying?

Resistors are ohm specific. Take a look at this link, maybe it will help you find the resistor you're looking for
http://members.cox.net/brutal/Resistor/main.html

Again try a local shop.

But how would a floppy molex help me? Where would i plug it in for power?

Well today I ordered 24 LEDs, 30 resistors, kabel, and a few female molex connectors from some german store(why so many? You had to buy at least for 10 euros! hehe)
Plus you can never have too many of those

Well, I'm gonna make a parallel circuit dealybob, meaning I'll need a resistor for every LED. I'm gonna hook it up to 5V, and the LEDs I got are 1.85v and 30mA.
So that would be 3.15v/0.03a which equals 105 Ohm, right?
So I bought 110 Ohm resistors(closest one I found)

Is this correct?

Oh about the 110 Ohm resistor... I didnt know if those actually exist. The product on www.reichelt.de(I doubt you know german though) said "1/4W 110" which I think the 110 stands for Ohm.
IT didnt actually say it's ohm in the info... which i thought was weird. But every resistor had a different product title, so I figured the # was the amount of Ohm.
Would make sense, right?

Maybe i wasn't clear:
If you have a free molex for floppy disk, in your current psu, and you don't use it, then you can cut off the molex and use the cables (red/yellow/blacks) to solder the leds you want. This way though, you'll have a circuit permanent attached to your psu.

But all the above don't matter any more, since you've got your self female molex.

Quote: Well, I'm gonna make a parallel circuit dealybob, meaning I'll need a resistor for every LED. I'm gonna hook it up to 5V, and the LEDs I got are 1.85v and 30mA. So that would be 3.15v/0.03a which equals 105 Ohm, right? So I bought 110 Ohm resistors(closest one I found) Is this correct?

Yeap!
(what is "dealybob"?)

(Why don't you connect 2 leds in each line rather than one???)

Quote: ...(I doubt you know german though)...

...you shouldn't!

Quote: ...Would make sense, right?

Perfect sense

"(Why don't you connect 2 leds in each line rather than one???)"

Because I'm an idiot and didnt know that would work
I guess that's too late now since my resistors are too "Strong" (is that how you would say it if they have too many Ohms?)

Dealybob... It's some retarded word you use when you dont know what you're talking about, or cant think of the word you want to say.

Ex: I'm going to that dealybob tommorow.
Dealybob could replace..... movie, party, etc...

Yeah, stupid, I know

hehe, thanks for all the help.

For learning how to use LED's (right down to making an LED caselight) you can do no better than this article:

http://www.dansdata.com/caselight.htm

If you use resistors that are "too strong", your LED will just be less bright than the rated mcd.

Yeah, I realize that(them being less bright.

But.... do you know how much less? Lets say the resistor is 10Ohms over.. how much less will it be? 100Ohms?
You probably dont know the answer, but it's worth a try

Quote: Originally posted by putwig ... http://www.dansdata.com/caselight.htm ...

HA-HA-HA , the guy with friodes and Smoke Emitting Diodes LOL.
Nice to remember him again


@pilsl
Man, you're hard to yourself. It's your first time, you'll learn....
Thanx for the .... traslation too.

About leds:
The brightness depends on the voltage you give to led. If it needs 1.85 and you give 0.9V (=half) then it will be half-bright. ATTENTION!!! If you give it 3.7V, it will not be twice as bright (i know you know it! :p )

So, if you are using 110 ohm resistor normaly, then to make it half bright you should use one that drops the voltage from 5V to 0.9V (instead of 1.85V), that is 4.1V,. So a 4.1V/0.03A=137 Ohm (or the closest available) will do the job.


Ah, and a small tip.
If you want to make parallel circuit with a led in each line, and the source is 5V and leds are all the same and need 1.85V, then you don't have to connect a 110 Ohm resistor to each led.
You can simply connect a 110 Ohm resistor right to the source, drop the voltage to 1.85V (1.7V to be acurate) you need for each led, and after that connect in parallel the leds. To exceed the tolerance of a resistor using parallel connected simple leds, you must use a lot of them. So it won't be a problem.

... I can't tell if i was clear enough. I hope ....

oh, so basically just connect 1 110 Ohm before it gets to the "split" of kabels(where the LEDs are hooked to individual kabels)

Will it get hotter that way?