HIGH QUALITY, HARD TO GET AND CUSTOM ELECTROLYTIC CAPACITORS FOR POWER SUPPLIES, DISPLAYS, TVs, MOTHERBOARDS AND MORE!

Case LED power reduction hacks

Post here about anything that doesn't fit specifically into any of the other categories, or if you're not sure what the problem is.

Case LED power reduction hacks

Postby LongRunner » February 4th, 2014, 2:52 am

Okay, so I guess there are two reasons for me making this:
  • Because I'm bored (yeah, that's starting to set in lately).
  • So you can get the brightness of modern, high-efficacy LEDs down to the desired level.
Anyway, I've come up with two circuits for this purpose. One uses a current source in series with the LED and should provide a very stable current; the other uses a Zener-diode shunting most of the current (as provided by motherboards and needed to drive old LEDs to the correct brightness) away from the LED. I haven't assembled them, but I'm pretty sure they'll work.

The "anode" and "cathode" labels refer to the points in the circuit that connect in place of the old low-intensity LED. None of the components used are critical - be they 1/8W carbon film resistors or 2N3904 transistors, they should work (the Zener diode only may get slightly warm but the smallest (0.4W) axial type should be good enough).

In case you're wondering "why not just use a resistor", I made these circuits in order to avoid dependence on which PSU rail is used. Call it overkill if you like, but at least it's less boring this way. :D
Attachments
LED hacks v1.0.png
LED hacks v1.0.png (17.66 KiB) Viewed 9509 times
Information is far more fragile than the HDDs it's stored on. Being an afterthought is no excuse for a bad product.

My PC: Core i3 4130 on GA‑H87M‑D3H with GT640 OC 2GiB and 2 * 8GiB Kingston HyperX 1600MHz, Kingston SA400S37120G and WD3003FZEX‑00Z4SA0, Pioneer BDR‑209DBKS and Optiarc AD‑7200S, Seasonic G‑360, Chenbro PC31031, Linux Mint Cinnamon 20.3.
User avatar
LongRunner
Moderator
 
Posts: 1030
Joined: May 17th, 2013, 5:48 pm
Location: Albany, Western Australia

Return to General Computer Discussion

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests