Connecting HDD LED directly to drive??

[lenknermj]

I hope this qualifies as highly technical... =)

I have a Promise SX4000 ATA RAID controller, which appears to have connections for only 2 HDD LEDs, while at the same time, supporting 4 drives. So far, so stupid.

I'm using it to drive 4 WD 100GB 7200RPM SE drives. Additionally, I have a Codegen mini-server case with 5 extra leds for HDD activity display (For those interested, it's a Codegen 9011 case).

My question is:

Can I connect these LEDs directly to the hard drive anywhere? I've looked all over the web, and found nothing...I can't even find info as to what the extra 4 pins are in the drive config block (ya know, CS, Master, Slave, etc).

Has anyone ever done anything like this? What can I do to have independant activity lights for each of my 4 hard drives?

TIA,
Mark

 

[corkyg]

Haven't seen any HDD LED pins since back in the old ST-51 days - circa 1985 or so.

 

[RemyCanad]

I am curious about this too. I shot off an E-mail to them and lets see if they give me any good info... I am hoping for some sort of wiring diagram.

 

[RemyCanad]

Well they said no. Doesnt mean you can't it just means they didn't find anyway in there database.

Also the other pins are for hard drives that are to big for the BIOS.

And their SCSI drives do have LED pins.

 

[SemperFi]

I have one of those drawer drives that you install into a 5.25 bay and put your hard drive into it so you can remove it easily. What I am getting at here is it had a hdd activity light built into it but had no wire to the controller. It got it from the ribbon cable. Anyhow I can't seem to find it right now but it seems like there was a small circuit board in it. I will look around for it but I might have given it to a friend of mine.

 

[TheCorm]

I am curious as to why you want this? If you have a single drive then it shouldn't make any difference....If you have more than one drive then by attaching it to one you don't get to see activity for the other one....just curious.

have one of those drawer drives that you install into a 5.25 bay and put your hard drive into it so you can remove it easily

This is good because you can see activity for each drive, ones I normally supply have a power LED too and a key that turns the drive on and off and allows removal.

I have a cheap RAID card that has an LED Connector....only one....I am guessing this shows activity for any amount of drives...from 1 to 4.

Corm

 

[dmcowen674]

Originally posted by: lenknermj
I hope this qualifies as highly technical... =)

I have a Promise SX4000 ATA RAID controller, which appears to have connections for only 2 HDD LEDs, while at the same time, supporting 4 drives. So far, so stupid.

I'm using it to drive 4 WD 100GB 7200RPM SE drives. Additionally, I have a Codegen mini-server case with 5 extra leds for HDD activity display (For those interested, it's a Codegen 9011 case).

My question is:

Can I connect these LEDs directly to the hard drive anywhere? I've looked all over the web, and found nothing...I can't even find info as to what the extra 4 pins are in the drive config block (ya know, CS, Master, Slave, etc).

Has anyone ever done anything like this? What can I do to have independant activity lights for each of my 4 hard drives?

TIA,
Mark

Does the Controller have 4 separate slots and channels? I suspect it is 2 channels supporting 4 drives. 1 LED for each channel, so it is a channel activity LED not just the drive. To cut costs I haven't seen IDE HD LED pins in a while either, most of the time there is still a small surface mount LED on the HD board. If you're good at SMT soldering you could make an External LED connection but that would void a warranty if you have a warranty on the drives. Probably not worth it.

 

[lenknermj]

Does the Controller have 4 separate slots and channels? I suspect it is 2 channels supporting 4 drives. 1 LED for each channel, so it is a channel activity LED not just the drive. To cut costs I haven't seen IDE HD LED pins in a while either, most of the time there is still a small surface mount LED on the HD board. If you're good at SMT soldering you could make an External LED connection but that would void a warranty if you have a warranty on the drives. Probably not worth it.

Actually, Promise advertises that it is a 4 channel controller. There are 4 40pin headers on the board, and they only support one drive per header.

I suppose the possibility exists that there may only be 2 channels, but I have all 4 of the drives shunted as masters, and only one per cable/header.

The thing that baffles me is that there is (what appears to be) connections for 2 LED's on this controller. I say 'appears to be' because there is no mention of the purpose of these pins in any of the documentation, and yet they look like (and the board is silkscreened like) IDE LED connections.

Stick a fork in me...I'm done. Waiting for Promise to answer an email I sent 3 days ago...I'll post results if I get any...

Thanks,
Mark

 

[compudog]

SCSI drives still have (at least most of them) pins for connecting LEDs. There is a way to get an activity indicator from the ribbon cable directly, but it may require a dropping resistor and/or a small circuit. There will certainly be some soldering/modding required.