How to wire new led's to existing case led wires?

[BZeto]

I have one blue led (one of those pre wired 5mm ones) on the front of my chieftec, and one stock 3mm orange one. I want to change the stock one to a 3mm blue one and maybe replace the 5mm with a 3mm one so it sticks through the hole more. Would I have to have new wires going to the headers? Or could I just cut the stock leds off the wires and wire the blue leds on them? How would I do this? Would I need any sort of resistor or something, or just make sure the positive and negatives aren't switched?

 

[Phunktion]

I'm almost certain the Chieftecs use two 3mm as mine had two of them one 3mm green, one 3mm orange which I replaced with 3mm blue and red LED's.. replacing the stock ones on my case was as simple as pulling the plastic front bezel of the case off the chassis, pulling out the little holders for the two leds (which were hot glued so I had to get that off with my finger nail) then all you need to do is bend the stock LED's wires straight and carefully pull it out of the holder, then cut the replacements wires the same (longer lead, the one you need to bend straight, should be the ground) and then just stick the replacement LED in the holder, bend it's wire back to what the stock one was like and stick the holder back where it was when you pulled it out..

This makes it sound complicated but assuming you are referring to the same Cheiftec with the door on it they are all the same and once you get the front bezel off it should be easy to see and do what I made sound so complicated.. so the orange one you mention as a stock 3mm should follow what I said above, you're 5mm blue (non-stock) might be a little more work unless they left the stock green LED's holder and wires.. Either way I'm almost certain you don't need a resistor on those leads if they are going to be connected to the motherboard's LED pins so just swap it out..

 

[BZeto]

Yes, I left the green led and wire there, I just gotta take the blue 5mm one out.

So all I will need to do is pull the stock leds out of the wires and stick the new ones in? Or will I need to cut the stock leds off, strip the wire and solder the new ones on? (As seen here)


and btw, yeah, its a chieftec dragon case.

 

[HiTek21]

Originally posted by: BZeto
Yes, I left the green led and wire there, I just gotta take the blue 5mm one out.

So all I will need to do is pull the stock leds out of the wires and stick the new ones in? Or will I need to cut the stock leds off, strip the wire and solder the new ones on? (As seen here)


and btw, yeah, its a chieftec dragon case.

Do what virtual hideout says in their guide. As long as the Power to the LED doesn't exceed the LED's rated power (which it probably won't) required it should be fine. If it does exceed the voltage it may burst. Just make sure you get the polarity correct otherwise it won't work, easiest way to do it is to look at the way your LED is wired in right now and match the wire. My case has these ends on the wire so you can change the LED in and out without soldering

 

[Fallen Kell]

You will most likely need to cut/strip/soder. Just be careful with the soder, you don't want to heat it up too high that you damage the LEDs from the heat (its not super sensitive, but enough that you want to be fairly quick with removing the sodering iron away from the LED's wires so as to not transfer too much heat to the LED's diode).

 

[HiTek21]

Originally posted by: Fallen Kell
You will most likely need to cut/strip/soder. Just be careful with the soder, you don't want to heat it up too high that you damage the LEDs from the heat (its not super sensitive, but enough that you want to be fairly quick with removing the sodering iron away from the LED's wires so as to not transfer too much heat to the LED's diode).

If you have some small aligator clips or a soldering heatsink you can clip it nearest the head of the LED to spread out the heat to prevent damage.