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LED Light Question...???

J

jamison

Platinum Member
Hello,

I just received a new LED light that I ordered from an online store. It is the light itself with two metal peices coming out of it, obviously so you can wire it.

So my question is, how do you wire this so it connects to the motherboard. I have the 3 pin motherboard LED light connector and the two wires. So what next? Anything I can buy somewhere?
I am obviously not experienced in this area and would appreciate any help. Thanks.
 
Your LED should have one leg longer then the oher, this is the postitive lead, it needs to be connected to the positive pin on your mobo. If you have the connector and wire with the original LED just cut off the dead LED. Get some shrink tube solder and a soldering iron from Radio Shack and connect the new led in its place. Now connect to the mobo.

If you do not have the original LED, then life is a bit tougher, I am not sure where you will find the connector that you need, RS would be a good place to start.
 
I do have the original LED, however have never soldered. Any tips before I risk destroying it? 🙂
 
Soldering tip for ya. Make sure the iron is all the way hot, touch on the solder to make sure it flows and melts good. Then touch the two pieces together and apply the hot iron to it, wait a few secs until them become hot enough, then apply solder. Don't move it and Let it cool for a about 10 seconds and you should be done.
 
get a pair of helping hands/aligator clip holders for soldering. i would practice a bit first. i did some up last night.... fun.
dew.

 
Oh sorry.. soldering.. right.

Okay. Soldering is easy, but it's one of those things that's better shown to someone rather than told.
So here goes.
When I solder wires together, or wires to LED's (I hope you got the high intensity eh) I usually just grab either the wire first, or the LED. I take just that one thing, I hold the iron in one hand and heat up the wire or the LED (whichever one I picked up first) and apply some solder to it.
Put it down.
Pick up other thing, LED or wire, whichever comes second, hold the iron to it for a bit and apply some solder to that.
Put it down.
Get a sandwich, cause you're doing good so far.
Now, both of the ends that you want to attach have some solder on them. All you have to do, is lay the iron down on the table and grab the LED in one hand and the wire in the other hand. Hold them together and put them up against the iron for a few seconds untill you see the solder melt and kind of relax. The solder has to kind of "sigh" .. relax down.. you'll know what I mean when you see it. Once that is done, take it off the heat and (I blow on it at this point) let it harden.
Done.
Apply shrink wrap.
edit: er.. heat shrink.. heat tubing.. shrink wrap is something else 😱
 
Note that every LED is not a drop-in replacement for every other LED. You may need to add a resistor in series to limit the voltage otherwise you risk burning either the LED, or worse the motherboard traces due to high current. It depends on the type.

What's the ratings on the LED you bought?
 
You don't necessarily need to solder anything. For my Enlight 7237 I just gripped the LED, pulled, and it came loose. Shoved the Radio Chack blue LEDs in and it works fine. (Or course, I had to clip some of th elength off of the new LEDs, but that's all...)
 
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