LED Noobie needs a little help

[Painman]

Got my Rheobus from Jab today. I think it's a great piece of hardware for 9 bucks. Simple, but gives nice, smooth fan control, and doesn't feel at all flimsy once it's in. Got my rad fans, NF4 fan and a little something I rigged up for my PWMIC attached to it (might post more on that later).

But the LEDs - they're gonna drive me nuts. They're WAY too bright. I knew this was a caveat going in... My case sits below and to the right of me, and I can see those little screamers in the corner of my eye. They're very distracting. I want to replace them, but I don't know enough about Candela ratings, mainly. I know I need a 5mm that can handle 3 volts or so, with 3 leads, anode-cathode-anode.

I just want something that says, "Hi there, I'm on" without being a beacon in the blackness of night. Something that can produce blue/green would be best, blue/yellow or blue/orange would be OK. I'd prefer to avoid red. Diffuse would probably be less distracting than clear. I was looking at this unit at Mouser, it's way more LED than I need, and it's VERY expensive - but it can produce blue/green, and its physical/voltage specs look compatible. I'd rather get something cheaper and less redundant of course, and I'm still lost when it comes to brightness ratings.

Has anyone doene a swap-out like this before? What did you buy, and where did you buy? Thanks.

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

Do you have a SO? As GalvanizedYankee mentioned one time, grab some black fingernail polish, and coat them. It reduces the brightness greatly. Or you can solder a resistor on the LEDs on the middle post. Let me know if you are interested, and I'll dig for the link for instructions....

 

[Painman]

SO? Taking a much needed break from those 😀 And nothing appropriate re: an iron. Just a clumsy, klunky thing for working with piping and such. I could use this as an excuse to get an iron that's appropriate for small electronics, maybe - amazing that I get as far as I do w/o one.

What wattage iron of the fine-tip variety is best for this kind of thing, and what res values should I consider? Go ahead and dig for that stuff if you have the time, maybe that's a good way to go about it.

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

SO = significant other.

 

[Painman]

Originally posted by: Fullmetal Chocobo
SO = significant other.

Yeah. I know. 😛 Sometimes their "significance" can take on some pretty surreal forms, and those are the times when I'm much happier spending my $ on watercooling parts and soldering irons.

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

Originally posted by: Painman

Originally posted by: Fullmetal Chocobo
SO = significant other.

Yeah. I know. 😛 Sometimes their "significance" can take on some pretty surreal forms, and those are the times when I'm much happier spending my $ on watercooling parts and soldering irons.

LOL. Okay. My wife lets me. Hell, she's wanting the two copies of GW: Factions... So I can't complain in that area. 🙂

 

[imported_rod]

If you solder a 100 Ohm resistor to the middle leg of the LED it should reduce the brightness somewhat. You can adjust the value if that's too much/too little.

RoD

 

[Painman]

Originally posted by: Fullmetal Chocobo
LOL. Okay. My wife lets me. Hell, she's wanting the two copies of GW: Factions... So I can't complain in that area. 🙂

Yeah, I saw that thread where your wife was spreading the thermal goop and doing the heatshrink thing. You're blessed, man. Me, I need to break bad habits 😀

Well, I'm not ashamed of heading to Walgreen's and buying some nail polish, I don't give a fsck. Black spray/model paint might work too. But that solution doesn't satisfy me at some level.

I'm willing to go the resistor route with a soldering iron, I could probably get away with something from Crappy Shack for this purpose, but I'd never go near any SMD components on my boards/cards with it :Q a nice Weller is pricey and probably not available quickly. They'll probably have the right resistors too, just gotta know the right value. Got no clue on that score.

Originally posted by: rod
If you solder a 100 Ohm resistor to the middle leg of the LED it should reduce the brightness somewhat. You can adjust the value if that's too much/too little.

RoD

Thanks, looks like a good place to start.

 

[TrevorRC]

http://www.overclockers.com/articles1141/

That should be everything you're looking for.
--Trevor

 

[Painman]

Originally posted by: TrevorRC
http://www.overclockers.com/articles1141/

That should be everything you're looking for.
--Trevor

Thanks! :thumbsup:

 

[Painman]

Ahh, better. 22k rezzies from Crappy Shack FTW :thumbsup:

I'd still like to get rid of the glare, though. I'll frost the LED tips somehow.

Flipped the LED for the chipset fan around so they all glow blue @ desired settings. Makes the coolant in the res glow just a tiny bit across the front. Neat effect 🙂

I'm glad I found a good excuse to get a proper iron for light electronics work - it's about time. It'll come in handy with my next experiment.