Promise FastTrak100 TX2 question: how to wire up LED for hdd use?

[Cheetah8799]

Hi everyone. I've got a Promise FastTrak100 TX2 ide raid controller that I'd like to setup with it's own LED for seeing hard drive use. Just like what your case has for the mobo hdd use display. The Promise card has a 4-pin plug on it, but I'm not sure how it works, and the manual doesn't have any info.

Has anyone here attempted this and had any success? If nobody knows how, I'll just email their tech support and ask there.

Ideally I'd like to mod my case to another LED for the raid hdd activity.

pic for reference


EDIT: Here is the response from the Promise support rep:

Hi
Yes there is on the FT100 TX2 there should a connector label JP1
that is hard drive LED connector. The connector should listed 1 through
4. Here is how the pin layout goes pin 1 and 4 are for ground and pin 2
and 3 are for power. You can have you hard drive LED cable connected to
pin 3 and 4. Pin 3 and 4 will control both IDE channel on the card.



Thank you

Promise Technology Inc
1745 McCandless Drives
Milpitas CA, 95035
408-228-6400

EDIT June 9th, 2004
I wanted to modify this posting since there are a few people here who might like to hear that I successfully got the LEDs to work. The quote from the Promise rep isn't exactly correct. Here's how it works:

This is what the pins look like on the card:

|---- LED1 +
|---- LED1 -
|---- LED2 -
|---- LED2 +

Now, I'm not 100% sure yet which set of pins is for which controller. I do know that they are separate though. I set mine up with 2 LEDs, they both flash at the same time since I only have 1 RAID 0 array with my two 80gb drives. In the future though I could potentially have different arrays on each channel, in which case the LEDs would flash differently.

Anyway, the way I got the LEDs attached is the tricky part. I wanted the LEDs to be mounted in the front of my case directly below the power and default hd led. So that means I had to build a long wire assembly with a plug of some sort to connect to the card. I found that a standard floppy molex connector from a power supply fits almost perfectly! The pins are the same width apart, but the floppy molex connector I got from my junk power supply had a little notch on it. I used my dremel and a file to get rid of the notch and any excess plastic so it would fit better.

Next I used extra wire from the junk power supply and soldered the LEDs to the wire. I used the little metal pins from the floppy molex connector so my wires would stay in the molex connector properly. This was a little tricky, since solder, plus the thick wire didn't fit too well in the molex connector. I got it to go in though, and when I plugged it all together it worked perfect!! Now I just need to drill the holes in the front of my case and mount the LEDs!

 

[Anubis]

i have teh same card and have no idea about a HD LED but that would be cool cause i have 2 HDs running off of mine 1 on each channel

 

[WobbleWobble]

This is only a guess. Does that double up as a passthrough since the HDD light is only 2 pins? So hook up the motherboard lead to that and then the HDD light to the other side.

 

[Cheetah8799]

My guess is that maybe one pair is for the 1st channel, and the second pair is for the 2nd channel. I've emailed the Promise tech support for more info. Hopefully they respond.

 

[JackBurton]

Ok dude, you are making this harder than it is. I have an Antec 1080 case with 3 HD LED connectors. The first LED connector gets plugged into the motherboard. This will monitor the hard drive obviously plugged into the motherboard's EIDE controllers. I also have a Promise ATA133 TX2 controller and two 120GB drives. Basically, the pins are in pairs, the first two are for the LED to monitor EIDE channel 1 on the controller. The last two pins monitor EIDE channel 2 on the controller. Just plug your hard drives in on the controller and plug in the LED connectors. If the LED doesn't light, flip it around. I believe the red line is at the top (if you where looking down at the card). It's pretty easy dude. You can plug and unplug the LED connection while the machine is on too, if you want to see if you have the LED connectors are plugged in right.

 

[Cheetah8799]

Thanks JackBurton. That's what I was trying to find out, if the pins are in pairs, or whatever. The manual doesn't say, so I was hoping someone like you would know.

I'll hook up some LEDs and give it a shot.

 

[Cheetah8799]

BUMP BACK UP!

I figured out how to get this to work. I edited my first post with a detailed description. I hope others find this useful.

Feel free to ask any questions.
-Josh

 

[VirtualLarry]

I've done this, both with my Promise Ultra66, and an Ultra100 TX2 card. AFAIK, even though the "LED connector" has four pins, that doesn't mean that it monitors two independent channels, or RAID arrays. It just means that the connector is more flexible for hooking up an LED. (At least, with my experimentation, I've never gotten it to act any differently than a single LED indicatior. If anyone knows otherwise, and knows this FOR SURE, I would love to hear about it.)

Also, I have a good amount (hundreds) of industrial-surplus red rectangular LEDs, with a soldered-on tail, slightly longer than a foot, ending in a two-position header-style female connector (just like a two-pin jumper cap, but wth wires). Do you think that there would be any demand for these? Maybe I should post in FS/FT then? I'd sell them cheap as long as supplies last. That's what I'm using in my case. I drilled some extra holes in the plastic faceplate of my mid-tower case, and ran a few of these cabled LED assemblies through some of the holes. If you were careful with a soldering iron, you could probably melt a small spot in the plastic faceplate, and jam one of these in before it cooled, affixing it in a bit more permanently-embedded fashion. Mine are just hanging loose, have to be careful not to allow them to get pulled-on, or they will disconnect from the cards and connectors inside the case. The other minor issue is that the LEDs are rectangular, not circular. Otherwise, it would be simple to drill a hole and mount them in the front-panel that way.

 

[Cheetah8799]

It was sounding to me like each pair was for a different ide channel. Could be wrong, hard to say unless someone who has for sure done it can post their results.

As for mounting the LEDs. I did what the case manufacturers do. I used a hot glue gun to mount/stick the LEDs after I drillled the holes. It worked out pretty well, except for that the drill bit I used is just a tad larger than the LEDs... Hard to notice though unless you look really close.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: Cheetah8799
It was sounding to me like each pair was for a different ide channel. Could be wrong, hard to say unless someone who has for sure done it can post their results.

Ok, I just tested it. I have a WD 80GB JB as Primary Master, 160GB Primary Slave. Have Maxtor 250GB as Secondary Master, no slave.

This is all on a Promise Ultra100 TX2, which should be identical hardware-wise to the FastTrack100 TX2, although I admit that the RAID firmware could possibly re-configure the card to control two LEDs independently. However, if it did, I would expect that the regular IDE one might as well too.

I have the LED connected to, I think, pins 3-4.

Using HDTach 2.61 on W2K SP2, doing read-testing, with the 80GB HD (Primary Master), the LED lights full-on. With the 250GB (Secondary Master), also full-on.

So no differentiation between IDE channels for my Promise Ultra100 TX2. If it's possible to have two independent IDE channel activity LEDs, I think it would be cool, but I'm not holding my breath on this one.

Originally posted by: Cheetah8799
As for mounting the LEDs. I did what the case manufacturers do. I used a hot glue gun to mount/stick the LEDs after I drillled the holes. It worked out pretty well, except for that the drill bit I used is just a tad larger than the LEDs... Hard to notice though unless you look really close.

Yeah, that's what I would suggest, if you use round LEDs. Mine are funky and square. :|

 

[Cheetah8799]

Using HDTach 2.61 on W2K SP2, doing read-testing, with the 80GB HD (Primary Master), the LED lights full-on. With the 250GB (Secondary Master), also full-on.

So no differentiation between IDE channels for my Promise Ultra100 TX2. If it's possible to have two independent IDE channel activity LEDs, I think it would be cool, but I'm not holding my breath on this one.

Dang. That sucks. I was hoping that they could be displayed independantly.