i wanna change the green light fromt he button to blue... just wanted to know what kinda led it is inside there... it's extremely small and lights pointing straight up... is it an smd led?
Yes it is. I've already done this - I got a blue LED and soldered some fly leads onto it, and the soldered the leads to the board after removing the original LED. I then 'carefuly' modded the light pipe (for careful read "had at it with the soldering iron, meting a slot near the flat end" ) so that the LED would sit inside the pipe. You need to makes sure that nothing sticks up to much, as there's very little clearence under the drive mechanism when you reassemble it. I'll post some pics later - I'll need to fish the drive out the case. TTFN GOO
Here's the pics: I'm assuming that you know how to take a zip drive apart here. The drive mechanism slides up and out. Best take the front spring off as well. Once off, remove the other leads. The actual mod. The SMD was removed, and the fly leads soldered in place. The most dificult part of the mod is getting the slot right. It took me three attempts. I used an old soldering iron tip, and melted the plastic of the pipe. Take it easy! It would be very easy to melt right through and have two lightpipes rather than one! The depth of the pipe at the very back has been reduced to accomodate the fly leads. Like I said, there is very little clearence once the drive mechanism is back in place. If it snags, the drive won't work / eject properly. Pop the LED in place, and reassemble. Those thin wafer type interfaces go in better with a pair of needle nose pliers, with gentle pressure. Heres the drive in action: ZIP Drive in Action The LED is a KINGBRIGHT 3mm clear hibright from Maplin, part code JA22Y As you're one of our colonial cousins , I guess that radioshack will have something similar. Good Luck! Cheers GOO
sweet mod! much better than special ordering an smd and having to mess with that lil bitty thing! oh, the radio shacks in my area don't stock the 3mm leds, but i ordered 5 of them since i was expecting to mod my keyboard with them... a couple weeks later i jumped for a wireless keyboard and now i got 3 extra... so now's a good time to put one of those led's to use, hehe
