Guide Backlit DVDs/CDs in Slot loading drive. -Guide

1) it still might, because it only has maximum intensity at 625 nm there is a spread of wavlength and some of that is the same as the lazer's light

2) I actually think since the light is travvelling perpendicular of the pits and not actually casting a glow beneath the CD then chances are it wont interfere.

 

i've just done this mod with a bloo 3mm LED, but it's only noticeable when looking directly into the CD. any ideas?

 

A 3mm LED may have too narrow of a focus angle to light the entire CD.

A 45degree (or more) angle 5mm LED should work better.
And the brighter the better.
(Or use mutiple LEDs)

 

i like this mod very much but i have 2 questions:
1. where can i by the actual player in england
2. i have only ever made very simple electronic things in technology in school so how hard is this mod to do?
any help will be appreciated

 

1. The drive is made by Pioneer, the latest model number is 'DVD-120s'. Can be found pretty much everywhere (e.g. dabs Quicklinx: 2G9FWS). The drive used in the guide was the DVD-106s but I found them difficult to find even a few months ago ('cos the DVD-120s was coming out) and don't know how the DVD-106s and DVD-120s differ.

2. If you follow Zap's instructions you shouldn't have a problem, although this does depend on how different the DVD-120s is to the DVD-106s.

EDIT: Added some bits about being new drive.

 

ok, thanks kermet

 

In all reality, as long as you dont use a red LED
(Same color as the laser)

Then you should be able to simply mount the LED at the back and power it.
That way you don't have to worry about using the switches.

 

Ok since the Pioneer Model 106S is no longer manufactured and I have modded a 120S for my Media PC I will post the guide specificly for this drive:



Well I got the new DVD modified.

Because Slot DVD's are hard to find (At a good price)
I bought a Pioneer model 120S.
It is still 16x like the 106S model, but with a few changes.

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The first difference is the loading arms.
It is much harder to insert a disk into this drive, unlike the 106S which took just a finger touch to insert a disk.
But this does have a plus side to it.
This drive will accept 3 inch CD's.
This is good for me as I have tons of 3inch CD's that I hold MP3's on.
But I still miss my model 106S -RIP-

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The other difference is the loading tray.
The entire tray moves backwards, forcing me to mount my LEDs at the very rear of the drive.
A plus side to this is that if you windowed this drive the resulting effect is much better than the 106S

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Now on to the modding.
I am relocating the eject button, the status LED, and need to hack into the Tray Sensor (A small SPDT switch).

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Well at the back of the drive (Just where I need it) is the ribbon connector for the front panel.
An Pioneer was nice enough to leave solder joints, and even a pinout!
The pins I need are highlighted in Red

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A little soldering and it wired up.

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This time I didn't hack the audio header, as there was enough room for a independent header.
If you are wondering where the +5volts and Ground are really going, I scraped the GND and +5volt Traces to get a closer solder point.

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Since these LEDs are at the very back of the DVD I had to use two, I also had to use 6000MCD (As opposed to 3000MCD) LED's.

These are twice as bright as my others LEDs but 50% more expensive.



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No Disk (Not very impressive eh?)

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Now with a disk in the slot, it lights up very bright.

Using two brighter LED's helps a lot, and makes it bright even during the day.

 

Hey Zap,

I am wanting to do this mod for my 120s drive. I have a rudimentry electronics knowledge (can make up kits, wire LEDs, solder PCBs np etc). I am just having difficulty following your 120s guide and was hoping you might be able to clarify it a bit. looking at the 106s guide, it is very clear and I believe I could fairly easily do the mod as shown there - due to the clear labelling and pics of the micro switches and connections. However the 120s guide isn't so clear - it looks like a mixture of both an LED mod and an eject/front LED mod?

I don't mean to be critical as I am sure a more experienced person might be able to understand it and kudos to you for posting the guide in the first place. A suggestion to help people such as myself:

Perhaps a simple diagram showing the complete circuit with each of the connections to the PCB/power in etc labelled A, B, C etc. Then clear photos of the PCB showing exactly where each connection is made? - only focussing on the LED mod itself.

Also, I was hoping to have a 'disk in' LED as well yet there is no pic I can see of the 'Micro switch' as in the 106s mod? Is the mod the same as the 106 (i.e do I follow this guide first with the 120s variations mentioned?) just with the LEDs needing to be mounted to the rear?

Please help me almighty master of the electron!


Are the things marked in this picture relevant to the DVD LED Mod or to your relocating of the drive LED/Eject button?




You have marked the pins and soldered the wires (one of the wires in the lower pic is also soldered to different connection than the ones marked in the upper pic, leaving the marked solder spot unused) - yet haven't marked the pics as to where each wire is going as it disappears thru those holes in the PCB or what each wire is for?. They don't correspond to the pic below (where you can see one wire wrapping around the edge of the PCB - where does this go?):


This pic is unclear as to where things go - I can't see clearly enough where you have soldered to on the PCB behind the power socket, nor which of the wires coming thru from the other side is which. Any chance of a clearer pic with everything labelled? With a direct flash to wipe out the deep shadows?

There is no pic showing which of these wires goes to/from the LEDs or a wider shot showing where the LED wires go in the LED pic.



I follow this one ok - you are just using a resistor based on the Vf of the 2 LEDs in series right?

As it stands I am unable to follow the guide and won't be able to do the mod - I hope you can help me out

Cheers

 

Ok I have re-labeled all the images, and included a larger image of the solder points.

For the 120S I both did the backlight mod, and relocated the eject button and Activity LED.
But yes it is possible to wire up a DISK present LED to the TrayIn signal.



DGround stands for Digital Ground.
Eject when grounded will Eject the DVD.
TrayOut is grounded when there is no disk inside the drive.
TrayIN is grounded when there is a disk inside the drive.
LED is the activtiy LED, and is grounded when the drive is active.

So to wire up a LED to any of these signals you simply need to treat them as a ground connection.

+5volts----/\/\/------>(LED)|-------Signal Pin

I wired the backlight LEDs on the drive to TrayOut, so they light up when there is no disk inside the drive.

Getting power is much easier and safer if you get it directly from the back of the PCB near the Molex connector.
That or use a ohm meter to trace out a spot with the voltages you need. (Such as I did in the image of the header)

I will soon be re-doing this mod once again for my Wife's PC.
Mabye I can write a 120S only guide then.
(As it's the most common slot drive now)

 

That is so much better Zap!

Thank you very much for doing that - and soooo quickly as well I will be working on my DVD drive this week so I really appreciate your clearing this up for me. It all makes sense now (it's really quite simple I see).

/takes pointy gnome hat off and bows

Now...where's that soldering iron got to....

 

OMG i am confused

look at my pics of MY 120S





ok now look at yours


humn what am i gonna do now =(

my skill with a soldering iron isnt great as i have little experiance with it so im wondering how im gona handle this

 

Umm, thorilan... I glued that header onto the PCB.
Your board is identical to mine.

 

lol ok so you where just using it for a solder point then?

i thought it was attached there. i dont have enough skill to do small sized intricate soldering soldering and thought i would need the header since it has a large area .

does your header serve any other purpose than powering the led btw? say for powering some other device such as a small fan or more led somewhere?

so this means i can basicaly only use 2 solder points to complete the cuircut right? if i dont want to do a lot of soldering to the pcb i can go from activity led at the start and finish with just the tray out and have the curcuit complete right?

i was confused by the eject part . i dont know much more than basics about curcuits but it apears that you where modding more than 1 curcuit to me .

if not would it be possible to get just a real quick curcuit diagram .

ill love you forever as this was one of the reasons i chose the color scheme for modding my beast pc .

 

I used the header so that I have access to the LED and switch from the back.
As explained here:
http://www.zapwizard.com/MediaPC/DVD_Eject_Led/

The header only has the +5volts (resitor restricted) output for the LED. The LEDs active low signal, A ground connection, and the EJect switch (Which uses the ground to trigger it)

By active LOW I mean that the signals are a switched ground.
They are NOT a ground connection for powering stuff like fans.

The tray out is not a ground, BUT is connected to ground when active. Meaning when there is no disk inside the drive, then TrayOut is connected to ground. If you insert a disk it is disconnected from ground.

You can wire your LEDs into this switched ground.

Here are the possible connections:

TrayOut: (LED lit when no disk is in drive)
+5volts---/\/\/---LED-----TrayOut

TrayIn: (LED lit when there IS a disk in the drive)
+5volts---/\/\/---LED-----TrayIn

Activity LED
+5volts---/\/\/---LED-----/LED

Eject Swich:
Eject-----Push button Switch----Ground

 

just a quick question. is this considered tray out even though a disk is in the arm is out? or is this considered tray in?

 

That is considered TrayOut.... as there is no disk inside the drive.
Look at this image of a Slot CD Drive (not pioneer)
The holding tray is in the Out position.



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When you insert a disk the entire tray moves backwards, to the IN position

 

ok great thanks a lot. this mod will really help put finishing touches on my beast. ( black and red case with red led display by orbital )



is this the same spot you got 5 volt from . in the other pic it looks like about the right area on the oposite side of the pcb but i cant tell and im at work

if so is there a easyer place to get the 5 volt from so i dont have to worry about being to clumsy.

the other thing i was wandering. when painting you can mask off areas yuo dont want to paint , can this be done for soldering as well as long as the solder is hot when removing the tape or would i have to leave a kindaperminante version of some non conductive hing there kinda adding an extra layer to the pcb

 

I explained the 5volts a few posts ago.
You can either solder to the back of the molex connector, or as I did use a multi-meter to find a trace that is connected directly to the molex connector.

You can mask of soldering if you use thermal resistant tape, even then it often melts at the touch of the soldering iron.
If you are worried, take some pre-coutions.
Such as tinning.. where you apply fresh solder to both surfaces. (Wire and PCB) then it is much easier to make them melt together.

 

i had an idea that i might want to use 3 X 7000mcd red leds . that would either need 12 volt in series or 5 volt in parralell right?

im looking at the resistance calculator and wondering which would be better

the forward voltage is 2.5 each and i already have the 470 ohm resistors

my question is which do you think would work better?