I'm about to upgrade HDD and RAM in my early 2008 Mac Mini, but in the middle of the planning process it made me think I could mod it too. One thing I never seen done is changing the power/sleep LED to another color, like blue. Can it be done?
Yes, it's a pretty easy mod to change LEDs. However, keep in mind, check your warranty on such a mod. Knowing Apple, they may void the warranty for such a mod.
WRONG Just use a small pencil soldering iron and a magnifying glass. Be careful not to over heat the led. The resin will start to melt if you use too much heat.
It's also a good idea to preheat the PCB a bit with a hot hair gun before soldering. Don't heat enough to burn it, just enough that it hurts to hold it. If you have never done this before I suggest to find some old cards with SMD components to practice on first. It's very easy to mess up something if you don't know what you are doing. A few tips: 1. To desolder the old LED use a wide tip on the soldering iron. It should be big enough to touch both soldering pads. Don't expect the old LED to work afterward. It's better to destroy the LED than the PCB. or resoldering use a small tip. 2. Make sure to remove all the old solder on the pads before soldering the new LED. Use desoldering lace for this. A tin pump won't work properly) 3. Make 100% sure that you are placing the new LED the correct way. It sucks to have to redo this, and it will probably cost you a LED (ref. point 1). 4. Use very thin soldering wire. 0.8mm is a maximum. You should also stretch the wire to make it thinner. (not required, but it makes everything much easier) 5. Hold the LED in place when soldering. The capillary force of the solder is enough to dislocate the LED. If you don't have some sort of clamping mechanism get somebody to hold it in place with a pair of tweezers for you. They do make a special kind of glue for this purpose, but I guess it's pretty overkill to buy glue just for one LED.
I wouldn't heat the board, I see no reason to. It's too easy to over heat it and damage the components Use super glue to hold the led in place when you solder it.
That's what I was thinking hence my reference to specialized equipment. Anyways, glad to know it's still possible to do with a steady hand. Guess you learn something new everyday.
Superglue? Have you tried that? Putting a soldering iron to something with superglue on is like getting sprayed in the face with teargas. I doubt's it's very healthy. And the reason for preheating is to make the soldering process quicker to prevent damage to the component you are soldering. (Multi layer PCBs take quite a bit of energy to get hor enough.)
Ya, superglue works like a charm. Soldering over all isn't healthy. I usually use a respirator unless it's some thing small like a wire or two. In all my experiances I've never ran into the problem of preheating. The only time I preheat something is when I'm welding. New Idea. Use a filter over the top of the white LED
Superglue comes in handy for the really really small stuff. I've tried the flux paste and the solder paste. Sometimes it works, sometimes I accidentally move the part off the pads... I run a 70mm case fan by where I'm soldering with a dryer hose out the window to get rid of the fumes.
Alternative idea I have'nt taken my Mini apart yet, but as far as I can see on pictures on the web it looks like the IR LED and the power LED is on the same PCB... Don't want to mess anything up no matter how carefull I am. So I have been thinking about an alternative solution to make the LED blue - coloring it! Any idea about if that would work?? The color I try to hit is a bright blue.
I tried for now more than a day to find blue colored see trough vinyl here in Denmark, but without luck. Any idea about were I can find a color filter thin enough to put in front of the LED?
Try a shop that sell photo equipment. They may have, or may be able to get, some filter material used on cameras. The filters come in many shapes and colors. You could also try any crafts shop or bookstore (you probably won't find anything with a very "clean" color, though. )
Yeah, that could work. You won't be able to get a very clear blue color when using this, though. You must at least add many layers. Trial and error is the key here, i think.
