Modding Few questions.. LED's and CDROMS.

Ok first off I'm wondering if there would be any issue with putting a few 6000mcd blue LED's in my cd drive. I know I thought I read something about possible problems with red LED's maybe messing with the laser, but not sure about blue.

And second....is it possible to run LED's parallel/series off a single resistor? I'm wanting to run 3 LED's 2.1fv off of 5v, I have a mess of 68ohm resistors I could put one on each, but I just simply dont have the room for what I have planned. I might be able to make it work, but it'd make my life so much easier to put a resistor inline near the power source.

Thats it, any info would be much appreciated Thanks.

 

I can answer you first question, you can indeed use blue 6000mcd with no problems because i have done it, here is a picture of mine i did a while back.



I cannot answer you second question as i am not totally clued up on electronics. The LEDs in my drive were wired up individually and wires run inside the unit itself.




Carl

 

Second question Yes one 68 ohm will do fine alittle more then u need but its okay
V=IR Assume 20mA
(5-2.1)/0.06~48

oh thats if u want it off one resistor all three LEDs in parrallel
Also this only works if they have the same ratings ie all the smae current and all the same voltage

 

for info on how to wire up LED's and what ohm resistors to get go too www.lsdiodes.com and under Info click on "How to hook
up LED's" its pretty basic and it gives a link to MetkuMods resistor calculator

-glenn

 

I was wondering the same thing, but I have red LED's....I would expect that not to work out quite so well? Anyone have any experience with red LED's in a CDROM?

 

Yeah, the LED's are indeed 20ma, and Lsdiodes is where I ordered them from

So basically all the resistor is doing is cutting down the voltage, and so long as the current draw of the LED's isnt too much for the resistor, it should be ok?

So putting 3 2.1fv 20ma LED's from a 5v source run parellel off of a 68ohm resistor will work just fine? If so, SHHHWEEET

And carlo........thats what I'm doing right thurr in your picture, cept slighty different

 

Yerp im pretty sure a 68 ohm will be fine
Actually if there is too little current being drawn from the LED then u will fry it the LED as we know resistance is inversely proportional to the current.

Phlek: You mite have some performance decrease in the cd rom, this is because the laser the cd rom uses is Infrared, the Red LED may also give off near these frequenices....

 

Too little current won't fry the LED, it will just make it not as bright. Too much current on the other hand, will fry the LED.

 

carl, how is that window mounted to that case? i dont see any screws or anything and that is how i want my window to look.

 

He probably used some sort of sealent, silicon maybe? I use silicon, dries in 2 hours and has one hell of a hold.

 

Either that, or 2 sided tape.

 

so you think the window sets down below the hole in the case? it looks to me like the window is flush with the case. thats what im really after.

 

Now that you mention that ShagBeard it does look like that, but it could also be the quality of the picture. I guess we'll have to see what carl says. My question is how did he make that cut in the corner so neat?

 

I doubt the window flush mounted, just looks that way from the pic. And phew, I finally have everything I need hopefully my project can really get underway tomorrow :\