Right, here goes, I thought last night I would mod my mobile phone holder that's in my car with a nice bloo LED to light up behind the phone at night. So, i planned everything i needed from the Maplin catalogue and heeded down there this morning, i got: 1 x Single AAA holder 1 x Double AAA holder 2 X 5mm Blue LED (they had no 3mm in stock!) 1 x Switch and some heatshrink, superglue and solder So I got home, but I couldn't get the LED working for some reason, thought it may have been my batteries or something, so I hooked the LED up to a 12v power supply - it worked! - for 3 seconds, then blew - bugger So I wired up the next one, all fine, and then took my dremel clone (£20 from B&Q - bargain!) to the holder, all was going well, I'd diffused the light perfectly and all. I then fitted it and broke one of the legs from the LED, arse! - so I headed back to Maplins to get some more and to swap the two holders for a 4 AAA holder. Got back, all going well until.. I started to cut the front of the holder with a cutting disc, and then disaster - dremel slips - big deep stratch across the front, so I heeded off to Halfords and bought another one. So NowI have the LED sorted, (after breaking a leg again, but I've now soldered onto the stub of it) the power supply sorted, the holder sorted, but I've lost the fcuking switch!!!! Needless to say after all the time I've spent on this damned mod, I'm pissed off - It's taken me all day, mainly because I've bloody awful at soldering and dremeling and now i've got nothing to show for it! Anyone in the Maidstone area with a small SPDT switch going spare so I can finish this tonight?? thb
Heh, well that sucks.. One thing that I have learnd about modding.,.. don't ever ever evr rush anything when trying to mod.... NO madder how good you THINK you are. Good luck on doing it again...
Diodes really prefer to have a resistor in line with them, so that the voltage that they get a taste of isnt enough to blow them - value of said resistor depends on the supply voltage, et al. I've had a dremel slip before, nasty business... very nasty.. Sounds like you're having one unlucky day mate... hope you get the thing sorted - I'm sure it'll look greato
Cheers for the replies lads, I had another go last night to finish it without the switch (just going to take the power connector on and off when needed) but the soldered leg I'd put on the LED broke again, so I gave up. I'll try again in the future - still it was good practise in dremeling and soldering. thb
Hey thb , im kind of near you (Rochester) and i got a SPDT switch which is quite small bout 7mmx3mm. if you want it Maplin in Maidstone have sh*tloads of Cold Cathodes in if you need any
Cheers Fatboy, but I'll leave it for now - i need to get some more LEDs too as I've broken all three of them - and Maidstone have sold out of them now (!) I will do it agian in the future, but I'm going to wire it from the 12v in the Car - just got to work out how to get the power where I need it, and then reduce the power on the line so it doesn't blow the LED - how do I do this - I know loads of you have sone this in your PCs? cheers thb
Oh yer, Cathodes - how much are they - and what are the Maplin cods as they don't seem to be in the catalogue. thb
There are about 10 each of blue red and green , dunno bout others RP33 Blue RP34 Black Cathodes RP35 Green £4.99 Each RP36 Red RP37 White RP38 Yellow RP39 PSUs £2.49 Each Hope that helps you out. i got a List that has all the LED types they sell and codes, prices,brightness. if you want it
Cheers again Fatboy, I may go down to Maplins soon to have a look - me thinks cathodes may look v. nice in my car, under the seats & dash, in the boot and glovebox, mmmm.... I'll have to sort out the power first tho - and that means removing the dash in the car - i think i'll wait until summer for that (I've got no garage ) If you could forward that list it would be great, either post it here or mail me pgacnews@thb.zzn.com Cheers thb
basically all LED's red and blue with prices, brightnes in mcd, and Maplin codes LED's 3mm Blue Tint JA27E 0.6 mcd ??? Clear JA28F £1.29 5mm Blue Clear JA30H 200 mcd £1.49 Tint JA29G Hi-Bright red 5mm WL84F 30mcd £0.29 3mm WL83E 20mcd Hi-Bright blue 3mm Clear JA22Y 90mcd £1.79 Tint JA20W 40mcd 5mm Tint JA24B 40mcd £1.99 Clear Ja25C 90mcd £1.79 Super Bright Red 3mm UK18U 80mcd £0.39 5mm UK19V 150mcd £0.39 Ultra Bright Red 3mm UF72P 0.5cd £0.39 5mm UK51F 1 cd Hyper Bright Red 5mm UK20W 3.5cd £0.79 Extreme Bright Blue 5mm NR84F 1.3cd £2.99 NR85G 3.0cd ----------------------------------------------------------- LED clips Plastic Black 3mm YY39N £0.10 5mm YY40T £0.12 Chrome 5mm FM38R £0.69
