3.5 Floppy Mod

[tansis]

I want to change the green led on a floppy drive to blue, can I get away with just changing the limiting resistor or is this going to get more complex?

 

[Styx]

should just be able to rip the LED out and replace it with the new blue one.

The limiting resistor was set for the Green LED and it should be the same for this. Although I think blue LED's have a higher Vdiode so that resistor might have to be reduce slightly.

You can just parallel a high value (ie a few hunder kohm) with it to drop it by enough

 

[kentken]

You want to make sure the new one is the same voltage, or the right resistor, so it wont draw more power then the drive circuit allows.

Use a Voltmeter on the leads on the Led and see what the voltage is, and match one to it.

Also make note to the + and - lead and put the new one in the right direction.

good luck
Kent

 

[MikeS]

At least the price on these things is so minimal you can afford to experiment. It shouldn't be to difficult though. If one led doesn't work try one with a higher or lower rating before you change any resisters or anything like that I'd say.

 

[tansis]

True, 3.5" floppy drives are cheap enough to tinker with. Personally I'm up for junking it and replacing it with a card reader myself. Eventually the display LEDs on the optical drives will come under scrutiny