Build Your Own Arcade Controls Forum

Main => Main Forum => Topic started by: The cranky hermit on February 03, 2004, 10:58:17 pm

Title: Illuminating buttons
Post by: The cranky hermit on February 03, 2004, 10:58:17 pm
Right now, the LEDs that came with the LED harness for the IPac are inside my P1/P2 buttons. They don't really illuminate them; they just project a small but visible dot in the middle.

What would I need to do if I wanted more illumination, with as little trouble as possible? I'd like to avoid using ATX power if possible. Are some LEDs brighter than others? For example, if I got some basic LEDs from http://superbrightleds.com/, would I be able to replace my current ones with them without using any extra power supply? If so, would I need resistors? If so, what resistors would I need? And if I did that, would they be any brighter that what I have right now?
Title: Re:Illuminating buttons
Post by: pfriedel on February 04, 2004, 01:07:41 am
Well, I _had_ radio shack PN 276-316 ultrabright blue 5mm LEDs in my start buttons directly off of the iPac harness, and it didn't cause the magic blue smoke to leak out, but everything was kinda iffy, too.  Wiring a 5V and a ground line into your CP isn't that hard if you get inline splices from RS, and the transistor switch project that Oscar shows is relatively easy.  I did it here, and I'm just smart enough to know which end of the soldering iron gets hot:

http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=14980 (http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=14980)