Lighted buttons how to

[Edgedamage]

Ok first off I did not think up this idea myself. The credit goes to Oscar I got the idea from his web site (thanks!)
The buttons used for this project are Happ buttons with cherry switches. With the switch removed you will see what looks like a round indet what I did was use a center punch and drilled out a hole just smaller then the LED. Next I bent the led connectors on the LED and then measured there the exit holes would go then used the C-punch and then drilled them out. Now the fun part with the connectors bent towards the exit holes hold the LED lens facing down and pinch the connectors in your fingers twist the LED puwards while keeping the connectors flat insert the connectors in the exit holes and when the LED is over the hole twist back down to the hole and everything will line up. Good luck.

[Edgedamage]

connector shot from the side.

[Edgedamage]

Connector exit shot.

[Edgedamage]

Connector with power plug.

[Edgedamage]

And a dark shot. I like to say that lighted buttons just add that nice little touch to a control panel. And speaking of panels yesterday I did a part swap with Zakk
and we also used my place as a half way meeting point for a customer of Zakk's. I got a chance to see his "DEANO" mame machine and I was impressed. Up close and personal the panel and the whole machine looked fantastic!

[Zakk]

Yes I do seem to recall some kind of trade yesterday....hmmm, don't seem to recall anyone showing me the spiffy new lighted buttons though....

 How are you powering them?


Hope the new owner of Deano has half as much fun playing the cab as I did making it  I think the subwoofer installation was the icing on the cake

[Zakk]

By the way, was it the Robotron cocktail cab that you are converting into a Street fighter, or the Joust cocktail you are converting to a pop dispenser that I wansn't supposed to mention in here???  

[Edgedamage]

I use +5v from any source. And NO the robotron will not be street fighter it will be a double dragon.

[pathdoc2]

Nice work.  I like this idea.  Where do you get the led's?  I"m sure they are easily found, I've just never looked for them before.

[Carsten Carlos]

Yep, the good old lightened button - first saw this 1.5 years ago here Somewhere on my homepage I had the original link to the guy who had this idea!

Very nice, I really like the idea with the two holes and the powerplug - this is the way to go! Unfortunately I got stuck with leaf-buttons, so I'm not sure that I ever use this technique as planned before...  

[Edgedamage]

To get the LED's go to any little electronics shop and ask for superbright LED's.

[Lumpy]

Could some one post pictures or a little more detailed "how to" on how to wire them up to a power source.  Do you just take a lead off of the power supply and splice it for all of the bottons or do you need seperate ones for each?

I hope I can figure this out and get it working.  Thanks.

[pointdablame]

*I haven't done this myself so take my comment with a grain of salt*

If edgedamage says the LEDs need any 5v source, I would assume you could use a computer power supply. It also looks like that is a fan connector cable he is using to connect the LEDs. So if I am right with those two assumptions, you could just connect a fan connector to a PSU molex connector and there's your power. You'd just have to extend the cable more than likely to get from your PSU to your CP, or purchase a few fan connector extenders. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Again, this is just a guess, so double check this before attempting it.

[Carsten Carlos]

If these aren't special 5V-LED's (I doubt that), you would need a resistor.

Explained this stuff on my homepage, see my sig. There is also the original circuit for driving LED's with the I-PAC to let them flash in some games e.g. Pac-Man and Centipede. An easier understandable how-to-do for this circuit is at http://www.oscarcontrols.com/led/index.shtml

[Edgedamage]

Sorry folks for not being clear. Yes the LED's I use need resistors. Here's a pic showing how I power them using a spare power connector on my computer. The resistors are hidden under the shrink tube.