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Written by [t0rc]
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In this guide, I'm walking you through the quick task of adding a LED
to your PSU for light. You can add multiple LED's, but with todays
super bright LED's, you dont always need to. Read on and learn the ways
of moddage. ;)
Please note, we aren't accountable for anything. This and all other
guides are as accurate as possible, but if anyone gets hurt or anything
gets damaged, we can't be held responsible. Perform this and all other
procedures at your own risk. You and only you are responsible for any
consequences/ramifications/side effects that may be the outcome after
following this guide. By following this guide you agree to the above
terms and all others set forth by this site.
This guide just shows how
to wire up one LED inside your PSU. With today's technology, one well
placed bright LED is usually adequate to light a PSU. You can add more
than one to your PSU, and there are different wiring schemes to do
that. One sometimes eliminates a resistor, but if a single light goes
out, all of them are shut off. Check out this tutorial for more information on two basic wiring methods. LS Diodes
is also the cheapest place to buy LED's online.
With that said, let's get into it. This mod requires a few items which
are fairly common and easy to find. After a few calculations you may
have to go get a few resistors that are the proper amount of Ohms.
- Supplies
- Wire Strippers
- Screw Driver (most likely Phillips)
- Power Supply (dur!)
- At least one LED
- Wire (22 AWG or lower recommended)
- Heat shrink and/or Electrical Tape
- A Solder Iron is highly recommended but not mandatory
For this guide I am using an Allied 400w PSU that I purchased a while back from New Egg.
Make
sure that your PSU is powered down and un-plugged. These things are
very dangerous as they utilize a lot of power. After doing that, get
the power supply open. For this example I am using the +5VSB rail; As
soon as you plug in the power supply and flip the switch, the line has
5v of power. Always. This way, I can have my PSU lit without having my
computer running. If you don't want to have the light(s) on unless the
computer is on, you'll need to either insert a switch or use a
different power rail. You can also use the fan power rails, because
those don't turn on until your system is running. In the case of using
a different rail, the voltages will change, so make sure you know which
one your using else you may burn out a lot of LED's and potentially
cause a fire.
After
opening your PSU, you need to locate the purple wire. This is the +5VSB
rail as I mentioned above. Cut it, and strip back the wires a little
bit. Pick whatever ground you want, cutting it and stripping back the
insulation. Put the power supply aside for now, you'll be coming back
to it in a few minutes.
Cut
two pieces of wire; on average they need to be about 3.5"-4" long each.
Strip all four ends in the same manner that you did before. For the
next step, you need to find out whether you will need a resistor or
not. If you're only adding one LED or two, more than likely you will
need one to keep them from burning out and/or shortening their life.
Use the Bit-Tech LED Calculator
to find out what Ohm resistor you will need. For supplied power you
should put 5. Enter the rest of the information and it will give you an
answer and the closest resistor. Hopefully you already have one and
don't have to run to the store. For example, I used a Blue LED; the
lowest voltage it would light up at was 2.8v. Since the 5v supply was a
little less than double that, I used a 100 Ohm resistor to keep the
voltage below 4v but higher than 2.8v.
Twist the resistor wire and the +(anode) of the LED (it's the longer
lead) together, and solder the connection. Then attach a piece of wire
to the opposite end of the resistor and solder that connection. Take
the other piece of wire, solder one end to the short, -(cathode) leg of
the diode. Now you need to cover all the exposed connections with
either electrical tape or heat shrink. After doing that, if your going
to heat shrink the next connections, you'll need to slip some heat
shrink on to the wires connected to the LED; I would suggest using both
electrical tape and heat shrink for this next part. The heat shrink
should be about one size larger than the last one you used because it
will be going over 3 wires, two of which are significantly larger than
22 AWG.
On the next step, if your using a heat gun, or anything else for that
matter, be careful. Heat guns put out a large spread of heat and could
melt circuitry and wire insulation inside your PSU, and you surely
don't want that. Grab your PSU, twist the two purple wires together
with the longer wire (+ and has resistor) from the LED. Solder that
together, then pull the heat shrink down over the three twisted wires
or put electrical tape over the connecting wires. After I heat-shrunk
mine, I put electrical tape over it to make sure that nothing got
inside to alter the connection. Take the shorter wire from the LED (-;
side w/o resistor) and twist it together with the two ground wires.
Heat shrink/electrical tape those together, just like the purple wires.
Find a good place inside your PSU to situate the LED and secure it
using either electrical tape or hot glue. Make sure that the wires are
out of the way; tape them together if they are causing a bit of a
hassle with the fans. Look over your work, make sure everything is
connected properly and all covered with heat shrink/electrical tape.
Once your sure, close up your PSU, making sure that no wires are
getting into a fan. Here comes the hard part, you've got to plug it in
and turn it on. ;) You should now have a spiffy new lit up PSU.
Just In Case...
If your LED doesn't light up, make sure of a few things:
- Everything is connected and connections are properly insulated/wrapped.
- The Black Ground wires are going to the Short Leg of the LED.
- The Purple Power wires are going to the Long Leg of the LED.
- The LED isn't burnt out. Usually they stink real bad and have little black marks on them or under them when they burn out.
- Make sure the resistor is the correct Ohm rating for your LED. If it's too high, the LED won't get enough power to turn on.
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