5.25 Disk light.

[xmastree]

I'm modding an old (compaq 386) computer case. It came with a 5.25 floppy which rather than simply throw it away I thought I'd make a feature out of it.
So, the 'handle' is now the power switch, thanks to a strategically mounted microswitch:


But more importantly (for this forum at least) is the lighting.

I fitted a piece of perspex:

and a couple of LEDs:

Drilled a couple of holes:


And voila!

The blue (central) one comes on with the power, and the red is the disk activity light.

[quiet]

very cool

like the micro switch also -

great job !!!

[abnormal]

very cool!

nice job on hazing the LEDs for more diffused light.

how did you derive the placement in the persplex for the nice symmetrical light output?

this reminded me of the old ampeg b25's (bass amp) panel

[xmastree]

I think I just got lucky with the placing. I wired one LED up to a battery and held it against various places to see the effect. The hazing of the LEDs wasn't primarily for diffusion, but to fit them in the holes. 5mm acrylic with 4.5mm holes drilled in it... The first was lucky, the second broke through at one side, but the overall effect is still ok.
I sanded the front edge too, to help diffuse the light.
Right now the computer isn't yet finished, but I'm using that panel in my current one. The red light on its own looks better than the pink effect when they're both on, so I might rig it to turn off the blue when the red comes on with disk access.

[abbtech]

Great job    looks very interesting.

[xmastree]

The red light on its own looks better than the pink effect when they're both on, so I might rig it to turn off the blue when the red comes on with disk access.

And so I did. I figured I'd at least need one transistor, but then I had a brainwave.



So, normally you'd have just the red one indicating HD activity. The transistor turns on to light it. Connecting the blue one like that, and to 0V at the cathode will cause the blue to be on permanently.
But, when the transistor turns on, the red LED will conduct, and since it has a lower forward voltage than the blue one, the voltage at the common anode point will drop to a level below that required to light the blue, so it turns off.

Is that simple, or what? 

[Rob]

Great way to exploit the difference in forward voltage.

[doorman444]

very nicely done

[Tommy_2Tall]

I saw an article about this little LED setup over at Hacked Gadgets and just felt that I had to share a nice little idea with you.

These "harddrive eyes" use an optoisolator and a capacitor to make the HDD-activity LED fade from no light to full brightness in a very smooth way when the HDD activity header is turned on and stays on.
If the HDD activtiy header "flashes" the brightness of the actual LED changes very smoothly to show the increase or decrease in HDD activity.
As mentioned on that page, the "fade-time" is easily adjusted by changing the capacitor.

It can be used on the power LED as well to make a "booting up"-fade or "shut down"-fade but the only equipment I seen that effect on so far are in ultra-cheap PC-speakers so that might give people the wrong idea about the quality of your work.

I'm not that good at electronics, I'm just a "monkey see, monkey do" type of modder, but if the fader solution is somehow compatible with your power LED solution above that would make a pretty neat effect:
the power LED fades out as the hdd diode fades in and vice versa. 

[xmastree]

the power LED fades out as the hdd diode fades in and vice versa. 

Hmm... interesting.

Making the power fade out would take a slight modification, but it's doable. My simple idea hinges around the fact that the two different LEDs have different forward voltages. Using two identical optoisolators, I guess it could be done by placing something like a 1N4148 in series with the power one...

However, I'll be away from this for a few months so It'll be some time before I can think about finishing the project.

Thanks for the link though, I like the idea.

[rami00972]

Nice Tuch