Janneman
04-24-2005, 02:49 PM
I also put this topic in some other forum, in case you might find this text somewhere else don't be surprised :)
Replacing the LED of the Gamecube is one of the most common mods. All you have to do is solder the old LED out and solder the new one back in. Although this does work, it isn't the way to make you new LED shine as bright as they are supposed to.
I did some testing and measuring when using a blue LED. I found out that just replacing the LED caused the new blue LED to run only at a current of 6mA. In general, LED's have their optimal life-expectancy/brightness ratio at about 20mA.
In order to make you LED run at a higher current, you need to replace the resistor that is positioned right next to the LED. The stock resistor has a value of 330ohms (at least mine had). The voltage over the resistor+LED is 5V. All you need to know more is the forward voltage of the LED you want to use. This is stated in its datasheet. I.e. blue LED's generally have a forward voltage of 3.2V.
Now look for a LED calculator on google, like this:
http://linear1.org/ckts/led.php
Fill in:
the supply voltage, which is 5V
forward voltage, 3,2V for most blue LED's
current, 20mA for most LED's
(some of this info is given on that site as well)
Now click 'find R' and the needed resistance value is given. Since 90 ohm resistors don't exist, you need to find the one closest to that, which is 100ohm, which will make a blue LED run at 18mA, which is good
Well I wish you brighter days :)
Replacing the LED of the Gamecube is one of the most common mods. All you have to do is solder the old LED out and solder the new one back in. Although this does work, it isn't the way to make you new LED shine as bright as they are supposed to.
I did some testing and measuring when using a blue LED. I found out that just replacing the LED caused the new blue LED to run only at a current of 6mA. In general, LED's have their optimal life-expectancy/brightness ratio at about 20mA.
In order to make you LED run at a higher current, you need to replace the resistor that is positioned right next to the LED. The stock resistor has a value of 330ohms (at least mine had). The voltage over the resistor+LED is 5V. All you need to know more is the forward voltage of the LED you want to use. This is stated in its datasheet. I.e. blue LED's generally have a forward voltage of 3.2V.
Now look for a LED calculator on google, like this:
http://linear1.org/ckts/led.php
Fill in:
the supply voltage, which is 5V
forward voltage, 3,2V for most blue LED's
current, 20mA for most LED's
(some of this info is given on that site as well)
Now click 'find R' and the needed resistance value is given. Since 90 ohm resistors don't exist, you need to find the one closest to that, which is 100ohm, which will make a blue LED run at 18mA, which is good
Well I wish you brighter days :)