Change red led to BLUE??? How?

[gordonmenninger]

I could swear I read on here at some point that you could change out the red LED for a blue one. I would like to do this on my SL3's. Has anyone ever done that and if so can you point me in the right direction??

thanks!

gordon

 

[gordonmenninger]

Man, I cannot believe that no one has done this yet! I emailed ML but have not received any answer yet... IMO the blue led looks soooo much cooler!

gordon

 

[Bernard]

I have not done it, but I'm sure it's quite simple: Unsolder the red LED, remove it, put the blue LED in its place, and solder in the blue LED, watching the polarity.

 

[miljac]

It is not that simple. Might not work - depends on the circuitry. The blue LEDs have almost double forward voltage compared to red LEDs - this would mean in the best case reduced intensity and in worst case no blue light at all.

 

[amey01]

BE CAREFUL - I recommend you don't do it. The blue LEDs have different electrical characteristics to other colours. Why stuff with your speaker for such superficial reasons?

 

[JonFo]

And, the LED's in SL3's require opening up the back of the speaker, removing the crossover board, digging around in the front of the woofer box for a glued-in LED, prying that out, re-gluing a replacement.

As for drive levels, look at specs for 9 year old red LED's and try and find a blue LED somewhat compatible.
Then, before pulling the old LED, disconnect it from the board, connect the blue and test for brightens.

WARNING: high-voltages on that open board - so work carefully during and after the test. Caps hold charges for a good bit as well.


But I ageree, lot's of effort just for cosmetics. Now, if you;re doing some mods anyway ...

 

[gordonmenninger]

wow, thanks for all the great comments! I am not sure if I will proceed with this now..... seems like alot of work and I do not want to mess anything up screwing around in there...

I was looking at this website - anyone think that these will work??
http://www.plasmaled.com/5mm8mmled.htm


In case anyone else has done it and has a step by step please post it here!@
thanks

 

[FISH_MAN]

stop looking at the lights dude

but really the red are probably cool most people have blue

 

[Tube60]

Blue LEDs need a different current limiting resistor. They draw more current than "normal" LEDs. Check MFRs specs before changing. Done properly, the blue color would be beautiful!

 

[MOON]

I had the blue led burn out in one of my Odyssey's. ML sent me 2 replacements which were very dim and couldn't be seen , only if you had your eye's 10 inches from the speaker. I inquired back to Jim Power about it and he said the LED's were sourced from a different company and that they couldn't get the old ones anymore which were 100 times better.

On that note , if any of you guys have an old led module from a ascent, odyssey or prodigy , that you are not using, please give me a shout. I will buy it from you.

Cheers

 

[FISH_MAN]

my new spires are not that bright

I wounder if that's why the led's in my spires are so much dimmer than my vantages ??? you would not think getting good led's would be that hard to come by especially now unless you where trying to be a major cheap skate about it

 

[amey01]

I wounder if that's why the led's in my spires are so much dimmer than my vantages ??? you would not think getting good led's would be that hard to come by especially now unless you where trying to be a major cheap skate about it

My Vistas are really dim, and then I realised why after changing out some dodgy panels. You are not actually looking at the LED, but a long bit of plastic tubing (5cm or so) that carries the light of the LED.

Still, I'd rather dim than bright - I don't want "headlights" shining in my face when I'm trying to listen!!!!!!!

 

[FISH_MAN]

Yeah I saw that when I had my panels off.I like the blue bling it would be nice though if the switch in the back could turn it on and off with the top back blue light.they should also put this switch on the vista and vantage how much would it really cost??? although I probably would never turn it off