[olePigeon]

My first case mod. It's not exactly a Macintosh, but it's connected to it. I modified the power button on my SCSI tower. I drilled out the center and stuck in one of those REALLY bright and neonish blue LEDs. It's the coolest thing I've ever seen.

Took me about 3 hours to do this (whith some help from my roomate who did the soldering) but it's the just so damn cool... and professional looking. Took 3 hours cuz we had to modify the actual power button with his drummel through trial and error. Finaly got it working. Below are some pics. On the left is a picture I took with the camera flash on (oops) but it gives you an idea of what it looks like on the front. The pic on the right is with the flash off. Since the LED is so bright it blacked out everything else in the background. Hehe.

[IceEnclosure]

nice, man... can I do that with my G4 tower's power button?

I've seen something like that I think, on a G4... would it still pulsate when sleeping?

[ajprice]

Olepigeon, that is nice work! If thats a SCSI case I'm guessing that your Mac is a beige one, maybe you could replace all the lights on your Mac & keyboard with blue ones to match, that would be a thing of beauty.

Ice Enclosure, if the G4's power button light is an LED, I think you could change it for one of those super bright ones (probably available from a Radio Shack or somewhere like that). I would think it would still pulsate because you would have only changed the light, and not the electronics that make it pulsate. If it's a light bulb on the G4, then it's a different thing and I don't know, I'm not even sure about what I said about the LED, that's just what I could remember of electronics class in school (about 10 or so years ago now) so don't take what I say as the absolute truth (I don't want to be responsible for blowing up your G4!).

Anyway, I thought you couldn't have a white LED, just red, green or yellow, but if olepigeon has a blue one then maybe I have just proved how little I know and that what I do know is 10 years out of date! (Damn you schoolteachers for making me this way!)

[olePigeon]

<STRONG>nice, man... can I do that with my G4 tower's power button?
I've seen something like that I think, on a G4... would it still pulsate when sleeping?</STRONG>

I don't see why not. Not sure the LED is soldered or not, havn't looked. You can pick up the blue LEDs at RadioShack. I think it was $2. Just a word of caution. My LED is only hooked up via 2.7 volts. I've hooked it up to 5.2 volts and it's too bright to even look at. Gives ya spots. Hehe.

<STRONG>Olepigeon, that is nice work! If thats a SCSI case I'm guessing that your Mac is a beige one...</STRONG>

Thanks. And yes, I'm going to be using my G3 as my file server. I built that SCSI case (with the 100GBs of Ultra2 SCSI storage) for about $250. =) I picked up 4 29GB fullheight drives for $160 on eBay (some guy had 50 boxes of 4 drives each on a dutch auction!), the tower for $60 from a place called WeirdStuff, and a 68 pin case ribbon for $30 on eBay.

<STRONG>Anyway, I thought you couldn't have a white LED, just red, green or yellow, but if olepigeon has a blue one then maybe I have just proved how little I know and that what I do know is 10 years out of date!</STRONG>

About 2 years ago White LEDs were made. I'm not an electronics expert, but for whatever reason they were extremely dificult to create. They're brighter than flood hologens the size of a diod. They now use them in street lamps, traffic lights, car headlights, day runners, and flashlights. An LED flashlight can be left on for 2 years. Hehe.

The Blue LEDs are like the white LEDs... but blue. Hehe. Anyhoo, they also make a red verion of the new LED. So you can super bright white, blue, or red.

You may have seen the blue or white ones and not even know it. The LEDs are used in day runner and fog light on cars. Those little piercing lights on the bottom of the bumper that have no purpose what-so-ever. Just "cool" I guess.

[Nimisys]

pulsing LED for when the computer is asleep?

it has been done on the PC world a few times, but i believe it involved grabbing the sleep signal from the mobo via the serial port or some other means... i forgot how exactly but thats what you need. then get a simple switch that when supplied with what ever the sleep signal voltage is to switch to an alternate circut that has a capacitor in it (this will cause the blinkng affect) otherwise it will stay in the straigth through position to keep the LED on.

I know there are neon kits the react with sound i think some EL cable as well. perhaps you could steal its electronics and have the led react to music.

i would do a search for it at the cool case section of the Hardforum.com , where all the PC modders are. they would be able to help you with it.

[olePigeon]

When the G4 is asleep (likewise with the monitor) the LED pulsates. He was just looking into replacing the yellow (older modle) or the white (newer modle) LED with a super bright blue one.

[Nimisys]

Originally posted by olePigeon:
<STRONG>When the G4 is asleep (likewise with the monitor) the LED pulsates. He was just looking into replacing the yellow (older modle) or the white (newer modle) LED with a super bright blue one.</STRONG>

then it shouldn't be too bad, just make sure you give the right voltage as the blue's take more than reds or yellows.

[rogerkylin]

wrong window..sorry

[ 07-10-2001: Message edited by: rogerkylin ]

[tooki]

Actually, blue LEDs came out long before white ones, namely around 1990, although back then they cost almost $20 a piece!

Nowadays, high-intensity (red, green, and yellow) LEDs are used as replacements for incandescent or even fluorescent lamps (e.g. in car brake lights, EXIT signs in buildings, etc), but I have yet to see white LEDs used like that, although I do own a little white LED flashlight myself.

tooki