LED Question

I am working on a new project and I'm in need of new LED's for my mouse, keyboard, and case. I want to use White i think...if you've seen the new G5 case you know what ones i'm talking about...they have a smoky glow i would say. Anyways what voltage do i need (or is there only 1?), and will my mouse work with a white one?

THanks

Well, if you want to replace the optical LED in your mouse...then I think white is one of the worst ones you can choose....the reason they choose red for the LED is becuase that has the highest contrast or frequency or something liek that...it is really high in something so that the camera in the mouse can detect movements, and make your mouse cursor move....

Now if you just wanted to have one lighting it up...hopefully it wouldn't be an optical becuase the red may get a bit blurred (I don't know, never had two LED's in one area....) and the red may fade making it a bit less sensative....but to get an LED running off of your mouse (5v if I remember right) you would need to get a resistor for it, I may be able to find the reistor calculator page...and post back here with it.

And the voltage for the LED it doens't really matter, there are usaully a couple different voltages for some LED's, like there are 3.2v and 5v blue led's I think....of course you would need a different resistor, depending on the voltage of where they will be supplied from.

Don't know much along LED's, but I think what I have said is true..someone might be able to back me up/correct me in the necesary

Oh, and an easy way to get that diffused glow is to sand down the plastic "lense" for the led a bit, to get it roughed up...that tends to diffuse the light if I remember reading a mod a while ago...

Fold and Frag on
Brian

*edit*

here is the one I...I think..

http://www.bit-tech.net/article/68/

Good Luck

I have tried white high intesity lights in a Logitech Optical mouse. Doesnt work well at all. The white light apparently doesnt produce brilliant enough contrast for the optical sensors to pick up. You end up with a mouse that works sometimes on very few surfaces.

Thanks for the help. I won't be getting a white LED for my mouse, what color besides red works well? Green, Bule, UV (not likely), Orange? What voltage is the typical LED that is in your case?

Blue works pretty well actually. Never tried green, but its a mix of blue and yellow, so it may be just as good as blue or just a tad less responsive. Orange my not get enough contrast. UV is most likely not in the spectrum that the optical sensors can pic up. Since the emmitters are working off of a visble spectrum, then the collector probably does too.

Most LEDs are around 3-3.3 volts. There are som with voltage limiting resistors built in that run at 5volts or 12 volts, but those are a little less common. The one on the mobo is most likely a 3.3volt LED. You can run them at a higher voltage, but just remember duty cycle is inversely exponential to overvoltage. So the more overvoltage you give it, the quicker it will die. If you give it too much it will get really bright and burn out.