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Saitek Eclipse LED Mod

D

D3DAiM

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 30, 2006
Messages
413
I need to replace the LEDs on my Saitek Eclipse with some brighter ones.

I have substantial soldering skills.

Any suggestions / help / tuts?

- d3d
 
If you have substantial soldering skills, then you already know what to do.

Step 1: Rip open the keyboard.
Step 2: Rip out the old LEDs.
Step 3: Cram in new LEDS.
Step 4: Jam the keyboard shut.
Step 5: Plug it in, and hope it doesn't burn the damn house down.
 
SarverSystems said:
If you have substantial soldering skills, then you already know what to do.

Step 1: Rip open the keyboard.
Step 2: Rip out the old LEDs.
Step 3: Cram in new LEDS.
Step 4: Jam the keyboard shut.
Step 5: Plug it in, and hope it doesn't burn the damn house down.
Click to expand...

These are good tips, especially #5. You should write a book dude. Genius.
 
a smart person would first check whether the sum of the power consumptions of the LEDs + the keyboard itself is less than 500mA @ 5v. (i.e. 2.5W). If it is not, then you run the chance of burning out your mobo, or at least its USB port(s).
 
drizzt81 said:
a smart person would first check whether the sum of the power consumptions of the LEDs + the keyboard itself is less than 500mA @ 5v. (i.e. 2.5W). If it is not, then you run the chance of burning out your mobo, or at least its USB port(s).
Click to expand...

Or you could just rig your keyboard up to a wall socket.

At least, that's what a l33t case modder would do.
 
drizzt81 said:
a smart person would first check whether the sum of the power consumptions of the LEDs + the keyboard itself is less than 500mA @ 5v. (i.e. 2.5W). If it is not, then you run the chance of burning out your mobo, or at least its USB port(s).
Click to expand...
Right. So how would I go about testing USB power consumption?

And does the Saitek use standard LEDs?
 
The Saitek uses Surface mount LED's and not regular LED's.

Surface mount is a bit different in the deconstruction/construction phase of attachment.

You have 3 or 4 thin PCB's around the edge that are connected with power and ground in series.

I replaced mine with white, and have not had a problem... but definately check the LED's that yo uare putting in place, or even better, put a multimeter on the LED's installed and make sure you know how many mA it is pulling right now, and either hit that or go below. Also check the voltage across the LED, and keep that in mind when looking for a suitable color replacement LED.

I had a friend of mine swap out the LED's on the Saitek that I had, I took some pics of it. The results were cool! I put in white surface mount LED's from LSDiodes.com

get the right size! I'll need to look up what size it was that I bought.
HTH!
 
Thanks! Yeah I definately will make sure I get all the specs before doing anything, with a multimeter and such. So you say your friend bought new white SMD LEDs to replace with? I'd really hate to buy *more* things..lol.

I'm a bit over my limit with this case mod I'm doing..
 
Surface mount LED's are not expensive
it is not insane. The white ones were 60 cents each, and I believe I used like 8 of them.
:)
 
Tech-Daddy said:
I had a friend of mine swap out the LED's on the Saitek that I had, I took some pics of it.
Click to expand...
So why have you not posted them yet?
 
Tech-Daddy said:
Surface mount LED's are not expensive
it is not insane. The white ones were 60 cents each, and I believe I used like 8 of them.
:)
Click to expand...
Hah, alright. I'll look into it.
 
drizzt81 said:
So why have you not posted them yet?
Click to expand...

'Cuz I'm a dork who was "distracted" by my wifey last night!! ;) ;) ;)

keyboard1.jpg


keyboard1a.jpg


keyboard1b.jpg


keyboard2b.jpg


keyboard2a.jpg
 
Awesome result!

So you replaced the surface mounted LEDs with some white surface mounted LEDs? Same mA?

Did you experiment with aluminum foil?
 
Nope, did not have time to experiement with the foil.

And I "plugged and prayed" on the LED's... I did not measurement whatsoever. Though my buddy likely had already measured and thought it would be ok. I was not out there for the entire assembly. He likely checked prior to me being out there with my camera.
 
D3DAiM said:
SMD LEDs right?
Click to expand...
Yep.

That white LED saitek is [H]ot. Kinda makes me wanna mod mine, but the rest of my system is blue, so I guess I'll leave it.
 
Dude, how much did he spend on that iron? We can't even afford those at work, and we have 3 pick-n-place machines!!!
 
that looks kick ass, and impressive that you replaced that many smd's
 
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