Anyone here with LED skills?

I've got an e1705 and I realize this is similar in form to the XPS notebooks. In fact, I could order this fan and plop it in place of my current fan to add that aftermarket glow to my laptop. However, for $35, I could probably buy 1,000 small LEDs at Radio Shack. So my question is, how would I go about plugging in LEDs into the correct power sources inside the notebook? Could I leech off of the power wire to the fan?

 

You cant buy that many leds at radio shack. Radio Shack is a ripoff. You could get probably 20 leds for that much.

As for your question, you would probably have to wire all the LEDs together first on a circuit, and put in some resistors etc, then you could make an adapter to plug right onto a 12V fan port. I dont know if going directly from the fan into the leds is possible.

 

agree with above, and want to add that there may, and prolly is, a current limit on the fan port that you wouldn't want to exceed with out probable damage to the notebook.

 

well some people have used the usb power source to make the led's light up. but im not sure how well it would work because most new comps have a deal were the usb power cuts off unless in use.

 

hmm, fan power is important to the computer. hooking LEDs to it will drop the current and may cause the fan to underpower and not run at a high enough speed when activated by the mobo. USB power on the other hand isnt as important. just hook leds to it in parallel with correct resistors. usb devices are dc voltage dependent so smaller current isnt a big hit. hope this helps.

 

Interesting, thanks for the info. Naturally, I'm in no hurry to break my new toy.

 

I'd suggest you tap the battery power directly. And you need to read up a bit on Ohms law

 

I read somewhere online where someone just tapped into one of the USB ports because it has a 5 Volt power supply, which is more than enough to run a small LED. When you are using LEDs, you need to put them in series with a resistor though, otherwise you will burn them out because you will draw too much current. All electronic components should either come with a spec sheet, or give you some way to access on, and then you can figure out different parameters on the LED such as the maximum allowable current that you can put through it. If you then use Ohm's law, you can then figure out how big of a resistor you need. So as was mentioned above, read up on Ohm's law, as well as putting components in series and in parallel on a circuit. The most difficult part of the job will be picking your power supply, as well as getting all of the wires and components inside the laptop. Let me know if you need anymore help. I just had to build a robot for one of my mechanical engineering classes, and it had tons of infrared LEDs on it so I had to learn quite a bit about them. Hope that puts you in the right direction! If I ever get around to doing it myself, I will post some pics online!

 

Wow, thanks for the great response! I'll have to give that a shot!

 

Hey, no problem, always happy to help! Let me know how it goes or if you need any help!

 

Hey nick, here is an example of a data sheet for an LED.

http://www.ledsupply.com/l1-0-b5th15-1.html

The important data specs to note are the maximum forward current and the maximum forward voltage. You need to design a circuit that will ensure that the LED's do not exceed either one of these specs, otherwise they will burn out. I just may have to give this a shot one day.