So I’m repurposing an old laptop motherboard to use as a HDD music player. It’s all very janky but it works. Eventually I’m going to build a custom case so I can have it on display with my stereo system without being embarrassed. But I’m down to the small annoyances now:

The board has two LEDs soldered on, one is a steady green to show the system is on and running. The other blinks orange to say the board is running on direct power from a wall socket (because I removed the battery).

Would it work to just desolder and yank them off? There’s no circuit that’ll bork the system if they’re removed, right?

If possible, I’d like to draw a wire from where the green (“power on”) LED is currently placed, to have a front panel light when I make the box for it. Any tips on that?

Thanks in advance!

  • Romkslrqusz@lemmy.zip
    0·
    25 days ago

    Would it work to just desolder and yank them off? There’s no circuit that’ll bork the system if they’re removed, right?

    Without understanding the rest of the circuit, the safest choice would be to install a diode with similar voltage drop.

    If possible, I’d like to draw a wire from where the green (“power on”) LED is currently placed, to have a front panel light when I make the box for it. Any tips on that?

    If you’re going to be using a different LED, take multimeter measurements (circuit voltage and diode voltage drop) in order to source an appropriate component. Other than that, you’re just using wire to make an extension of the circuit which should be intuitive enough.