Antec P182 - LEDs showing through right side of case

Enclosures and acoustic damping to help quiet them.

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koitsu
Posts: 38
Joined: Thu Oct 07, 2004 9:43 pm

Antec P182 - LEDs showing through right side of case

Post by koitsu » Wed Aug 08, 2007 9:46 pm

Am I the only one who finds blue LEDs incredibly annoying due to being too bright? :-)

The "problem" I'm trying to solve has to do with the hard disk LED showing through the right side of the case, due to the air intake grill/strip along the right front edge. See here:

http://www.antec.com/images/400/p182_s.jpg

I'm sure the power LED also does this (minus the blinking), but I've got mine plugged in backwards on accident. Oops. ;)

Anyways, if you're like me and have your PC on the right side of your desk, ~2 inches from a [white spackled] wall, you end up with a 4x4 inch blue blotch flashing on your wall every time the hard disk gets read -- which under Windows is constant.

The options I've figured out:

1) Block the air intake grill/strip on the right with cardboard or dampening material. Caveat is that you'll be hurting airflow. Eek.

2) Unplug all the LEDs. I most definitely want a working power and hard disk LED, but I only want them visible from the front of the case (e.g. hidden when the door is closed).

3) Most plausible option: painting matte black (or covering with electrical tape?) the edges of the plastic that the LED is inserted into, so that the light is to the front (behind the door) and back (inside the case).

But it looks fairly tricky to get inside the area of the case where the LEDs are -- unless the entire front of the case is removable? I can't easily check...

So I'm hoping someone has a case that's easily accessible who might be able to take some photos or provide other recommendations/solutions.

Antec does #3 on lots of cases (usually enclosing the entire LED area within black plastic), so I'm surprised they didn't do this on the P182...

Thanks!

abirdie4me
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Post by abirdie4me » Wed Aug 08, 2007 10:28 pm

You can remove the entire front of the P182 to get to the LED's, however it is a little tricky and requires you to remove both sides of the case to access the retaining clips.

My ghetto mod was to put a strip of black electrical tape over the area where the light was coming from. Sorry, don't have any pics and I'm out of town for a few days. Besides, don't think I want the world to see my crappy tape job!

deadbolt
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Location: Vancouver BC

A simple resistor will dim the LED

Post by deadbolt » Thu Aug 09, 2007 6:13 pm

Adding a 2k ohm resistor will dim the LED substantially. Buy a 5pack of 2k 1/8 watt resistors. Cut one lead to the led and wire in the resistor. Add more in series if it is still too bright. Nominal values for LED resistors are less than 400ohm, but since the blue LEDs are so efficient you'll need the higher value resistor to tame the light output.

mr. poopyhead
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Post by mr. poopyhead » Thu Aug 09, 2007 6:27 pm

the side grille seems to be the only way to see the HDD light when the door is closed... so i keep it open and visible... why would they block it like that?

koitsu
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Joined: Thu Oct 07, 2004 9:43 pm

Post by koitsu » Fri Aug 10, 2007 5:32 am

Thanks for the recommendations, guys. Buying replacement LEDs is definitely a good idea (I prefer orange for HDD and green for power), but the electrical tape idea is also good.

Once I get the front cover off, I'll peek around in there and see what I come up with. Probably painting something... primer + black for the win! ;)

paramthegreat
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Post by paramthegreat » Thu Aug 16, 2007 2:40 pm

I have been facing the same issue too. The power LED is too bright for me. Anyway, I opened up the front to check on the LEDs. You can read here:
viewtopic.php?t=42523

I found that the HDD leds were held with a screw, so that was fairly easy to work on (probably paint the sides with paint or liquid electrical tape from Home Depot). Power leds seem to have been glued into the front panel. I can live without the HDD leds, but I need a functional power led. Let me know if you have any success on that.

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