Modding LED's into Your PSU Molex Ends

    Use the needle tool (shown in the lower left of the first picture below) or other pin removal tool to remove the 5v (red) and both ground (black) pins from the molex end, there are tabs on the edge of the metal pins that you need to push in to allow its removal.  Take the dremel and remove the center plastic piece (circled in red) from the molex to allow the LED to fit inside, sorry the picture is so blurry... my new camera is better.

   

    3mm LED's would fit right into the hole you just Dremeled but at the time I couldn't find any, the only LED's I could find in 5v were 5mm so some filing was in order.  Hold the LED with the hemostats and use the hobby file to square them off.  Be careful not to take too much off, constantly check all sides as you go and don't go nuts by filing too hard or you can snap off the metal leads.



    Solder the LED to the base of the 5v and ground pins, take care to remember which side is anode (+) and cathode (-) so that you solder it right and then after bending the tabs on the pins back outward carefully cram it all back together.  I used some silicone around the molex to cover the bare LED leads.  When the molex ends were all outfit with their own LED I used some chrome loom to cover all the wiring.

    There are other ways to accomplish this mod... at least insofar as the voltage of the LED is concerned, if a 12v LED is used it can be hooked to that line (yellow wire) and a ground (black wire) or you can add a resistor to the anode side to make the LED run at 5v (red wire) which keeps everything cleanly in the middle of the molex.  If you need to find the resistor value for your LED there are many LED calculators on the 'net.

    I did this mod to my test PSU and it does look sweet, if I were to do it for my own case I would only put LED's into the molex ends that hooked into my drives since they are the only ones that would show through the side window.  This mod is cheap and easy, if you cannot hide ugly plug ends then you may as well turn them into something worth seeing... sounds like some of the women I've known, LOL.

Happy Modding

- Guide written by ARTbyTROY


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