Suitable LED for main LED change

Hi all,

Having some skill with a soldering iron and screwdriver, I've decided to change the main LED in my PAL dreamcast to a nice blue one (well, I wanted purple or green, but they're kinda more expensive).

Trouble is, I'm not terrribly well up on my electronics, could anyone advise whether the LED for sale at Maplin (Code JA29G) would be right? I've checked the voltage, with needs to be 3.3v I understand, and this is 3.4v, but do I need a super bright LED to make it visible?

I successfully did the modem LED mod, but the LED was a standard red one, and it was useless, because you could barely see it. I'd kinda like to make sure that this one works out, otherwise I'm gonna have to put the old LED back.

Sorry if this is a kinda noobish question...

(If anyone has the maplin code of one they've already used that came out great, that'd be nice, but I don't expect anyone remembers.)

Cheers.

Maplin? Im guessing thats the UK version of radio shack... Anyway it sounds like that LED should work fine but you should test it to see what results you get, get two wires and draw power from the DC powersupply at the 3.3v and a Ground. I belive that the pins values are clearly marked and its nice and big to test. Do this first to check to see if the LED gets warm after a few minutes, If so then the LED wont work, and also do this to see how bright it is. If it all checks out then swap the leds.

And with the Modem led did you remeber to take the casing off the back of where the phone line goes in, or did you drill a hole for it?

Yep, I took the little slider off the phone cable port (breaking it in the process, thanks to a rather liberal application of a flat head screwdriver!) The LED wasn't terribly good, i saved it from an old A-level project and re-used it.

Thanks for the advice.

Maplin sell a whole load of electronic stuff, from DJ lights to audio players, computer stuff (graphics cards, memory etc.) kits for making circuits, surveillance cameras, and they have a pretty big component centre too, where you can get all the stuff like resistors, leds, switches etc.

Not that I work there or anything. :) They're okay, and the only place that sells that stuff from a high street shop, but my local store isn't especially good.

check the voltage at the old led tips, if it's not 3,3V, you'll have to wire the new led directly to the power supply.

Well, I took the old LED out. I left the leads in there (covered by electricians tape to make sure they didn't short circuit anything).

If this new one for the main LED works out, I might get another for the modem, but probably not. It killed some time and was fun to try anyways...

Ya maplin sounds similar to RadioShack, I havent seen any maplins in USA. Lucky for me I have a nice old radio shack that has the good stuff unlike all the others today that sell cell phones and toys, it sells lots of IC's, LEDS, and resistors. Basically anything a nerd would need but the prices are sometimes way too high.

Installed the nice new LED this weekend, looks pretty smart.

Shame that my soldering iron wasn't really hot enough, they have used pretty resistant solder on the PCB.

And taking it apart for the tenth time has once again knocked something out of balance and it's back to playing silly devils, refusing to load games that it had no problems with on Friday...

Ah well.