# LED Positioning



## knobToucher (May 12, 2019)

Working on a couple of projects that require some unusual LED placement. Usually I drill a hole in the enclosure directly above where the LED is on the circuit board, then adjust the height of the legs and solder them in place. I use the rigidity of the LED legs to poke into the LED holder when I insert the PCB into the enclosure.

However, with these projects the LEDs need to be positioned away from their location on the PCB. Just wondering how you guys do this kind of thing? Obviously I'll need to attach the LEDs to some pieces of wire to extend their reach but how then do you get them into position? Hope I've explained my question correctly! Looking forward to hearing your techniques!


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## mad5066 (May 12, 2019)

Use of a bezel will hole the LED in place. 






						LED Holders Bezels - LEDs
					






					www.taydaelectronics.com


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## Dirty_Boogie (May 12, 2019)

I use an LED bezel. LED just snaps in, and then solder and run leads to PCB.


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## ryanisradd (May 12, 2019)

Love My Switches sells these prewired (with resistor) LED's in a nice bezel for $.99 they are a pleasure to use.






						LEDs - Love My Switches
					






					lovemyswitches.com


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## Dirty_Boogie (May 12, 2019)

ryanisradd said:


> Love My Switches sells these prewired (with resistor) LED's in a nice bezel for $.99 they are a pleasure to use.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Yes, those are nice, but don't fit in a 1590B enclosure, if I'm not mistaken (too long.) But since PedalPCB builds are designed around 125B enclosures, they work well (I always try to get my builds to fit in 1590B enclosures, if I can.)

One other thing to note - since they already include a CLR in the housing, you need to jumper the CLR on the PedalPCB board, or use something low like a 100 ohm resistor, otherwise the LED will be too dim.


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## ryanisradd (May 12, 2019)

Dirty_Boogie said:


> Yes, those are nice, but don't fit in a 1590B enclosure, if I'm not mistaken (too long.) But since PedalPCB builds are designed around 125B enclosures, they work well (I always try to get my builds to fit in 1590B enclosures, if I can.)
> 
> One other thing to note - since they already include a CLR in the housing, you need to jumper the CLR on the PedalPCB board, or use something low like a 100 ohm resistor, otherwise the LED will be too dim.



They actually fit perfect in 1590Bs you just have to snip off the little black plastic tab where the wires come out. I just built an etched EQD Bellows in a 1590B with one! Also, I usually just run the power back to the DC jack because the leads on those prewired LEDs are long enough to reach the back.


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## Chuck D. Bones (May 14, 2019)

When I am in situations where the LED is not supported directly by the board, I pre-wire the LED, heat-shrink the solder joints and use a tiny drop of the thick crazy glue to keep the LED in place.  A 3mm LED fits nicely in a 1/8" hole.


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## knobToucher (May 14, 2019)

Thanks for everyone's suggestions! I actually have a tonne of those bezels, but I've always used them when the LED is supported by the board. I didn't think those plug things would actually keep the LED in place. I'm going to give that a go later today, if that fails I'll try the superglue thing. I'll report back, thanks again


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## FloydianPulse (Nov 20, 2020)

ryanisradd said:


> They actually fit perfect in 1590Bs you just have to snip off the little black plastic tab where the wires come out. I just built an etched EQD Bellows in a 1590B with one! Also, I usually just run the power back to the DC jack because the leads on those prewired LEDs are long enough to reach the back.


Do you run red wire to dc jack + and black wire to SW on the board with jumpers A-K and 4k7 as a jumper or can I just leave A-K empty? Board currently has a 4k7 installed but want to use the prewired love my switches LED... was thinking to leave A and K blank open and go red to + DC and black to SW on pcb, but not sure if it’ll work.


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## FloydianPulse (Nov 20, 2020)

FloydianPulse said:


> Do you run red wire to dc jack + and black wire to SW on the board with jumpers A-K and 4k7 as a jumper or can I just leave A-K empty? Board currently has a 4k7 installed but want to use the prewired love my switches LED... was thinking to leave A and K blank open and go red to + DC and black to SW on pcb, but not sure if it’ll work.


Or can I just wire it to the dc jack and leave A-K blank, no wire and leave 4k7 installed on the pcb as it currently is?


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## Barry (Nov 20, 2020)

I use a little piece of Vero board and a bezel when not mounted direct


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## FloydianPulse (Nov 21, 2020)

Barry said:


> I use a little piece of Vero board and a bezel when not mounted direct


But how do you wire that? Essentially I just want to run a separate LED with a prewired resistor and not use the primary LED pcb slot.


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## Barry (Nov 21, 2020)

FloydianPulse said:


> But how do you wire that? Essentially I just want to run a separate LED with a prewired resistor and not use the primary LED pcb slot.


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## Barry (Nov 21, 2020)

If you have room you could use a larger piece of vero and add the resistor


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## FloydianPulse (Nov 21, 2020)

Barry said:


> If you have room you could use a larger piece of vero and add the resistor


I have an LED housing with a resistor in it already with an anode and cathode line. In your Vero board example that is similar, where would you connect those lines to a standard pedal pcb board if the board already has the 4K7 installed? I was thinking I could connect the lines to A-K and run a lead in parallel with the pcb resistor to bypass it but was wondering if there was an easier way, ie DC jack and SW?


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## Barry (Nov 21, 2020)

FloydianPulse said:


> I have an LED housing with a resistor in it already with an anode and cathode line. In your Vero board example that is similar, where would you connect those lines to a standard pedal pcb board if the board already has the 4K7 installed? I was thinking I could connect the lines to A-K and run a lead in parallel with the pcb resistor to bypass it but was wondering if there was an easier way, ie DC jack and SW?


You could do either


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## FloydianPulse (Nov 21, 2020)

Barry said:


> You could do either


Do I have to bypass the pcb resistor if I go DC to SW?


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## Chuck D. Bones (Nov 21, 2020)

Depends on how the PCB is routed.  Some have the resistor on the anode side and some have it on the cathode side.  Check the schematic.  

NB: any time you deviate from the Build Docs, reviewing the schematic helps avoid unpleasant surprises.


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