# Wiring LEDs into PCB mounts



## jwyles90 (Mar 2, 2022)

Hey all, 

Sorry if this is a newbie question, but I tried searching through the forum and couldn't find much. I just finished populating and wiring up the Son of Ben PCB and as I was starting to put everything in place I realized the enclosure I had was slightly off dimension-wise. I can get all of the pots into their respective holes, however, the spot for the LED is too high. I'm wondering if it's fine to just wire the LED into the pads on the PCB, or will that for some reason impact the way the LED works?


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## Bricksnbeatles (Mar 2, 2022)

Nope! That’s absolutely fine.


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## jwyles90 (Mar 2, 2022)

Awesome! I had a feeling that would be the case, just wanted to make sure. Lesson learned, always put everything in its spot first before soldering and painting the enclosure haha


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## Paradox916 (Mar 2, 2022)

A lot of peeps do that… once you get the hang of a basic build.  There are a lot of options for what, where, when and how, when it comes to LED indicators. Don’t be afraid to think outside the box and experiment.


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## BuddytheReow (Mar 2, 2022)

You may not even need wire for the LED. You can simply just bend the leads of the led to stretch out to the bezel or whatever you got in that LED hole, lol


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## jwyles90 (Mar 2, 2022)

BuddytheReow said:


> You may not even need wire for the LED. You can simply just bend the leads of the led to stretch out to the bezel or whatever you got in that LED hole, lol


Yea I tried that out initially. Unfortunately, there's too much clearance between the LED hole and the PCB so the bend would need to be nearing a 90-degree angle and at that point I'm worried about too much stress on the leads.


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## Bio77 (Mar 2, 2022)

jwyles90 said:


> Yea I tried that out initially. Unfortunately, there's too much clearance between the LED hole and the PCB so the bend would need to be nearing a 90-degree angle and at that point I'm worried about too much stress on the leads.


Naw, you can bend the hell out of an LED.  

I usually add them without solder to my finished PCB and bend one of the leads to keep it in place.  Then when the PCB is mounted into the enclosure and soldered to the pots, I feed the LED into the enclosure hole, sometimes its tricky and they get really stretched and bent.  Once it's where it's supposed to be, I solder it in.


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## jwyles90 (Mar 2, 2022)

Bio77 said:


> Naw, you can bend the hell out of an LED.
> 
> I usually add them without solder to my finished PCB and bend one of the leads to keep it in place.  Then when the PCB is mounted into the enclosure and soldered to the pots, I feed the LED into the enclosure hole, sometimes its tricky and they get really stretched and bent.  Once it's where it's supposed to be, I solder it in.


Good to know! My wiring on the LED currently isn't my favorite, so if I fire it up and no light comes on I'll definitely give bending it in there a shot haha


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## DAJE (Mar 2, 2022)

I've soldered leg offcuts from resistors onto the ends of LED legs, to add some extra length. If I do that I put some heatshrink tubing over the finished product to protect from shorts.


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## spi (Mar 2, 2022)

I got frustrated with trying to get LED legs into my PCB, so I almost always socket the LED spot on the PCB, then I run wires to the LEDS.  I've done this so many times now it's just part of my process.


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## jwyles90 (Mar 3, 2022)

spi said:


> I got frustrated with trying to get LED legs into my PCB, so I almost always socket the LED spot on the PCB, then I run wires to the LEDS.  I've done this so many times now it's just part of my process.
> 
> View attachment 23683


That looks pretty clean! Do you take the heat gun to it after the board is all set up in the enclosure? I haven't used a heat gun/heat shrink much so I'm curious if there's any potential for heating up the pcb or components too much.


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## spi (Mar 3, 2022)

jwyles90 said:


> That looks pretty clean! Do you take the heat gun to it after the board is all set up in the enclosure? I haven't used a heat gun/heat shrink much so I'm curious if there's any potential for heating up the pcb or components too much.


You mean for the shrink wire over the led leads?  I heat them with the edge of the soldering iron (not the tip).  I do it before I install it in the enclosure or hook it to the pcb.


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## jwyles90 (Mar 3, 2022)

spi said:


> You mean for the shrink wire over the led leads?  I heat them with the edge of the soldering iron (not the tip).  I do it before I install it in the enclosure or hook it to the pcb.


Oh yea sorry, should've specified what I was talking about haha. I'll have to give that a shot next time.


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## EGRENIER (Mar 3, 2022)

jwyles90 said:


> Oh yea sorry, should've specified what I was talking about haha. I'll have to give that a shot next time.


If you notice on his board, he install a socket where the LED lead go.  So connect the LED to the leads, add the shrink wrap and heat outside the box.  Install the LED on the box, install the board in the box and connect the 2 leads to the socket....


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## jwyles90 (Mar 3, 2022)

EGRENIER said:


> If you notice on his board, he install a socket where the LED lead go.  So connect the LED to the leads, add the shrink wrap and heat outside the box.  Install the LED on the box, install the board in the box and connect the 2 leads to the socket....


Oh yea I see that now, thanks for the clarification. So any of those DIP socket types would work? I've got a bunch that I can break off into whatever size I need.


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## spi (Mar 3, 2022)

jwyles90 said:


> Oh yea I see that now, thanks for the clarification. So any of those DIP socket types would work? I've got a bunch that I can break off into whatever size I need.


Cut off two pins from the SIP sockets.


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## jwyles90 (Mar 3, 2022)

spi said:


> Cut off two pins from the SIP sockets.


Awesome, thanks!


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