Pearl/Keyboard Surface Mount LED's

[jrogers23]

I've been browsing around forums and google for about a day now trying to find information about this but I haven't found an answer to what I'm looking for, maybe someone can help.

The 8100 pearl has a multi colored LED underneath it, allowing for the color to be changed. Well I and a number of my friends own 8130's and we're stuck with white. Being handy with a soldering iron we figure how tough could it be to replace that LED with a different colored one? But I can't seem to find anyone who has done this online with a note as to success or failure...and I also am unsure which LED would fit there. There are a variety of surface mount LED's that look similar...but without seeing them in person I couldn't be sure.

Ultimately I'm wondering if anyone has heard of this being accomplished before and can point me in the direction of a site...or if anyone knows where I can find a service manual with a parts breakdown for the 8130?

Thanks in advance for any help!

[dvst8ion]

I wouldn't recommend doing this. But if I were to do it I might start by looking up shop cnn and see if you can get a hold of the manufacturer LED set for the 8100. That would be your best bet as far as I can tell to get a hold of an LED that would fit. Be careful though the LED settings on the 8130 are light sensitive and you may loose this feature by doing this. I beleave they put a multi color LED in the 8100 to test to see if they could get rid of the service LED and have it all go through the trackball.

[jrogers23]

Yeah getting a hold of the oem LED set is a good idea, thanks I'll look into that...however I was thinking that putting a single color LED of the same style/model would be the best bet...and probably easiest to get functioning. And I'm not all too concerned about the problems that could arise, I have access to plenty of broken ones to try it on first =)

[beeshabo]

yeah.....if you just replace the stock (white LED) with a colored one, you may have a shot of getting it to work!!

[jeffallen8]

or put a peace of clear tape over the led and color it with a sharpe!!!!

[jrogers23]

Hahah I played with the sharpee method because that's the only solution I've found so far, with the darkest red I can find the pearl/keypad comes out Pink...which isn't quite what I'm going for, but the girls like it. And I'm not sure how lasting that will be.

[jeffallen8]

mix black and red???

[beeshabo]

yup...that's what I would do, just start combining colors to make it the color you want....