Footswitch LED Brightness

[mapleleaf14]

Anybody else find the LEDs on the footswitches too dang bright?!?

The footswitch for my new Custom 50 head (3 switches & 3 LEDs) has such bright LEDs that you can't see the switches unless a few lights are also on in the room!

I need to find a way to dim them a bit...anybody have an idea they've used?!?

 

[Tosca]

Nail Polish.

You can add coats until it's as dim as you want...it won't fall off like tape...you can remove it whenever you want.

 

[Em7]

Each LED should have a current-limiting resistor. This resistor will have a color-coded resistance value. Increasing the value of the current-limiting resistor dims the LED. Most of the Marshall knock-off footswitches come with 1K current limiting resisters. Doug likes bright LEDs, so he may have reduced the value of the current-limiting resistor. The color code on a 1K resistor is brown-black-red. The next band is the tolerance rating of the resistor. This band will usually be gold (5%) or silver (10%) in this application. If the pedal already has 1K current-limiting resistors, I would purchase several larger value resistors and see which value you like best. The next easily obtainable values are 1.5K (brown-green-red) and 2.2K (red-red-red) ohms.

 

[LJD]

The one on my Analogman comp is blinding, especially at 12volts. I just stuck a couple layers of first-aid tape over it. Hard to see here but the dot of the dimmed led is still visible through the tape.

 

[Egads]

I used a hole punch and punched out a couple dots of gaffer tape. It gives a cool halo effect.

 

[mapleleaf14]

Thanks for the ideas guys...Em7, unfortunately your idea is a little outta my wheelhouse! LOL

i was playing last night and my girlfriend turned off the lights and the foot switch lit me up like I was on stage! Wow these things are bright!

 

[Em7]

Thanks for the ideas guys...Em7, unfortunately your idea is a little outta my wheelhouse! LOL

i was playing last night and my girlfriend turned off the lights and the foot switch lit me up like I was on stage! Wow these things are bright!

It's really not a difficult mod. All it requires is a trip to Radio Shack and a halfway decent soldering iron. One basically unsolders the old resistor, alligator clips in larger resistance value resistors until one is happy with the level of brightness, and solders in the resistor that gives one the desired brightness. If you were local, I could show you how to do the mod in couple of minutes. If you visit the Battery-less LED footswitch mod that I developed for the older 2-Channel models, you will see where I have an LED alligator clipped into the circuit. My mod is more sophisticated than the approach that Doug took with the 2-Channel custom because I light 2-LEDs and switch the V- connections on two relay circuits (channel and reverb) using only three conductors; therefore, I had to add a MOSFET-based switching circuit that I designed to the amp (the LED current limiting resistors are part of the MOSFET-based switching circuit that I added to the amp). I am fairly sure that Doug modified the 2-Channel Custom footswitch (which is a Marshall PED803 knock-off), so that he could run V+ and V- from the low-voltage supply to power the LEDs. I believe that three of the conductors are connected to V- on the separate relay-controlled circuits (channel switching, relay, and boost) with the other two conductors connected to the V+ and V- on the low-voltage supply.


Here's the link to my battery-less LED footswitch mod for the older 2-Channel models: http://prsguitars.com/forum/showthr...-Mod-for-the-2-Channel&highlight=battery-less

 

[László]

The bright LEDs come in handy if you ever do an outdoor gig.

 

[LJD]

The bright LEDs come in handy if you ever do an outdoor gig.

Or if you have to land an airplane in a fog bank.

 

[László]

Or if you have to land an airplane in a fog bank.

I do that all the time. Sometimes I don't crash.

 

[sergiodeblanc]

The bright LEDs come in handy if you ever do an outdoor gig.

During the day. I lost my @ss the first time I played outside because of that.