Nintendo Gamecube

[kripp]

Picked up a Nintendo Gamecube from a local Pawn Shop for $20, guy behind the counter said it didn't work. Funny how when I plugged it in (while the guy was in the back room) and gave it a shot it worked just as it should, needless to say I paid the man $20 and was on my way!




First thing to do was get rid of the ugly orange LED, I chose to replace it with a nice white one.



Then decided that the grey had to go! I painted both the power button and the front panel satin black.





A couple days worth of painting and a good weeks worth of curing time, this is how my $20 Gamecube looks now.





Enjoy.

[atom]

Why is your white led blue? Good job on the pawn buy though.

[kripp]

I guess its just how the LED looks in the picture, in person it is not blue at all. This was the first time I had used a white LED in a project, usually I do use blue.

Thanks.

[TJ_Kat]

might it be because most white leds are just a really light shade of blue?

[Nintendodragon]

Are there any issues with voltage when changing LED's?  or can i just swap them round..

and pardon my ignoraance but do i need to put them a certian way round?  

[atom]

Mostly all leds are the same voltage so just put it in, the shorter leg is the negative leg. Basically try connecting it and if it doesnt work put it the other way.

[zydocx]

Yellow, red and green "default-leds" are the same voltage as i remember, but white and blue are a bit more voltage.

[Guest]

I bought a 3.4V blue LED, i tried to get the lowest voltageone i could find. im not sure what voltage the game cube is but i'll give it a go.

[Guest]

Ok, once i opend my GC i realised id bought the wrong size LED.... so i opend my N64 and to my delight it was a 7mm LED. so i swaped them over and it works fine!

it was a bit of a pain taking out the old LED, but after a lot of heating and wiggleing it came out.

I'll get the right LED and do my cube next.

[Guest]

ok after checking the pictures i realise i could have used the larger LED... oh well.

[headphones]

atom is wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong.
Not all leds are the same, they all handle different voltages just like resistors (because they're basically just resistors that light up). The voltage is usually on the package, but if you don't know it use a voltmeter. You won't burn up your gc by using the wrong led, you'll just burn up the led, so don't worry about it too much.

[duh]

No, an LED is not a resistor.
LED stands for "Light Emitting Diode".  
They are diodes, not resistors, and are closer to being transistors than resistors.

[msgwtco]

With LEDs you don't have to worry about voltage as much as current. The LED is a light emitting diode, meaning it's a diode that emits light (lights up when forward biased.

The diode, unlike the resistor, runs on a constant voltage. So if you were to run it in series with a resistor it would constanly run at a certain voltage, regardless of how you varied the resistor size.

What you need to worry about when building circuits that utilize LEDs is current. LEDs allow lots of current to run through (enough to destroy the LED).

To solve this risk, circuit builders use resistors in series to limit the amount of current that can possibly run through the led.

So theres not really much to worry about