Charging/Power Lights. How have you done them?

[WoodMill]

Getting resources together for my next build. How have you guys made your charging/power lights more visible? The PowerBoost has all the lights, I can see them from the crack in the ports. But I'd like to make them more visible.

Are you able to take leads from the powerboost? Or have some of you gotten tricky with fiber optic?

I know I've come across some people doing different things, but can't see to find them now. I'm more interested in the Charging/Low power light. That would be the only one I'm concerned with. I'll know if the Gameboy is on or not. But would like to know when it's fully charged so that I can unplug it. Or when it has low power so that I can shut it down.

[Rolen47]

Chiz had a really good idea with his GB Pi2. He put the power boost at the very top, the blue "power on" LED lights up his clear power switch. He then drilled a small hole in the GB shell where the charging LEDs are, then covered the hole with hot glue to make it a nice diffused window.



What I'm planning on doing is removing the built-in LEDS completely and then wiring up a 4 pin RGB LED and putting it somewhere in the case. But I still don't have all my parts and it's going to take over a month for the LED to get shipped to me. So I'm not sure if what I'm planning will work yet. It's probably going to be a little tricky since apparently the Orange/Green LEDs are controlled by a transistor, and the transistor connects the built-in LEDs to GND instead of +volts which isn't possible with a 4 pin RGB LED.

[WoodMill]

Sounds good. The RGB LED would be out of my league if you mean it to handle all the colors.

I ended up ordering 5ft of 2mm thick fiber optic cable. My thought was to drill a 2mm hole somewhere, not sure where, and glue the optic flush with the outside of the case. And then glue the other end directly over the amber light. And shoot, may do power as well since I'm in there. In my head that will work exactly how I want.

[peoplesbeer]

I'm thinking of adding this feature to my build as well but I can't figure out a good way to do it (without buying all the extra boards that are available).

Wouldn't it be a lot easier to just extend the LED's from the powerboost?

[WoodMill]

They are super duper tiny, and wasn't sure how easy that would be. Or if you could just tap into it with other leds.

[peoplesbeer]

Oh thats right, they probably are. I'm still waiting for mine to arrive so I haven't looked into it that much yet.
Then again... "how hard can it be?"

[Tim]

Does somebody know how to wire up a low-battery-led to the LBO pin on the powerboost? I think this is the most important led

[SidSilver]

Does somebody know how to wire up a low-battery-led to the LBO pin on the powerboost? I think this is the most important led

The Powerboost has a low battery led, just use it

[Tim]

But the powerboost is in my battery compartment and I can't see the led from the front

[WoodMill]

But the powerboost is in my battery compartment and I can't see the led from the front

Wait until I get my fiber optic cable and I'll let you know how well that works. I'm going to update my first build while I wait for all the parts for my second build.