Idividual hard drive LEDs

  • Thread starter Thread starter Rhipf
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Rhipf

Is there any way to hook up individual LEDs to a hard drive to indicate
activity of that drive alone? I would like to have a panel of LEDs on
the front of my computer case that indicates individual HD access. The
hard drives are a mix of Western Digital and Maxtor drives.
 
DaveW said:
No.
Click to expand...

No is a bit of a quick dismissal. You can buy $20 removable hdd cases that have their own leds with very little circuitry so it is
possible. You can probably also buy controlled cards that do this.
 
Michael said:
No is a bit of a quick dismissal. You can buy $20 removable hdd cases
that have their own leds with very little circuitry so it is
possible. You can probably also buy controlled cards that do this.
Click to expand...

Or you can check which pin carries the 'activity' signal and do a bit of
soldering on your drive so you can take a feed from there for a seperate
LED. You may even be able to just wrap a wire around the pin.

"No" isn't an answer for anyone with a few clues. Also you really don't need
to buy removable trays just to have an individual HDD LED. The OP was
obviously prepared to make a make a custom panel to house the LEDs. It's a
small step from there to (carefully) soldering a signal wire onto the PCB of
the drive. Some drives have a surface-mount LED on the drive, you could just
solder to each side of that.

Nothing is impossible.
 
I doubt that many drives have this anymore, but they used to all have a 2
pin jumper to attach an LED to. Might even be something to look in the
drive specs for.
 
~misfit~ said:
Or you can check which pin carries the 'activity' signal and do a
bit of soldering on your drive so you can take a feed from there for
a seperate LED. You may even be able to just wrap a wire around the
pin.

"No" isn't an answer for anyone with a few clues. Also you really
don't need to buy removable trays just to have an individual HDD
LED. The OP was obviously prepared to make a make a custom panel to
house the LEDs. It's a small step from there to (carefully)
soldering a signal wire onto the PCB of the drive. Some drives have
a surface-mount LED on the drive, you could just solder to each
side of that.
Click to expand...

I suspect this is talking IDE drives. I believe there is a busy
signal from the drive(s), which now effectively drives the LED.
Similarly there is a select signal to the drive, which selects
between primary and secondary. I assume the are all TTL level, or
can be made so. A single 2:1 MX circuit will break that up into
two individual LED drives. Repeat for the second channel (if
any).

In 74 series TTL you can get a quad 2:1 MX in one package. There
are thousands of ways to implement the logic. This way you take
all the signals from the existing cable, and can make a small
adaptor to simple plug between the cable and the MB. One male and
one female connector required.
 
CBFalconer said:
I suspect this is talking IDE drives. I believe there is a busy
signal from the drive(s), which now effectively drives the LED.
Similarly there is a select signal to the drive, which selects
between primary and secondary. I assume the are all TTL level, or
can be made so. A single 2:1 MX circuit will break that up into
two individual LED drives. Repeat for the second channel (if
any).

In 74 series TTL you can get a quad 2:1 MX in one package. There
are thousands of ways to implement the logic. This way you take
all the signals from the existing cable, and can make a small
adaptor to simple plug between the cable and the MB.
Click to expand...

Or the drive and the cable, if there are two drives on the cable and you
want LEDs for individual drives.
 
I doubt that many drives have this anymore, but they used to all have a 2
pin jumper to attach an LED to. Might even be something to look in the
drive specs for.
Click to expand...

SCSI drives are the only ones I remember having
individual LED jumpers.

Most removable drive bays have IDE-busy LEDs (e.g.
StarTech DRW115 series), but it lights up if there is
activity for *either* drive on the cable. A SATA
removable, of course, wouldn't have this issue as
there's always just a single drive per cable.

Sometimes if you're hooking drives to a PCI controller
card, there's an LED jumper or two. (Promise FastTrak
cards.)
 
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