Q700 Missing HDD activity LED

[Fizzbinn]

Anyone source an LED for their Quadra 700's hard disk drive activity light? I'm looking for something period appropriate. I *think* it's supposed to be an amber color?

I also need/want one for my IIci...

Other sites seem to indicate that Apple used red LEDs for HHD activity in early SEs but later ones switched to amber. Some also say green LEDs were used. I'm guessing the IIcx might have been the same as the SE but maybe the IIci and Q700 just used Amber?

I'm not sure what the secret googlesse is to find this type of LED either....

Right now I'm thinking this might be close (but still need to figure out the connector)?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B077X9WSLX/

The LED itself looks too yellow, but there picture of the light produced looks amber-ish...

Any advice, guidance would be appreciated!

 

[Fizzbinn]

After looking at my SE FDHD and SE/30 for comparison

where the original HDD activity lights are decidedly yellowish I think that's what I'll go with. However that Amazon product does have a multi-color option so I guess I can play with all 6 colors.

Other tidbits in case others stumble across this post in the future:

5mm is the right diameter size for the LED bulbs (what the original clear plastic light pipes in the IIci and Q700 appear to be designed for).

These need a resistor to provide the rated voltage to the LED from the 5v off the HDD. This BlueSCSI doc page has the best guidance I could find on choosing the right resistor (thanks @eric):
https://github.com/erichelgeson/BlueSCSI/wiki/External-LED#10-abc

Using the specs from the above Amazon yellow LED and the Mouser calculator link to from the BlueSCSI docs it looks like I'll need a 150 ohm resistor.

For the HDD side connector (and wires) I'm looking at these:
https://www.amazon.com/uxcell-Female-Jumper-2-54mm-Breadboard/dp/B07FM73YN9/

 

[eric]

My Q700 is green (I had to turn it on to verify) but amber or yellow seems appropriate too.

 

[Fizzbinn]

My Q700 is green (I had to turn it on to verify) but amber or yellow seems appropriate too.

View attachment 17025

That is the power LED

The HDD activity LED is in the opposite top corner in the groove.

I guess its actually the light pipe for the LED, on the inside of the case mine looks like this:

I think the light pipe itself is sometimes missing or broken.

 

[eric]

Ha! Shoot! I don't have a hdd in there but now that you said it I remember it was empty, whoops!

 

[Fizzbinn]

So I actually had one of these HD activity LEDs in a battery bombed IIci I had in the basement! I can use it in either my good Iici or Q700 but still want to build another.

The right angle connector seems fairly unique, certainly other plain 2.54 spaced connectors can work but I wonder if it might still be available if I knew what to search for...

Here's what it looks like in the Q700:

And the replacement candidates:

The original looks yellow unpowered but more orange when lit. I think I'm leaning toward the modern orange LED. ...of course the SE FDHD and SE/30's HD activity LEDs do look yellow when lit. I'm probably over thinking this!

 

[MacintoshLibrarian]

I just had my Quadra opened and it was 100% a red LED. However Amber looks a lot nicer!

 

[Fizzbinn]

I just had my Quadra opened and it was 100% a red LED. However Amber looks a lot nicer!

Thanks for the data point!