Day 37 - And Neg said Let There Be Light

Today my stupendous mate who happens to be a guitar pedal designer and fabricator created me a LED block for the trackball (which has space underneath to take a little PCB). Here it is. I've no idea why the lit version is mirrored, it's ok when you look at it from the file explorer. It's a lot brighter with 12v (this was just 9v as a test) and when viewed not from my phone camera.

This plugs straight into a molex from the PC and uses the 12v (yellow) rather than 5v (red) supply meaning half the number of resisters are required. Cost about £2, which is a lot cheaper than the £30 the arcade parts website want :)

All the LED's are in sockets so can be taken out and replaced with any mix of colours - I may end up with yellow, which was the original plan.

Anyway, if you're in need of a guitar pedal (kit or ready made) head over to http://pedalparts.co.uk/

I also got a couple of these very tiny buttons (black version) to be used as the back/escape and power buttons. They should be very inconspicuous, they are about 5mm in diameter and a total of about 13mm. From http://www.rapidonline.com/electronic-components/low-profile-push-switches-30972/ at about 40p each. Lovely solid feel to the press action too.