ParaLED

[Marine]

I've trying to put the parralel hardware together but for some reason i don't know how to follow the diagram does anyone have a actual pictures of what the LEDs look like hooked up to the parralel port? am I supposed to hook them up to a cable or to actual port behind the computer? I've read the two biggest threads in this site pertaining to that but I still can not get an actual picture of what it looks like....I would appreciate the help

[wannabepvr]

Marine - Betlit is the man. His ParaLED download includes a image of the parallel port connections. This shows the computer side of the port - so the connector is the mirror image.

I am guessing your difficulty might be that you are not so familiar with electronics?

If I took a photo you would just see a mess or wires so I will try to describe what I did:

Cut one leg of the LED short. Solder to this leg, in-line the resistor so that it completes the second leg. Solder to the end of these two legs some flexible cable. Use some heat shrink or tape to ensure no shorts - either between the legs or to the case.

Do this for how ever many LEDs you want. I have three. One for GBPVR open, and one for each of my two tuners.

LEDs are polarity sensitive, hook them up the wrong way and they block the current and don't work. If you look at the ring around the dome of the LED you will see a flat. This is the negative leg.

At your local electronic shop you should be able to buy a 25(?) pin connector. Alternately you may just choose to cut one off an old printer.

Join all the negatives together. Then wire this junction to pin 25.

Join the positives to pins 2, 3, 4 etc.

If you tell tell us exactly what you want to monitor we can probably be more specific with the instructions. But I hope this helps a bit!

[Marine]

Thanks for the quick reply. All I want to do is monitor when is recording I somewhat have an idea after reading your post but I still don't understand how to solder the leds together and that's due to me not knowing much electronics!

[wannabepvr]

Here are some example photos, I didn't have the correct value resistor or the correct parallel port plug - but hopefully you get the idea.

Obviously the LED legs need to be wrapped in tape or shrink wrap after soldering.

[Marine]

so do i cut the head of a printer cable and hood LEDs to it? if I understand right all the LEDs are supposed to be hooked up together?

[wannabepvr]

The negatives are joined totherer to pin 25.
The positive for LED1 goes to pin 2
The positive for LED2 goes to pin 3 etc.

If you use an old printer cable you will need a multimetre to determine which colour wire connects to which pin.