G5 front I/O question - LED

[zammykoo]

Hey guys I'm curious about some quirks with my front LED. It's not that big a deal but I figured I'd ask anyway.

 

Is the front LED supposed to blink when in sleep mode? (I would like mine to do this)

 

For some reason my mobo makes the led turn on at all times, even when I shut it down.

 

My workaround was to plug the LED anode into the HDD activity slot instead of Power-led slot. This makes the LED turn off when the machine is shut off/sleep mode.

 

I know my mobo works fine because if I plug a different LED's anode and cathode into the Power-led slots it works perfectly. I guess because the front panel's circuitry is more complicated.

 

Now the question is.... is there a way to separate the G5 front panel's led cathode (-)? Instead of sharing the firewire/usb's ground. If i can do this then I can ground the led in its intended slot on the mobo.

 

Sorry I know this is long, thanks for reading.

[BlackCH]

I think it depends on the mo-board you are using. On my rig it powers off, but stays on during sleep.

 

The led and power button have a tiny connector that plugs to the g5 front panel board. See the picture in this post:

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php...t&p=1498509

Its the tiny 3-pin female socket at the left end.

 

The male connector is solded to the actual button and led. You could try to hook it there, but I dont know, its really really tiny and it can be easily broken.

[Gus.Carrie]

On my machine I've just got LED and power button hooked up, and whilst playing around getting it set up, I got the same situation as you discribe, computer powered off but the LED is lit. However, eventually i have it so that, Power off-LED off. Power on-LED on. Have not tested sleep. I'll take a look tomorrow and tell you which ground pin on my motherboard my ground cable is connected too.

 

EDIT: if you have one of the cables from the guys who make them, and don't use firewire. You could try to take out the firewire ground from the firewire connecter and put it on the different grounds available on your computer. And even if you do use firewire, follow the same proceedure, take the firewire ground test it on the available grounds, then you know that you need to put a new end on the ground cable. ie. so you have the ground from apple connector into a female crimp terminal but with another cable too, so that the other cable can be put onto the ground to make the LED work. Do you understand what i mean? Not sure if thats very easy to follow.

[zammykoo]

The male connector is solded to the actual button and led. You could try to hook it there, but I dont know, its really really tiny and it can be easily broken.

 

Lol, this was my first thought to fixing the problem but I was hoping to find a simpler solution before hacking away at the panel piece. Although if I can't figure out any other way I may have to resort to this.

 

 

EDIT: if you have one of the cables from the guys who make them, and don't use firewire. You could try to take out the firewire ground from the firewire connecter and put it on the different grounds available on your computer.

 

Gus, this sounded like a genius idea so I gave it a try. So far I've unhooked the FW ground and plugged it into the PowerLED (-) & the anode into PowerLED (+), which didn't work, led stayed on when shut down. So I tried the same drill with the HDD activity... but it gives me the same results as my first workaround.

 

I'll have to keep tinkering with this idea cause I think you're on to something.

 

Thanks for the suggestions and I'll keep you guys posted

[Gus.Carrie]

Right with the ground from the apple connector going to the LED ground on my mobo, and the power button going to power button positive, and LED going to Power LED positive on my mobo. It functions normally, power button start up, and hold for shutdown. the LED lights when on and off when mobo is off. soo give that a try.

 

But i had all sorts of combinations when trying to get it right. Had LED on, and off when button was pressed, then on again. LED off, and on when the button was pressed, then off again. Continually on, even when mobo was off. And off.

 

What to remember is because LEDs are diodes, they only work in the circuit one way, which means only if the + and - are connected properly will it light up. So each combination you try, try switching the rails, just to be sure its definitely not right.

 

Goodluck!