Hello dear people of Moog music forum, I am colour blind and it is difficult for me to tell the difference between Moogerfooger Bypass On/Off LED lights.
I wonder if any of you know anything about a possibility to change the Bypass LED lights, and if yes where I can get those LEDs? (I’d prefer white/blue/cyan to green/orange/red).
I googled, yahooed and binged but haven’t found any info regarding my problem.
Any advice would be much appreciated..
Hey, you should definitely contact Moog tech support. They’ll tell you what can be done, and they are likely to do it for you from what I’ve read.
Thank you, I’ll do that. But I’m not keen on sending all my foogers from the UK to USA just to change the leds. Maybe they’ll tell me how I can do it myself.
Just be aware that doing the work yourself would probably void any warranty…
Yes, it’s possible
http://forum.moogmusic.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=7708&p=59312
(SteveD is a tech at Moog Music.)
Some of the 'foogers use a tri-state now: red, green and orange (red+green), this is used for the MF-104M spillover state, right?. I have tried red/blue LEDs with purple as a third colour but the mixing was not great, possibly due to the viewing angle and non-opaque acrylic. Are there other tri-colour LEDs? Also remember that they often run on different voltages. Perhaps you could have two and drill an extra hole for a positional reference.
I have the same problem. Changing the leds is on my list of things to do, one of these days. It’s an administrative ordeal to send a fooger across the border to be serviced, let alone 8 of them.
Not too much problem with red and green, and a selecting an alternative bi-color led is no problem either. But the tricolor led of the MF104M is a problem, I can not distinguish the orange from the green in spillover mode. The problem is diminished using the BCR 2000 controller to bypass and toggle spillover. The lit switches of the controller tell me what the current status is on both count.
From a DIY point of view, I don’t think voltage and current consumption is of any concern on a typical led driver. From a mechanical point of view, there are two ways to modify/change a led without having to jeopardize your unit by soldering directly on the PCB. You can cut the existing led’s leg close to the bulb, leaving the through the hole legs in place. From there, you can solder new straight legs on existing legs, or bent the legs at 90 degrees halfway (same for the replacement led). The other way is to leave the legs a little bit shorter and use some individual small connectors (such as the female single pin connector of a RS-232 DB9) or a 3 pin pcb connector commonly found and make a wired led.
Those not comfortable with DIY can have the job done by any trusted electronics repair guy.
From a DIY point of view, I don’t think voltage and current consumption is of any concern on a typical led driver.
Depends on the colour – blue and “white” LEDs usually have a forward voltage 1.5V greater than your typical red or green. So if you did a part for part replacement, the blue might be very dim or not light up at all. In some 'foogers certain LEDs are driven directly by the processor DAC also.
That’s the concern. But good tip, cutting the lead and soldering the new LED to the legs of the old.
I had Moog replace my panel LFO light and ‘input’ (sometimes called ‘overload’) light with Blue LEDs. To be honest, I’m not sure if they did anything else except change the part but mine is an Old School so no micro-controller to speak of.
I’m rigging up some circuitry within an EHX 8-step sequencing pedal using one of forward voltage coming off of an LED and it’s quite low; worse, (as Latigid suggested above), it’s tied directly to the ATMega output line (more or less).
Maybe see if you can get the original specs of the LEDs that Moog uses, tech support should be able to furnish you with that, then find something in the Mouser catalog that best meets the specs. That might be a safe bet.
(as an aside, I have a hard time matching green and brown socks in low light in the morning; but not seeing an LED, that must be tough!)
@Fantastca: it is not a very big deal to change the white/blue/cyan LEDs of your Moogerfooger with the green/orange/red ones because all the LEDs of same type has the same current and voltage rating that depends upon the type not on the color and just make sure that you are using the same types of LEDs. Moreover, if the ratings are not same then it would affect the LEDs only not the other components of the circuit. So just go ahead and try with different LEDs.
This is not true. Different color LEDs can have different specs and careless replacement could cause other problems with a circuit.
It is possible to change any LED if you are willing to add extra circuitry and do something like use the existing LED driver voltage to control a transistor (for a case where your new output requires a higher voltage or current), a voltage divider to lower voltage, or a resistor to lower current draw, etc.