Ring Of Light: Inverting Colours Options

[RDC]

Can someone show me how to cut traces or give me a link that shows me how I can do it because I've never cut traces before so I don't know how to do it. I googled it but just got pictures of traces and things that had nothing to with traces.

There's no need to cut the traces, look HERE, unless you have one of the newer RF boards that doesn't have the R3, R4, R21 and R22 Resistors in place.

There's not much to cutting a trace, ya just cut it, what ya need to worry about is cutting other things besides the trace ya want to cut. Best way to do it is to use a good sharp X-acto knife and make a small V shaped cut around 0.5mm wide or so by just pushing the blade thru the trace. That way you're not trying to slice thru the trace which is where a slip can happen and a big mess made of the board.

This post has been edited by RDC: Oct 18 2007, 02:11 AM

[gsmokez]

O thanks. So you literally cut it? I would like to avoid any desoldering cause im horrible at that stuff so that's why I wanted to go with cutting the traces. So how do I know that I've gone deep enough into the traces?

[RDC]

There isn't much to removing those tiny Resistors, just cover the whole thing in solder and 'wipe' it off the board with the tip of the iron, bout as neat and clean as ya can do it without having a Hot Air Rework setup.

You'll know the trace is cut when you can see the board under the trace, use a good magnifying glass during the whole procedure. That's why you make the cut in a V, what you're doing is going into the board thru the trace from 2 angles. The top of the V are the 2 cuts that are 0.5mm apart or so, and the tip of the V will be into the actual board, so you're taking a tiny 'chunk' out of the board there and the trace comes with it. The actual trace is thinner than paper, so the V cut doesn't have to be very deep at all.

It's still far easier and cleaner to remove the Resistors by just covering them in solder and using the tip to wipe them away, but use what ever method you're more comfortable with and I recommend ya practice both on some other board with SMT parts and small traces that are close together so ya get the actual 'feel' of doing both before laying the iron or blade to your RF board.

[gsmokez]

yeah i guess thats the best idea. I'll just practice desoldering and cutting traces and go with whichever one I'm better at. Thanks for your help.

[SphtKr76]

This is another great tut from some very smart guys! Thanks


Warning to beginners, the solder points on this are very, very small. They make d0 look like the grand canyon, IMO.

[Dizzan]

hey, sorry to bring up an old post... any maybe you already covered this... but how do you change the color of the power symbol in the middle of the button? It would look kinda silly with a red ROL and a green power symbol.

nice find though!

[adrian089]

hey, sorry to bring up an old post... any maybe you already covered this... but how do you change the color of the power symbol in the middle of the button? It would look kinda silly with a red ROL and a green power symbol.

nice find though!

I'm curious about this as well, i recently inverted my ring of light colors and forgot about the middle light and i want to make it red, so how do i remove the middle led and what kind of led do i replace it with, and do i need a resistor or anything?

[tlamb]

you would need a new led, as the one in the middle is not bi-colored you can clearly see that in this pic

you would need to get a 0603 sm led (from llamma.com for example) to change the center.

instead of buying just one... i have a duox 2 gs that has a red sm led on it and i think im gonna try to use that for the led. ill post back w/ the results if anyone cares how it goes.

[adrian089]

nvm found the tut http://diy.sickmods.net/Tutorials/Xbox360/...ED_Replacement/

[B3nkill]

i seem to have found an easy solderless solution

heehee i took fine and thin wire(actually wire from a wire) and poked it through the holes that are located on the same strip on:

tp6 and tp7

tp8 and tp11

if you cant see the holes just hold it upto a light

and this will only get you amber not red so if you want red then take a razor and cut the legs of the LEDs but im fine with amber so Gnight

[scuba156]

there amber becasue the green and red LED's are on at the same time

[WisePitfighter]

Well, this was my first time soldering ANYTHING and it worked like a charm.
I'd highly recommend using the second method.

Also, if you don't have a way to keep the wire in place while you solder it, tape works great.

[xnightfallx]

ty so much i did the guide about the holes worked great

[Mr_Clean]

hate to bring up an old post, but if i have a newer RF board with out the four SM resistors, can i use these points?

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f320/RDC...oLInvertAlt.jpg

[RDC]

hate to bring up an old post, but if i have a newer RF board with out the four SM resistors, can i use these points?

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f320/RDC...oLInvertAlt.jpg

On that newer version board they just ran the trace instead of having the Resistor there, so you can still use all the same spots, but you'll have to cut the traces where those 4 Resistor used to be installed because they're not there to remove.