VanguardLH wrote:
T. Ment wrote:

My computer case green led failed. I bought some on Ebay, but they are
so bright they light up the room and obscure the other color leds.

Any suggestions for a cheap source of low intensity leds in a 3mm size?
Maybe Mouser, but then $1 worth of parts costs $10 to ship. If I have to
spend that much to fix it, I'll just live without a power led.

Can you add a resistor or something to change the brightness?

You could go through what Paul mentions. Just remember to get some
heatshrink tubing to slide onto the wire, solder the resistor to the
cable wire, slide up the tubing, and heat to coat the bare wires.

Another possibly is scotch tape which is a bit frosted. I don't know
the LED you have fit into the holder in the case. You might be able to
layer a dozen pieces of scotch tape, trim it off using an exacto blade
to match the diameter of the LED's face, and check it still snaps into
the case holder. Else, you could buy some self-stick rubber feet that
are translucent and stick them over the LED opening in the case. The
idea is to attenuate the output via diffusion rather than via voltage
change.

There might be a grommet or LED holder in the case,
to hold the LED in place. The Polyolefin tubing
is still a good idea, to make a neat job of insulating.
There aren't many tape products I trust for any long
term stability, and I'd much rather use tubing,
and slide it down into place after some soldering
is done.

The tubing diameter should be about 2x the size of the
solder joint (which would be a bit bigger than the
wires being soldered). Then, when you apply a bit
of hot air from the soldering iron tip (the air
stream off the tip), that can be enough to shrink
the tubing.

Paul