PSone LED mod - problems & flickering

If you're making a portable you probably need something to watch it on. (Unless you want to guess what's happening in the game, but I wouldn't advise that) Anyway, this forum is your "Hacking a pocket TV/screen" one-stop solution. Share your experiences and knowledge here.

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marshallh
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PSone LED mod - problems & flickering

Post by marshallh »

Ben's white LED mod for the PSone lcd screen is very popular - reduces power usage considerably. It will also reduce the life of your white LEDs also.

It started almost two years ago when my L64's LED backlight started acting up. It had Ben's LED mod, and two of the three lights were flickering slightly. Just enough to be annoying. When replaced with new ones, it was fine. And recently, the guy I sold the Multari to had noticed the same thing after he'd played it a ton.

The LEDs had deteriorated after having pulled too much current for so long. The problem stems from the wiring: Ben's mod uses one 10-ohm resistor in series with 3 LEDs which are in parallel.

This would work fine in a perfect world, but LEDs vary significantly in their tested forward voltages. You might have a few LEDs produced right next to each other in the factory, and they vary by +/- 0.1v. This voltage difference causes them to draw different amounts of current each, and some will be over-volted and other under-volted. The former will decay over time.

I've found the proper way is to use three separate resistors, one for each LED. This ensures that each LED only draws as much as they need, and no more.

There's a better explanation here:
http://www.maxim-ic.com/appnotes.cfm/an_pk/3256
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vskid
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Post by vskid »

Several LEDs in series with one correct resistor won't have this problem, correct?
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Kyo
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Post by Kyo »

Yes, you need one resistor per LED



Funny thing is, I was using the book while building my first portable, and I still got that part right (I wasn't strictly following the book)
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