Femisapien Wrist LED Hack: Turn Them Any Color You Like (Page 1 of 3)
Categories: Robot Hacks and Mods Femisapien
I found Femisapien's red wrist lights didn't quite suit her, so I decided to replace the LEDs with something a little more fashionable. I decided on pink LEDs, as they are still quite unique, as well as being feminine. This tutorial will take you though the process of replacing the LEDs, including something on LED selection and purchase tips. As a standard disclaimer, I'll say you modify your robot at your own risk of course, and you should not attempt anything you do not think you can handle. I think most will find replacing Femisapien’s wrist LEDs a relatively easy job though, provided you have a soldering iron. Hopefully this step-by-step helps others thinking of making the LED swap. This mod is also relatively simple, and if you ever don't like the result then you should be able to swap them back easily enough.
Step 1: Purchase LED's for Femisapien's Wrists
First you need to get your LEDs. You don't have to go with pink either, you can get many different colors incredibly cheaply on eBay. What you want is high brightness 3mm LEDs. There are some things to note with LEDs, including that not all LEDs are created equal, especially pink ones, as I've found!
LED's fresh from Hong Kong, via eBay.

LEDs fresh from the packet. Ultra-bright LEDs almost always have a clear lens, but these ones here will light up pink. These ones also came with resistors, but you won't need them, so don't worry if yours don't.

Femisapien's ready for her operation, showing us the seven screws in her wrist and arm. Three different screw sizes are used, so be careful not to mix them up.
Step 2: Disassemble Femisapien's Wrist
First, undo all four screws on the arm, and all three screws on her wrist. Note that there are three separate screw sizes. The screws used in the wrist are slightly bigger than the larger screws used in her arm. Once you have all the screws out, gently spread her wrist apart. I found it helped to slightly squash the shell sideways, squeezing on the seams to pop the two halves apart. This should spread them enough for you to get a fingernail in to complete the job. You then want to take each half out of the arm separately. You need to do it this way because there is a rod that extends down into her wrist from her arm. The end of this rod has a plastic wheel on it that is trapped in the wrist until you spread the halves.
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