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Those look nice! Where do you buy pink LEDs?
Categories: Robot Hacks and Mods
Just changed out Femisapien's wrist LEDs with some pink ones. She looks good! I thought the red ones didn't really suit her, and looked a little plain. And replacing the LEDs is a pretty easy mod. 
Everyone likes a pictures, so here you are!
Notes to others thinking of doing this:
You can take her wrists apart by removing the screws in her arms as well. They can then be gently spread to release the wrists one half at a time. This means you don't have to take off her panties and break her completely down.
You can gently slide down the heatshrink insulating the leads on the LED. Then once the new ones are installed you can slide it back up in place, provided you soldered neatly.
The LEDs in her are those odd backward ones (The lead with the reflector attached is the positive lead, not the negative), so follow the wiring colors. Black stripe indicates negative.
There are THREE sizes of screw, a large size in her wrist, and two smaller sizes in her arm.
The little bit that falls out is the clutch for her wrist. There is a little square there that holds it on the wiring side. (Took me a minute to figure out where that had come from.)
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April 22, 2009 2:04 AM
I got them from eBay, of course. Actually I'm ashamed to admit I've already changed them out again! See I ordered one set of 5,000 mfd pink LEDs, then I saw a different set, and they said they were twice as bright (10,000 mfd) and they looked more "pink" to me, so I ordered them too. Then the 10,000 mfd ones arrived first, so I just stuck them in. Well, wouldn't you know it, the 5,000 mfd ones came today, and they are at least twice as bright! So much for honesty in specs.
The brighter LEDs are actually a little less pink I would say, but they are ridiculously bright. They are more of a white + extra red = pink, whereas the others are slightly more of a red + blue = magenta pink.
If you search eBay for "25 pc 3mm Pink LED 5000 MCD + Free resistors" you should find the brighter ones I got. Make sure you check "Worldwide" and "Buy It Now". They are incredibly cheap, like less than $5.oo, including postage.
I also have loads of extra pink LEDs. It's probably not worth the postage, but anyone who wants a few can have them. Problem is I'm in Australia, so not sure if people overseas can send me a self-addressed, stamped envelope. The stamps wouldn't be of much value to Australia Post I'm thinking. If anyone has any ideas, I'm open.
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April 22, 2009 2:47 AM
Just had to take a photo of the brighter pink LEDs:
They don't look too different in a photo, as you can see, but they are significantly brighter in real life.
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April 23, 2009 11:58 AM
This is really cool, great project!! I'd really like to see an article with a tutorial on how to build this hack!
April 23, 2009 1:31 PM
updated: April 23, 2009 1:34 PM
Glad to see another Femisapien mod!
I think that red wrist LEDs are just remnants of her pre-release white/red/black color style, like this:
But I prefer, and made my wrist LED replacement mod with a violet/ultraviolet LEDs. As for me, they suit her white/silver/violet color styling better.
In fact my mod is more complex to do, as I replaced 3mm red LEDs with 5mm Violet/UV LEDs (could not find 3mm violet ones) and replaced original wrist LED lenses with self-made from transparent plasic buttons (I mean cloth furniture) ones. It gives me pleasant violet color, more brightness and more even lens illumination (personally, I don't like as her original wrist lenses illuminated). But that requires much more work. One have to find LEDs and sutable transparent plastic buttons, then some careful work with small file, fine sandpaper and polishing paste required to fit the buttons to wrist holes and the LEDs to the buttons, than glueing the buttons to the (only one half of) the wrists from inside (I used cyanoacrilate "superglue"), then glueing the LEDs with generic hotglue.
Sorry, no photos as my Femi is dismantled for now. Maybe, later...
April 24, 2009 6:28 AM
updated: April 24, 2009 6:34 AM
while planning an "MCU-mod", i was thinking of installing RGB leds, if there will be some free ports for them. but im not sure if i really want rgb led in her wrist)... anyway, i think that blue/violet is better suit her.
BTW, it is even worth try to install some photoelement, to detect, for example, if you hold her hand, or if she is standing near something...+2 sensors.
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April 24, 2009 7:25 PM
updated: April 24, 2009 7:26 PM
Just an update to my previous post. I've had one of the brighter pink LEDs I used plugged into a breadboard (prototyping board) on my desk for the last few days. It’s been on all day every day, and I just noticed this morning that it now looks less pink to me. Crosschecking with a fresh one shows it is now brighter again, but definitely less pink! I have had one of the other (supposedly 10,000 mcd) LEDs running in series with it (and therefore receiving the exact same current), and it still looks strongly pink.
I thought it was odd these cheaper LEDs looked red when you looked down the lens at the chip. Well, this one looks less red inside now. I think internally they just put a red filter over a white LED, and over time the red tint is "burning off". I have not been overdriving it either, running it at less than 20mA. I don’t know if they would ever fade in Femisapien, but it may be best to avoid them.
Maybe I'll change them out again soon, this time taking photos for a tutorial. You can find the LEDs that seem to be holding up under my testing by searching eBay for “50p 3mm SUPER BRIGHT PINK LED LAMP 10Kmcd FREE SHIP”. Or search for others of course, I can only tell of my experience.
April 25, 2009 4:26 PM
I was looking through my assortment of LEDs I got from the Electronic Goldmine and found ONE pink LED! Though when given 6V power, it glows red. Put in a 100K resister (I think it was) and it still glows red. So that one had a pink lens but was red light. Was interesting to figure out though.
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April 25, 2009 6:26 PM
TikaC, the encapsulation on both types of pink LEDs I got is clear. So if you have some clear LEDs in your collection, you might want to try them out to see if any light up pink.
Redstorm, re RGB LEDs, I thought about getting some of the RGB flashing LEDs! In the past these required being driven from a voltage source, but I can see there are 3mm ones on eBay that can just replace normal LEDs, except that they flash many different colors instead. It would be great if they worked well in Femisapien. She could be a real party girl, with rainbow flashing wrists as she danced.
April 25, 2009 7:49 PM
Well, the assortment package I got didn't have any clear encapsulated LEDs. The only LEDs in my collection that are clear are the blue ones I ordered for Mackie (I'm thinking of changing some of them to blue).
Oh well, There's always ebay. :)
April 27, 2009 4:44 AM
> She could be a real party girl, with rainbow flashing wrists as she danced.
hehe, you just really like reading my thoughts :) but, i decided now to concentrate on low level functions, like reading vr's angles and controlling directly motor driver. so, as i posted higher, im also thinking of possibility of adding an optocouple to use her wrist led places as sensors.
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April 27, 2009 11:46 PM
Yes Redstorm, what you are saying is definitely more exciting, although too much for my skill. I'm happy to follow in replacing the mainboard though, just tell me what to do when you get there!
I think someone also needs to create a set of eyes for her. Maybe something out of plastic that we can plug a couple 3mm LEDs into like her wrist lights. I would definitely pay for a set of plastic eyes I could fix in place with one of the pre-existing screws in her head, and then plug my own LEDs into.
I have written a small tutorial on replacing the LEDs in her wrists. Pete tells me he'll put it up on the site sometime soon.
The LEDs I happen to find on eBay were listed as "50 PCS 3mm 6Kmcd Fast Flashing MultiColor RGB LED F/R". The stated specs are:
Emitting Colour: Color Flashing Fast (1-2 second) in RED/GREEN/BLUE
LENS Type:Water clear
Luminous Intensity-MCD: Min: 4000mcd Max: 6000 mcd
Reverse Voltage:5.0 V
DC Forward Voltage: Typical: 3.4 V Max: 3.8V
DC Forward Current:20mA
Viewing Angle:20±10 degree
Lead Soldering Temp:260°C for 5 seconds
Intensely Bright
As you can see, the voltage and current ratings suggest we should be able to do a clean swap with Femisapien's wrist LEDs. The colors on the page also suggest that at the very least the pure color combinations are also flashed though (red, green, blue, magenta, yellow, cyan and white type of thing).
April 28, 2009 5:42 PM
as for eyes, i was looking for some kind of compact pixel led arrays to enable displaying some "anime" styled smiles like "^ ^" "- -" "O o", and so on)))
but at now without success - for the smallest one i've been ever found is too little space availible ...
April 29, 2009 1:01 PM
Thats a good one redstorm, I'm looking for those too now. Lets post if you find any even the size for RSV2 or Media. Very cool idea
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April 30, 2009 1:09 AM
My light-mod tutorial is now up, check the home page. I have also uploaded it in its original form to:
http://www.pollensoftware.com/femisapien/index.htm
Where you can also find the remote map I made.
April 30, 2009 3:12 AM
Here
http://www.robocommunity.com/forum/thread/14526/Femisapien-mods-Let-s-the-fun-begin/
is my approach to FS eyes idea. Not capable of displaying emoticons, but at least with brightness, varying in sync with her "speech".
As for such a radical mods like replacing her comtroller, I also have not enough skill to be a pioneer, but if someone (redstorm?) will do and describe "how to", I will follow (providing, no expensive and/or hard to find chips and special hardware like chip programmers required).
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April 30, 2009 7:33 PM
Shai Alyt NEMO your eyes are brilliant, but that takes special LEDs, and black hot melt glue, both of which I don't have. I also like the idea of someone more artistic than me creating a great set of eyes, and then sharing that art with me. 
November 27, 2009 9:32 PM
I'm working up some ideas for modding mine when it arrives. One thing I wish I could do is scavenge the tiny dot-matrix blue OLED from an old mp3 player I own (~17x13mm, not sure if it's small enough, even, since I don't have the robot yet). I've built little usb robots before, I'm not sure how to 'drive' a display yet. I'd love to swap the motherboard with something more programmable, possibly even bluetooth.
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