[mythtv-users] MythLED Picture

[Dan Fitzpatrick]

I've been working on a similar project on my myth box as well.  My case 
(Silverstone LC03V) has 2 blue LEDs on the front, one for power, the 
other for HD activity.  I do have a VFD that works with LCDproc, but 
I've been having mixed results with the display and random errors.  Plus 
the display can not be red from a large distance or at a glance.  What 
I've done is replaced the HD LED with an RGB LED from a local surplus 
shop.  The HD LED line on the MB is hooked up to the blue chip and red 
chip is hooked up to RTS.  The effect is when RTS is high the LED is red 
with an occasional flicker of purple on HD activity.  When the RTS line 
is low it the HD light simply flashes blue for normal hard drive 
activity.  For now this will suffice.  The program I'm using right now 
has no ability to detect if a tuner is recording since I'm still playing 
around with the functionality.

Eventually I'd like to use a small microcontroller to control all 3 
colors of the LED and use input lines on the controller to connect to 
various connections on the motherboard.  A true serial interface to the 
controller would give more flexibility.  One though would be a "mood" 
LED.  Say various different colors to represent different things.  Say 
amber when the recorder is about to record something in say 15 minutes.  
Red being record.

On a side note, this could also be a system status indicator.  Maybe use 
the power indicator to represent the load or some other status.  Blue 
being the lowest indication and fading to other colors to indicate 
higher load or activity or even temperature with red purple or even 
white representing a critical condition.

Just a thought for now.

Dan.