How to Add a Power LED to Your Raspberry Pi Project!

[@jeffcarpenter7721]

off the gate hes right. soldering is one of the most important skills ive gained learning while doing

[@Howchoo]

Agreed!

[@ScottTreaster]

Neat! Thanks for this. @2:31 If your leads are long enough, instead of cutting them so close to the one end and discarding those female connectors, you could cut the wires in the middle. That way you could make two sets of these or at least reuse the remaining ends for another project - like maybe your related power switch build.

[@Howchoo]

Ooh great tip, thanks!

[@paulhowarth865]

Good info, thankyou - point to note viewers - 3mm led 330 ohm, 5mm led 100 ohm, different forward voltage between both components

[@chiranthnandi245]

Hey! How about a tutorial on how to build a Raspberry Pi touchscreen tablet? 😄 Looking forward for one 🤩

[@BrianThomas]

I love love love your videos. I've just discovered your channel and you've already saved me a ton of time in making some projects really simple to do. Question. I'd like to add a display screen to my raspberry pi that will show me available connected HDD storage, CPU usage, and Network utilization. Would you happen to have a video tutorial on this at all? Keep up the great work and thank you for your help.

[@craig_bacon]

Hi, question. If I am building this with the LED built in button, do I still need to use a resistor? Or should the button already have that built into it?

[@steffjay6837]

The button does not need a resistor. However, the LED requires at least 330K ohm on the Anode + side.

[@almirstorck]

Thank you very much for these instructions. I´ve just installed the LED and power button (like other video) and everything is working fine!. Just one comment: instead of editing the config.txt file in the computer (take it from the pi, open in computer, edit, back to pi, restart......) I used de nano editor directly on ssh interface using Putty. I bit more smarter.... Anyway... nice video.

[@zk_6312]

Nice project though every time I have tried to solder those pre-assembled jumper wires, they won't take solder. I'll have to try it again.

[@hford80]

Does anyone know of a specific power button with LED that will fit in the Flirc case? I don't want to purchase multiple buttons before I find one that fits? Thanks in advance!

[@billpinson2733]

You mention a premade LED assembly. Can you tell me where I can get them please?

[@ToPProjectsCompilation]

Your projects are amazing. We want to feature your projects on our channel (with proper credits to your channel). If it sounds good then kindly reply.

[@Jesse-wm6sz]

Your instruction videos area really easy to follow. Can I make a request? I saw bunch of videos showing how to attach a fan to raspberry pi, but none of them shown if a fan can be powered and turned on/off using just the GPIO. The idea is that RPi are really small, and you want to keep it that way. Adding an external power source just to power up a fan for me is a no no. :-)

[@angst_]

Not sure if you're still curious about this: In short, the gpio pins of the Pi aren't rated to source enough current to power a fan directly. The most typical way to avoid this is to power the fan from whatever power supply you're using for the Pi. This is a little annoying, because if you're powering the PI through usb there is no easy way to tap into that power. The next most common way would be to power the fan from the 5v and gnd pins on the gpio header. I'm not 100% sure, but google tells me that as long as your fan + Pi don't draw more than your power supply then you're okay. Both of these options don't allow you to control the fan at all. To control the fan you'd need to use a transistor/mosfet/relay. The Pi output pin would turn on the transistor and the transistor would provide power to the fan (from the Pi's 5v pin.)

[@Jesse-wm6sz]

@@angst_ Appreaciate your response, I found a way to power my fan via GPIO and controll it too using a python script that is running as a cronjob. :)

[@Bull333t]

I've made this, it was working for a while. Now it turns on when I power on the pie but after a couple seconds it turns off. Any ideas why that happens?

[@mindcraft4043]

Hi I had the same problem, then I realised that I had the "Fan" option in setting enabled which is by default connected to the same pin (pin 8/GPIO 14) as the LED. Then I switched it off and everything was back to normal. To disable this setting go to: Menu>Preferences>Raspberry Pi Configuration>Performance and select "Disable" for the Fan option.

[@simoneilenberger3421]

Wondering about the LED project in addition to the power button... In fact i would (on pressing the button) shorten 3 gpio pins, is that correct? (Meaning Pin 3, 6, 8 as 3-6 = power button and 6-8 = LED) Does that work with the pi or will it do any damage?

[@Howchoo]

Sorry I missed this! So are you looking to use both a power status LED and the power button on the same Pi? If so, just follow each guide and things will work just fine as-is (just make sure you use a different ground pin for each). Or are you trying to illuminate an LED when a button is pressed or something?

[@randominventions3005]

How can I add a fan and use the power button at same time because if I plug a fan in the power button won’t work?

[@datthdoner]

Same here I've a fan, a button and the led connected and now it seems that the button doesn't work anymore. Maybe not enough voltage...

[@bra1nsen]

i connected the led to pin 4 and 6 (5V and GRND) - is there any linux command for turning off led / turning off pin 4?

[@datthdoner]

I tried this and the led ist glowing. After first try the led got dark while shutdown. Now it was still on? Also my shutdownbutton isn't working anymore. Could this be a wrong resistor?

[@LuckyMellowDanny]

Using retropie. The LED turns on for a second when I turn it on, but goes off very quickly.

[@owendeweese6389]

Hi! I have a question similar to Simon’s. I would like to know how to connect both the LED and the power switch. I already have it all, just would like to know which GPIO pins to connect each into.

[@owendeweese6389]

Well, after rewatching your video, I saw that you could just swap pin 6 for a different ground pin. Sorry! I’m very new

[@Howchoo]

Hey! So just follow the pinouts mentioned in each video (or guide). Just choose a different ground pin for each of them. You can identify grounds here: pinout.xyz/ Let me know if that’s clear enough.

[@owendeweese6389]

howchoo I got it, thank you!! I’m definitely getting somewhere with the buttons i bought from you guys.

[@Howchoo]

Awesome! Let me know if you have any other questions.

[@MissHashshashin]

Bit of an odd question but Im planning on a case project for a pi 3 that I want to work on and was wondering if you could give some advice for one of the parts of it. Now the idea its self is not too original as I intend to fit it into a sonic mania plus collectors edition statue which while it has been done by others I cant seem to find any guides (at least in english) as to how to set up one of the features. so with the statue normally it is powered by 2 AA batteries which powers a speaker which says SEGA and can also power an LED when the power switch is turned on. The thing I want to do is have them run off of the PI and have it so the speaker plays the audio clip when the PI is turned on and the LED is on while the PI is on. Hopefully you can provide some ideas and if need be I can send pictures of the insides of the statue if it would help. Many thanks.

[@Howchoo]

Sounds like a cool project. You’ll need to research the following: 1. How to connect an external speaker and tiny amp to the Pi 2. How to play an audio clip on the Pi through this speaker from a Python script 3. How to run this script on startup. The end result there is when your Pi boots, it plays that sound clip. Does that make sense?

[@jacklyno]

my standard LED (20mA drawing 3.2V max) is very dim - even when reducing transistor to 47ohm. Does anyone know how to make it brighter?

[@SergioAAV]

Is there a way to make the LED turn off when it's safe to unplug the power cable? I noticed that when I shut down the Pi, the LED that indicates activity in the SD card still blinks for 5 seconds before it goes completely off.

[@Howchoo]

Ah, you answered your own question-the LED DOES turn off when it’s safe to unplug. :) It still blinks for 5 seconds because it’s reading the console output (text) from the shutdown command. So while it’s blinking it’s still shutting down.

[@patrickmaguire874]

@@Howchoo Is there a reason why the shutdown sequence would take much longer than 5 seconds? Mine appears to successfully shut down (using the button and script from your power button tutorial) but it takes closer to 5 minutes for the LED to turn off and the button to become functional again.

[@lucafarinelli]

Same issue here: the LED I installed turns off, however the greed LED on the Pi (that indicates SD card activity) blinks for a few more seconds

[@RelihSchneider]

why you put resistor on black wire (negative)? i see in others projects they use resistor on red wire(positive)

[@jp-hd4ge]

It does not matter at all. But on the red is more common

[@milanvlemincx1690]

i can't do this project because i can't add the comment into the code. My computer says that i can only read the document.

[@CanuckHam]

would this mean you can no longer use the serial data gpios ?

[@Howchoo]

It shouldn’t-the LED just reading serial output. You could split another wire in and continue reading serial output for another application.

[@raspberryarcadebolivia1460]

Don't work in batocera raspberry 😣

[@claycote7911]

If the Raspberry is sending 5 volts and the LED has a voltage of 2 volts then the resistance, when I calculate it is 150 ohm then why use a 330 ohm resistor?

[@jp-hd4ge]

Because there is no need to make the led really bright. It's only an indicator

[@stevenrocks1991]

Howchoo can you message me? I have an idea I need your help with

[@maurodriguezs]

I couldn’t find a 330 ohm resistor. I have a couple of 220 ohm. Can you use 220 instead of 330? Or perhaps chain 2 220s to get 440 ohms. Which would be better?

[@brucebarrett1273]

440 ohms is safer, but the LED may be a bit dimmer. May not even be noticeable.