Troubleshooting no board LED (Only MagJack LED) (*SOLVED*)

[rm357]

Glad you got it going.

[Jeffl]

The board LED still has never lit up on me, so I'm curious as to what should cause it to light up... but irregardless it is working properly now. Thank you for your time, and I apologize for wasting it.

I think you checked the polarity, but double check its in the correct way.  I think the round side is positive (double check this).

The other thing is I would check your solder joints.  From the picture on top it doesn't look like the solder is flowing through like I would think it should.

The cat5 jack shows you have power so in the end if the LED does not work it probably doesn't matter.

Enjoy the lights.

We just received an inch of snow so I'm not real excited.

[Dennis Cherry]

The board LED still has never lit up on me, so I'm curious as to what should cause it to light up... but irregardless it is working properly now. Thank you for your time, and I apologize for wasting it.

When installing LED's on a board you must take care as they do not like to be mishandled.

1. Do not bend or spread the LED leads without holding the leads with needle nose pliers between the bend and the LED base..

2. Do not push the LED down flush with the board, you will see a couple of tabs about 1/4" from the base of the LED. This is where you should stop. Sometimes the hole spacing in PCB's are not spaced correctly for the LED leads to insert and put a stress on the LED junction, then you might have a failure.

3. HEAT: LED's cannot take a lot of heat while soldering, especially if the leads are stressed in the holes, the heat will then break the internal junctions of the LED. You need to have enough lead (1/4") between the solder joint and the LED base to keep the heat from traveling to the LED junction.

This is from my 40+ years of soldering.

[c4v3man]

There's no multi-quote button, so I'll do my best to answer the questions/comments. Thanks again for all the help.

1. Yes, I checked the polarity with a multi-meter. Since it lit up using the multi-meter, I would assume...
2. That the LED was not burnt out/bent improlerly/overheated/?
3. I did notice the tab/flat spots in the LED's. I haven't had any problem with any of my LE's LED's being installed all the way down, but I'll take any advice I can to avoid problems in the future, so thanks!
4. I seem to use too little solder it appears... I just try to solder to the point where I get a good joint on the surface I'm looking at, where's it ramps up nicely to the component from the pad on the board and covers the pad completely, and results in a shiny joint. I'll try to use a bit more solder in the future.

[caretaker]

Glad you got it working and we have one more item to add to the "test this before you panic" list.  While I have a rather expensive cat5/6 cable tester there are several available for reasonable prices and would not be a bad tool to add to the tool box for anyone running lots of cables.  Sears has one for $30
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[c4v3man]

Glad you got it working and we have one more item to add to the "test this before you panic" list.  While I have a rather expensive cat5/6 cable tester there are several available for reasonable prices and would not be a bad tool to add to the tool box for anyone running lots of cables.  Sears has one for $30
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I have access to one at work, I just rarely ever run into a bad new cable... It's hardly even worth fixing. I think this one came with a router that was unused...

The cable's just for testing... going to have to make my own cables for the actual installation.

[caretaker]

Glad you got it working and we have one more item to add to the "test this before you panic" list.  While I have a rather expensive cat5/6 cable tester there are several available for reasonable prices and would not be a bad tool to add to the tool box for anyone running lots of cables.  Sears has one for $30
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login

I have access to one at work, I just rarely ever run into a bad new cable... It's hardly even worth fixing. I think this one came with a router that was unused...

The cable's just for testing... going to have to make my own cables for the actual installation.

My reply wasn't to you specifically it's good you have access to a tester. I have had quite a few brand new patch cables come up bad in the last few months so now I don't trust any of them.