Yes, should be no problem 
First time writing a wiki entry, but there’s a first time for everthing …
None that I can think of ! I’m surprised noone else found this solution of yours before O_o
I believe I tried your method before. I used white LEDs (same ones used in mod, so 3.3v) and wanted maximum brightness, so no resistor. Voltage from the LED ended up activating the button without it being pressed (is there a term for this?).
your power supply is 3.3V or the forward voltage of the white led is 3.3V? Assuming when you’re using 5V from PCB and led with forward voltage 3.3V the resistor should be circa 90 ohm for maximum brightness (20mA).
I’ve two batteries scaled up to 5V in my circuit and I’m using 220 Ohm as led resistor to save power. Due to this I’ve roughly about 30% of the maximum brightness. My impression is that it’s bright enough, even in well-lit rooms.
So it worked fine?
Sorry, I was very vague in my previous post. I was in a bit of a hurry =P
I was using a PSX pad, so power supply is 3.3v. The LED I used has a forward voltage of 3.3v. I tried your method to do this mod (light up on press) before asking Toodles for advice. It worked, but the voltage from the LED was activating the microswitches for the buttons. So the pad was registering the buttons even though it wasn’t being pressed. This made it kind of useless, so I scrapped the idea.
Now I don’t know how tri-color leds work, but kudos to you for getting it to work.
In principle exactly like your white led. When you’re connecting the the cathode to the pad signal (assuming that here is no ground!) and there is no other connection to GND, then it should work. I can’t image that the “missing” transistor lead to such behaviour.
However, if you trying this approach again then I will happy to be on help.
hmmm quick question
From what I have read, the 5v from USB is enough to power up both the board and LED without any problem, but how about a dual PCB set up, have anyone try that? if you did, how’s the performance(is 5 v enough)?
quick question, but not easy to answer. It’s more a question about available power. USB has a standard with 100mA, but should be extendible to 500mA (depends of the implemented power management). How xbox360 (or ps3?) handle this, no clue. But let assume you’ve 500mA. Unknown constant is power consumption of your both PCB, but let’s assume 100 mA both. Then 300mA are left (hopefully) and you could lit up about 15 x 20mA Led at maximum. Reduce light intensity or number of leds to be more safe.
Has anybody informations about power consumption of xbox360 or PS3 gamepads?
sup man, i’m building my first stick and i’m reading over this thread and i got a couple of questions.
(I’m Modding a Fighting Stick 3)
I want the buttons to light up Without pressing them, just light up automatically when the stick is powered, do i still need a Hex Invertor?
-I am useing 3 buttons so R1/R2 is there to draw power?
- I wanted Green leds, all i have right now are 5mm 2.1VDC 25mA
- 1-kohm 1/8-Watt Resistors
- Component PC Board.
lol can i make anything happen?
(I have MSN so if anyone wants to help me over Msn that would be cool too )
No need for a hex inverter. Just hook it up to the 5v and ground and you’re good.
(Minimum) resistor value to reach maximum intensity is 120 ohm.
Have fun
sweet – im gonna hit up fry’s tonight and see if i cna get this done on the GF’s stick. 
dont think ill be able to do it on mine since im using a P360 
Instead of using the 5v line, you can use a battery pack. I have my stick running on 3 AA batteries and they last pretty long.
for my stick which is using the p360, i can do a battery pack?
i started doing it on the GF’s stick which uses a regular switched-joystick:
http://img262.imageshack.us/img262/7055/img0015wp6.jpg
havent finished installing all of the LEDs yet, but here’s me testing the 2 that i’ve done so far 5v super bright LEDs – they were expensive (bought 'em at Fry’s) but in the future ill just buy a big pack of 'em off eBay.
[media=youtube]XD6Vxo01ApU[/media]
Hi,
saw your video, nice led action. What kind of Leds do you use? 5mm?
It seems that the blue button has more light intensity on the left hand side of the button ring.
I’ve experienced yesterday this effect when using one 5mm led with my actual button light-up. Then I built-in two leds and the result was quite better. How do you integrate the leds in your buttons?
bencao
Yes sir. Look at the 1st or 2nd schematic on the first page. The part with the 4.5v is the battery pack.
I’ll try that so mine can light up too 
i just liked the idea of it being switchless – i know it can be done with the battery pack too, but i don’t understand the schematic for the switchless version :o
may be a retarded question; but if i want them brighter, what type of resistor should i use?
the ones i have on there now are 220. They work fine, but when i do more in the future, i might want them brighter :o
[media=youtube]aeiHjN_6l3E[/media]
depends on the type of led you use. So far I gathered the information that you use blue led. Common values for forward voltage blue leds are 2.9V. Your working voltage is 4.5V. You said that you’re using superbright leds, that means that probably 20 mA is the maximum current.
Series Resistance is then 80 Ohm. Take the 82 Ohm for maximum brightness.
I’ll have to check the ones i bought – what i know off the top of my head is they’re white LEDs, and are rated at 5v.
Kaytrim, how come your boards don’t have a diode like the schematics? Am I missing something here?