Ransai uses buttons that do come with an illumination feature but a bulb is not present. The socket type is 194/168 which come in a wide range of bulbs from your simple 12-volt to very cool colored LED's. Bulbs have a few disadvantage to LED's because they burn out very quick and have low level output. An LED's lamp life is mind boggling and you may never have to replace them. The brightness is fantastic about triple the output of a bulb. SuperBrightLEDS.com offers a wide variety of LED's that you can add to any project. I picked up eleven four head LED's that mimicked the same colors as the PNM buttons (4 white, 2 blue, green, yellow and one red). This specific model number is WLED-W4(subsistute the W with a different color). They are rated at 12-volts. Be careful you might be tempted to pick up the six head LED's. They are brighter (two extra LED heads) but the housing will not fit through the button entry when you replace the micro switch.
Wiring is simple I used 16-22 gauge female quick disconnects instead of soldering. Why? It only takes 5 minutes and makes removing the buttons easier in case you need to change something down the road. Take your bulb holders and wire them in parallel. This means that all sockets will share a ground and 12-volt power wire. If one of the bulbs go out the others will remain lit. To wire in parallel each socket should have 2 wires on each connector (2 on the ground, 2 on the 12-volt) except for the last one on the "chain" which terminates the electrical flow. Take the extra ground and 12-volt wire and "bounce" it to the next, then the next. Do the same with the power. I don't want to confuse anyone but it's really easy because you don't have to determine the polarity since the bulbs are reversible. You really can't mess it up because one way works the other doesn't.
Ever wonder how to power a computer power supply without plugging it into a motherboard? I'll explain how to run all 5-volt and 12-volt projects this way it's really simple:
First, make sure your Power supply is unplugged! Take a wire and cut off about two inches of it. Strip and twist both ends and bend it into a 'U' shape:
There are twenty colored wires terminating into a molex that connects to your motherboard, we are interested in the green wire and any BLACK wire. The GREEN wire is usually pin 14 (look at your manuel if you are not sure). We can use any BLACK wire to complete the connection To make it simple just use the black wire next to the green.
Take the wire and put one end into the GREEN wire connection. Then take the other end and push it into the BLACK wire connection. Check to see if your connection is good. You may want to electrical tape or solder the wire into place so it stays in. I suggest NOT plugging in any devices to any power molex coming off this power supply until you first plug it in and flick the power switch, if the power supply fan is running, you may turn if off and connect your devices. Wah la you just turned a power supply into a really good electrical supply good for many uses.
Pictures speak louder then words:
