Raspberry Pi Forums

Hi Guys, I have a very basic question that I cannot get answer for by googling the internet – did try for a day but schematics I found are for RPI2, maybe you can help.

I would like to have an network indication light on the front of my enclosure and I am trying to find pins underneath Ethernet jack of my Raspberry Pi 3 v2.3 that are responsible for flashing LED of network activity inside of the Ethernet jack. I am not looking for any GPIO solutions – I just want to solder two wires to match blinking light from the Ethernet jack at the front of the RPI

Spuriously enough two pins that I thought are connected to the LED are not or at list when I connect wires with LED to (see attached picture) nothing is happening LED is not flashing as the one inside Ethernet jack does.

Anyone can help?
Just modify attached picture pointing where to solder a wires if you know.

<a href="https://dell.box.com/s/nc8b5vv81romxom2 ... >schematic </a>

The RJ45 LED's are the 2 pins directly below each LED at test point PP22 for the Green link LED and PP23 for the 10/100 speed LED.

Per the old B schematic the LEDs' are wired as Active Low.

[3V3]---[LED]---[PP22]---[Resistor R41]----[LAN Chip pin 21] (Link)

[3V3]---[LED]---[PP23]---[Resistor R44]----[LAN Chip pin 22] (10/100)


Unfortunately what you want to do is not really feasible because of the in line resistor R41 (Link) and R44 (10/100).
You would need to remove the LED from the RJ45 and find an LED that works with the existing resistor.
-Or-
Remove the resistor and solder a wire to the 1 resistor pad closest to the LAN chip and the other wire to any 3V3 ...... leading to your own LED and external resistor.

You might also look into using 'light pipe' instead.

Just for information.

I posted a solution about use the on board green ACT LED as a network indicator: viewtopic.php?f=63&t=171357

Change the line LED_ON_INTERFACE="wlan0" to eth0 for Ethernet.

I don't know if you could replace that ACT LED. Just for information anyway.

It would blink differently than the Ethernet jacket LED. You could adjust it with parameter.

allfox wrote:Just for information.

I posted a solution about use the on board green ACT LED as a network indicator: viewtopic.php?f=63&t=171357

Change the line LED_ON_INTERFACE="wlan0" to eth0 for Ethernet.

I don't know if you could replace that ACT LED. Just for information anyway.

It would blink differently than the Ethernet jacket LED. You could adjust it with parameter.

Interesting. I wonder if that would work with the option to redefine the GPIO that the ACT LED uses so you could have an external LED?

rpdom wrote:I wonder if that would work with the option to redefine the GPIO that the ACT LED uses so you could have an external LED?

I didn't know those LED could redirect to GPIO. It sounds worth a try.