LED to mount securely in little space (< 5mm)

ledmechanicalmechanical-assemblymount

The picture shows a 2mm wooden board, 4.63mm deep and 9.86mm wide. Below the board there is 3mm clearance for wires. Above the board, there is 5mm of free "air space". Behind the wooden board is a 2×7mm aluminum plate. The board is suspended on the left and right (cut off for visualization) by 3mm aluminum plates.

I would like to mount an LED somewhere on the board or the aluminum plate behind. I could also mill into the suspending aluminum on the left side, if that helps with mounting.

What is a good mounting option?

Already, I looked at the Mouser EU catalog, but close to 40,000 LED products is overwhelming, and unfortunately for many products pictures are bad or missing. I was thinking about a classic dome shaped through-hole LED, but I don't think I can securely fasten this. It should be safe to touch.

Nice to have, but not mandatory:

  • Multi-color LED, e.g. an RGB one.

  • Replaceable LED.

Brightness should be that of a typical keyboard status LED, i.e. not super bright.

3D illustration

Best Answer

I'd suggest a surface mount LED and some glue. They are available in sizes from almost-to-small-to-see up to huge-enough-to-be-used-for-a-car-brake-light. Also available in any color you want. Here are some smaller varieties:

SMT LEDs

You might attach small wires directly to the LED, or attach the LED to a small PCB and attach wires in turn to that. Or, you might make a one-off PCB with some copper-clad board and a razor blade. Depends on where you want the wires, and what your production methods are, I suppose.

Another possibility is to mount the LED behind the panel, and bring the light through the panel with a hole or a lightpipe. See this page from the Mouser catalog for some ideas.

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There are also square LEDs that will fit in that space nicely, which could be mounted simply by cutting the right sized hole. Then either glue it in place, or stick some perfboard on the backside of your panel, and solder the LED to that to hold it in place. If you must have a replaceable LED, you could probably find a way to mount a header behind the panel, and shove the LED leads into it, and friction will be enough to retain the LED if you don't have extreme vibration.

square LEDs