My modification of Note 3 S-View case to show LED

[jpr]

As you know the Samsung S-View cover does not have a hole for the LED. I really missed this feature so I went ahead and drilled a hole for the LED in my S-view cover. Just thought I'd post to potentially help out others who may want to do the same. The key things I wanted to mention to keep in mind is that I underestimated the resistance of the case for how thin it is and the front of the case is more slippery than the inside. This did cause me to slip and put a knick in my front cover by the hole. It still turned out ok but that knick does bug me so please learn from my mistake.

I determined where to drill by turning on the LED and marking it on a paper over the screen (I cut the paper to be the exact size of the case). I then lined up the paper on both the outside and the inside front cover and marked it will a bright colored pencil on the case. I then closed the case with the led on and looked from the top to see if the led was flashing on the pencil circle I drew so that I knew it was in the right place. The front cover dot I had to estimate was in the right place but if the inside one is right and you lined up the paper properly on inside and outside, it will be.

I used a 3/32 drill bit and after I made it through the case I took the drill bit by hand and round out the hole and made it slightly bigger. So the end result is that it's just bigger than 3/32 but just under 7/64. This enables me to see the LED from an angle instead of just looking straight at the hole but if you wanted to see it from even more of an angle I would go with 7/64 and do the same about using the drill bit by hand to round it and make it slightly bigger. I then took an exacto knife and got rid of most of the leftover pieces of material hanging on the hole.

I started drilling on the inside since that is where I knew for certain the spot was correct. I then finished by drilling on the outside of the case. I did this so that the hole wouldn't push the case out on the outside but this is when I slipped with the drill. I didn't have any problem with slipping on the inside of the case so at least as far as my drill was concerned the outside was more slippery. Like I mentioned, the plastic in the middle of the case provided more resistance than I expected for such a thin little thing. The unexpected resistance and slippery material led to my mistake. So just keep in mind those two things and you should be able to avoid knicking/scratching your case like I did.

I took a close up of the front hole so you can see the result of my slip - it's the area to the lower right of the hole. I also included a pic with the LED on and a pic of the hole from the inside of the case. Overall I'm happy with it but the knicked part bugs me.

 

[ClintRo]

Great idea.... the case should come that way!


Sent from my T100TA using Tapatalk

 

[dkhmwilliams]

Great idea.... the case should come that way!


Sent from my T100TA using Tapatalk

It's surprising that it didn't initially come that way. What was Samsung thinking?

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note 3... yeah, it's spectacular!

 

[vpblaze]

Great post! I am totally going to do this. Your method is fool proof.
Thanks!

Scribbled on my Note 3 and then translated into readable words using Tapatalk

 

[vpblaze]

This might be a stupid question, but how do you get the LED light to stay on constant for you?

Scribbled on my Note 3 and then translated into readable words using Tapatalk

 

[ehosey2]

Either he snapped the photo in its lit state or you can download an application like Lightflow which provides advanced notification and LED control.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0.

 

[Spencerdl]

Thanks for the idea Jpr...I'm all over this modification.

 

[jpr]

This might be a stupid question, but how do you get the LED light to stay on constant for you?

Scribbled on my Note 3 and then translated into readable words using Tapatalk

It wasn't on constant. I took the photo when it was flashing. I do also have the paid version of Light Flow, which is one reason I really missed being able to see the LED, but I found it easy enough to do all steps I mentioned with the flashing LED. But if that is bothersome for anyone, like was mentioned, you can use Light Flow to keep it always on.

 

[Jeff Allen1]

I did the mod and it looks horrible and you can't see the light from an angle. Totally not worth the effort. Big lapse by Samsung to omit LED visibility from the design.

Samsung also missed the mark by making the window so low that it blocks the camera partially when you flip it back 360 to take pics and videos. To take full 16x9 pics and vids, you must hold the cover open 180 degrees and that makes for some very awkward and shaky output.

 

[jpr]

I did the mod and it looks horrible and you can't see the light from an angle. Totally not worth the effort. Big lapse by Samsung to omit LED visibility from the design.

Samsung also missed the mark by making the window so low that it blocks the camera partially when you flip it back 360 to take pics and videos. To take full 16x9 pics and vids, you must hold the cover open 180 degrees and that makes for some very awkward and shaky output.

I can see the light from an angle with no problem. If you can't then the hole isn't big enough or it's off center. Of course if you don't like the way it looks then I guess you wouldn't want to make it bigger anyway. I'm quite happy with mine still and would do the mod again. Mine doesn't look horrible or bad at all and I've had several people try to buy my case off me because they liked it so much.