DNS-323 NAS Hard Disk STATUS LED Replacement

The DNS-323 NAS Network Attached Storage unit is a marvelous DLINK peripheral that continues to be useful more than a decade after the device was discontinued. The original left and right DRIVE LEDs signaled proper HDD activity (Blue) and HDD Fault (Amber). This procedure will replace the failed Blue/Amber Bi-Color LEDs that commonly burn out.

The original Common-Anode T1-3/4 5mm size part is rarely commercially available in Blue/Yellow Diffused lens color, so this procedure attempts to substitute two very commonly available 3mm LEDs in a side-by-side arrangement that is equivalent to the original one larger component. The procedure continues to use the same white plastic LED holder. This procedure does not alter the function of the NAS in any way.

Three plated-through holes ("PTH") must be desoldered for each of two LEDs. The middle common anode pad is the toughest plated through hole to clear or desolder. The bench Technician will need an 'Engineer SS-02" vacuum hand pump or equivalent and likely a lot of flux paste with solder wick to remove all solder from that center leg. The Author uses a PACE MBT power vacuum system which most amateurs do not have. Avoid overheating the PCB and take time.

The completed result operates the same way the original device did; the LEDs are the same color and same status.

qty 1 AMBER 3mm LED Diffused

qty 1 BLUE 3mm LED Diffused

normal soldering and desoldering tools and paste flux material or solder wick

Led colors can be substituted.

{get to know which "leg" is ANODE and CATHODE}

Cross Head Screwdriver medium / small

Disassemble DNS-323: [helpful: https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/D-Link+DNS-323+Teardown/2084 ]

Power down using front button procedure.

Remove rear 4pin power plug and RJ45.

Remove Front plate (clipped), and 4 small black cross machined screws.

Remove both HDD SATA 3.5" Desktop drives and mark left and right sides.

Remove Rear bezel with 4 small black cross machined screws. You may need to remove 4 black rubber plugs to access these 4 screws.

Remove Rear mount plate with 4 small silver cross machined screws.

Carefully slide out the entire main board on grounded benchtop with wrist strap antistatic (and Heel grounder)

Secure main board to bench and ground the main board (antistatic).

Desolder each of the two T1-3/4 (5mm) size Blue/Amber LED components with three terminal leads each.

Schematic of the replacement context is provided above

The center terminal of each original Bi-LED will be the toughest to clear and desolder. Take your time.

I use a lot of flux and extra 63/37 flux core solder tinning to get the center to 'wiggle' out.

Create a new bi-color LED assembly as shown with two 3mm smaller LED components in the same tri-lead holder. cut one center lead, surface solder the two centers together to form the common anode. The two outer leads are the cathodes (negative). The center terminal is on the 3.3Volt D.C. rail so make sure the soldering of the new common anode is neat and not shorted to the surrounding ground plane. The two cathodes go to the logic circuitry which activates the (two colors of) LEDs on logic LOW.

When you rework a board on the bench, always find the ground return on the UUT target board, and clip it to bench earth (antistatic drain; best practice).

Clip extra bottom side lead lengths of the new LEDs. (1-2mm)

I clean extra flux and residue with IPA 99% or even acetone with wooden swab around the rework PCB area.

I tried to maintain the same orientation and position as the original T1-3/4 LEDs so the new LEDs show up through the front panel 'windows' correctly.

Reverse the dis-assembly process steps to re-assemble:

Slide the main board back into the case with the two inner rails aligned. 12 Screws are used:

Tighten the 4 silver small screws from the rear PCB assembly panel to the case.

4 rear bezel screws onto the rear chassis and restore the rubber plugs.

finally, mount the front plate and 4 countersunk tapered screws.

Slide both HDD SATA 3.5 drives back into Left and Right bays as noted in dis-assembly.

Clip the front panel bezel back into place on the front plate. (optional)

helpful: the iFixit site has a useful teardown (up to step7) for assembly guidance on the 323 here: D-Link DNS-323 Teardown - iFixit [https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/D-Link+DNS-323+Teardown/2084]

before closing up, you may wish to consider dust blow out and inspecting the 5V FAN (PWM speed control 40x40mm 3pin type)

Test the installation by reconnection of 4pin power and Ethernet RJ45.

Press and hold front button for power up. Top and bottom LEDs flash and both DRIVE status bicolor LEDs may flash briefly.

In some cases, the DNS-323 will not boot, and the known procedure is to power the DNS-323 without either HDD installed, hit the power button front, wait for POWER (top) LED to flash/blink, and then install LEFT and then RIGHT HDD into the SATA bays. The reasoning is that some HDD drives require a lot of power to spin up and cannot do so if they are both installed simultaneously.

After a brief interval, the DLINK access HTTP page should be available. In CONFIGURATION, check the STATUS pages to see that both drives are OK and visible. Under TOOLS and SYSTEM, hit the RESTART web button and wait for the system to reboot (120seconds or so)

The DNS drives should be visible on the SMB (1.0) network, or whatever method you use for file access.

The original instruction 2009 video is found here (1) Getting Started: DNS-323 Network Storage - YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmFqNZYdvMk]

Front Panel LEDs function

Drive Lights: These lights will be solid BLUE when drives are connected but inactive. The lights will blink when the drives are being accessed, formatted or synchronized. They will illuminate AMBER if a drive has failed. These are the LEDs that were replaced.

(upper) BLUE POWER LED: ON solid for power, Blinking during POWER DOWN.

(lower) BLUE NETWORK LED: The Activity Light will be solid BLUE when there is an Ethernet connection. It will blink to indicate LAN traffic

(lower) MOMENTARY SWITCH: POWER button.

I fixed 3 of 5 units (rev 3 hardware on 2, older REV1 H/W on the last) so far using this procedure. The LED costs were under $1 each (CAD$).

4 month report: no issues.

Four DNS323 were given the same modification after 30day trial of first unit, and all are still OK and bright. I know Blue/Amber LEDs in 3mm sizes exist, the separated Blue and Amber 3mm are much cheaper in my DIY method work at about the same LED voltages as the original DLINK Bi-LEDs. My "NAS farm" is still going strong. Three operate as JBOD and another (not shown in images) is in RAID1.

Next objective: a 12V uninterruptable Power Supply with at least sixty-minute holdover and up to six 12V0 outputs of 5.5/2.1mm coaxial power plug outputs. When Fans spin and the NAS is running with 2GB 7200 drives, power is near 1.45 Amperes. To power my NAS farm, I will use an SLA battery model 12200 12.8Vnom 18 Amp/hour (brand: Mighty-Max) and a float charge system at two levels; 0.1C and 0.3C with 45C active thermal monitor, and a high-V threshold cut off at 14.8V. The Charger IC is the CN3768 controller IC, and I have two of these that have been running since 2021. Each output will have its only buck switch mode stage. The current original DLINK power brick has been the single point of failures on 3 previous occasions, mostly due to fat-capacitor aging. I can write another Instructable after I build it.

I am also buying any DNS323 legacy units (especially Ver-C) hardware. Contact me via comments.