Post a photo of the bottom side of the LED PCB strip.
it would be better to how you.

In Words.....One leg of LED to top row, other leg of led to resistor and then other leg of resistor to bottom row

Positive and Negative of LED should be identified first.
LED's have polarity. Those bulbs works either way

 

 

You can place the resistors on this side.
You need to cut the 1 track for each led and use resistors to jump them

 

You can place the resistors on this side.
You need to cut the 1 track for each led and use resistors to jump them

Ah ha! Got it! I can do that...again, many thanks...

 

Sure that would be fine, but I did try three that were labeled as 5volt and they didn't light. I believe on one strip the last one actually fried...
So not sure the exact specs/components I'd need. Also, these small original incandescents had a little green rubber cover on them, to light the display in green...

White or blue LED would be the most likely choices, they take approximately 3.4V and about 20mA. They won't work with fixed voltage, and will probably be destroyed - you have to limit the current, not regulate the voltage.

 

Mind to use diffused LEDs. Clear ones will have bright spot.
The LEDs top will be aimed at the display, this will create a bright spot on three places on the display.
You would need to think of a way to eliminate it.

 

Mind to use diffused LEDs. Clear ones will have bright spot.
The LEDs top will be aimed at the display, this will create a bright spot on three places on the display.
You would need to think of a way to eliminate it.

Sandpaper

 

Hello,

Indeed using sandpaper on the leds can make them diffuse.
The scratches of the sandpaper on the leds will scatter the light from the leds.

Bertus

 

You can place the resistors on this side.
You need to cut the 1 track for each led and use resistors to jump them

To expand on this concept, you may be able to break the lamps up into segments that would each contain a surface mount resistor (SMT) or a thru-hole resistor. The SMT resistor would be easier. The SMT would be placed on the foil side or the thru-hole on the component side. Use a X-Acto knife/razer blade to cut and scrape the traces.

Once you have 3 Isolated resistor lamp combinations, you can use wire-wrap wire to make a traces to parallel this combination. There is a wire-tack glue system available, but it's a bit expensive. The KIT http://www.techni-tool.com/512AD018 includes the accelerator.

Wire: This is only a sample. Sometimes you can find packages of 25 feet. http://www.jameco.com/z/901-0-JDV-P...ack-100-Feet-30AWG-100-Foot-Rolls-_22577.html

 

Great tips! Many thanks!

 

Sparkfun and others also has copper tape. https://www.sparkfun.com/categories/tags/copper-tape

 

Mind to use diffused LEDs. Clear ones will have bright spot.
The LEDs top will be aimed at the display, this will create a bright spot on three places on the display.
You would need to think of a way to eliminate it.

Only seen diffused LEDs on rare occasions - and they're more often than not special shapes.

Wide angle LEDs might give a big enough spot to cover the whole LCD panel - easily identified; the lens end is more or less flat.

They're very common in any strings of garden lights that have "light-pipe" style fittings on the LEDs so they look like little flowers or whatever.

You can get blue, white or multi-colour strings that invariably work out much cheaper than buying that many LEDs from a component store.

You can end up with a handy 2x AA holder with switch, or a rather crappy solar panel and 1 or 2 Ni-Mh cells.

 

For some edge-lit and back-lit displays, I have been searching for LEDs to replace incandescent lamps.

I managed to find some 5 mm Warm White LEDs with approximately 120 degree radiance angle. They do not have the dull bright spot in the center of the beam, but really nicely fading light toward the edge of the light cone. And it's actually a type with clear lens.

I bought them on eBay, and I will not mention a particular store, but my search has been: LED Warm White 5mm Straw Hat

 

Here we go guys...finally got it. I still have a little definition between the bulbs in the display but not bad. May be because of the LEDs...haha...get this--I found a little thingamabob at the local dollar store that had several LEDs in it...I thought what the heck! I did do the sanding thing too...
Ended up using one resistor at the beginning of the trace and it worked fine...pics coming next...

 

 

 

Here is the little thing..I think there were 10 LEDs in it for 1 dollar...

 

Looks to me like the right side looks a little better...I used 600 grit, but the left side I tried 1000 grit. I didn't rough them up too much, may have been better if I had...

 

Nice Job.
LEDs could use a bit roughening though.

 

Here we go guys...finally got it. I still have a little definition between the bulbs in the display but not bad. May be because of the LEDs...haha...get this--I found a little thingamabob at the local dollar store that had several LEDs in it...I thought what the heck! I did do the sanding thing too...
Ended up using one resistor at the beginning of the trace and it worked fine...pics coming next...

Sometimes the HD44780 modules have a backlight LED "slab" that slides in underneath as the module stands up on its pins.

Might take some searching to find a fit, but there may be that possibility out there somewhere.