Quote:

Since the lenses in the indicators are already colored, why not just use superbright white LED's instead of colored ones?


Because "white" led's aren't really white... they're very light blue. True white light has all colours in it, and when you put it through a filter only the parts of the white light the same colour as the filter pass... the rest turn into heat (in accordance with the law of conservation of energy).

If you put a very light blue light source behind a green filter you'll lose about 50% of the light (because green is a mixture of blue & yellow), and behind a orange/red filter almost none will pass.

Simple solution is to use an led as close to the same colour as the filter as you can get.

Matt Electronic mods for TBA/SM!