Forums > Technical Discussion > LED poi for sale in the shop...

AnonymousPLATINUM Member

Posted: 19th Jun 2001
LED's are avaiable from your local electronics dealer. I dont know the US, but I bet there is a dealer near you.as for the difficulty? I dont think Malcolm would sell them if they were impossible to build. they look pretty straight forward to me, although, i've not built any so I dont know.hope this helps.Josh

Posted: 20th Jun 2001
THANKS, Malcolm for the quick reply!skechada

Posted: 21st Jun 2001
I ordered a whole bunch of LEDs from www.radioshack.com. They sell high briteness LEDs for about us$0.30/ea, there is no minimum order, shipping is $2.50 anywhere in the states for < $10, and I got my order in three days.I ordered one each of about 20 different styles so I could pick the ones with the best price/performance ratio. If anyone is interested, I'll post the catalogue numbers of the ones I like best.-p.

Posted: 25th Jun 2001
pj, Im interested, could you post the catalogue numbers please?

Posted: 25th Jun 2001
There are three different sizes of LEDs commonly available: 3.2mm, 5.0mm and 10.0mm. Do not associate size with briteness! The only real difference is the amount of plastic arround the semiconductor! I've found the 5.0mm LEDs to be both the cheapest and easiest to work with, as well as the brightest overall.For Red LEDs get 900-7168 or 900-6115. Both are about 3500 MCD.For Green, get 900-8004 (about 500 MCD)For Yellow, get 900-8702 (about 3000 MCD)Each of these are about $0.39/ea for 1-9, and about $0.27 for 10+. The price may drop further at some point.It should be noted that these four LEDs are *FAR* brighter than anything else in the same price range, but are certainly not the brightest LEDs you can get. If you are willing to pay $3-$4 each, you can get LEDs in the 5000-35,000 MCD output range. It should also be noted that there is no correlation between power usage and brightness. A 10 MCD LED will draw as much current as a 3500 MCD LED. I have not yet played with the 5000+ MCD LEDs, but I suspect they will not draw substantially more power either.Four of these LEDs per poi, when run in-spec, will provide *plenty* of light. Just connect them in series with a 47 ohm resistor and a square 9 volt battery. I estimate this should provide about 25 hours from a fresh alkaline battery.The advantage of the hella-bright LEDs is that by using a large dropping resistor you can get the same brightness with *far* less battery consumption. BTW, this is how the Photon lights get such good life (relatively speaking) from such small batteries.-p.

AnonymousPLATINUM Member

Posted: 26th Jun 2001
Wow pj, its really cool having someone on this board like you - thanks for this info, I think I might actually use it!Josh

Posted: 26th Jun 2001
Hey, you're quite welcome! I'm just trying to give something back to the group that provided *me* with such great ideas and information when I was just getting started!Some day I'll hook up with my friend who has the ubercool digital camera to take pictures of all my toys and then post them to the www.calefaction.org web site. I'm amassing quite a collection any more. Oh to be a geek with OCD...-p.

Posted: 11th Jul 2001
i like the follow LED lights, they are all sold at your local radioshack:color mcd(brightness) ma voltsGreen 630 30 2.1/2.8Blue 2600 20 3.7/4.5Yellow 1600 30 2.1/2.8Orange 12000 20 1.9/2.6Red 3000 20 1.7/2.4(note that mcd is not always accurate, and only measures the light that comes out at a set angle from the LED, not the total light emited, also the large differences in mcd values are contributed to the fact the the mcd value must double before the human eye can see a diffence in brightness. if you have any further question email me at marsvsmystr_e@hotmail.com)