LED safety warnin' :)

[CaptBubba]

I got one of those new white LEDs today to go on the front of my amp (I have a color scheme going, high gain-red mid-white low-blue, I'm patriotic). Anyway, I hook it up to 3V (its rated at 3.8). The sucker is BRIGHT. I was seeing a spot for about 30mins. The warning? Figure out the candle power of an LED before you look at it! I'll be able to light up my room with my amp, this will be interesting...

If anyone else has some pointless stories about DIY mishaps or such, it'd be great to hear them.

 

[Apheared]

heh. No, I have no idea what you're talking about.

I built a VU meter with 6000mcd LEDs... 20 of them for two channels... it'll make you sick to watch it in total darkness... dizzy queasy feeling. hehe. I wanna try another using 10x10,000mcd per "LED" with pass transistors for all that current... should be able to see it for a couple miles from my rooftop. A VU meter that takes 10A to power... whoohoo!

My main amp has a KingBright 4800mcd blue LED that makes a visible spot in daylight even 6' away. In a dark room it'll make a 12' diffuse circle across a 20' room.

Have you started playing with true color ones yet? I LOVE THEM! So cool So expensive though. But 4 separate LEDs in one lens. Hook up via potentiometers and you can dial in your color. I wanna make a tri-phase oscillator to randomize the color... a melting power LED... oooh trippy.

Yea ok, so I like opti stuff too...

Just make sure your limiting resistor is high enough... white LEDs over 40mA will burn real fast... they'll lose half that brightness in a week or die completely.

 

[ppl]

I use an ultrabright LED in a Mini maglight i modified. Just drilled out the reflector for the larger LED and plug it in in place of the Lamp tat was installed. Then i used (3) 2/3 AA NI-MI Cells rather that the (2) AA cells and I now have a Mini-Maglight that puts out just as Bright of a light as the origenal Except a Nice White Light and Battery life is about 100 times greator than it was in the old maglight. Regardind the True colar LED. at the fair this year i gor one of those LED toys that have this type of LED strobed so when you move ti you see Tracers of Red, Yel Grn. and White. real Cool. Cost $30.0 Thought. Wonder How thay made it strobe?

 

[CaptBubba]

My friend wants to just make a gadget box. A box covered in switches and LEDs that blinks and makes noise and is a useless distraction.

Apheared, I just had this vision of someone breaking into your home and you foiling them by blinding the robber with your VU meter. "Back, back I say! I have a bright blinky thing and I know how to use it!" That was an odd thought.

I wasn't counting on these (the blue and white) LEDs being so bright, now the red is too dim. And I just placed my digikey order, dangit. Hmm, and I can't find any bright ones anywhere around here. Would anyone happen to have a 1000-1500mcp red LED w/ a clear lens that they have no use for? I'll pay a few bucks for your trouble.

Hmm, I have about a dozen Maglights sitting around doing nothing, I may just have to try that.

 

[ppl]

Yup you might just like the LED,ed Maglight. I used the White Radio Shack LED $6.00 workes great, But maby Brighter ones can be had from other soures like Kingbright or HP.

 

[Apheared]

Actually, I love Hosfelt for this kind of crap... If you don't know exactly what you want from the newark/mouser/digikey catalogs that is...

You want low quantity high brightness ones? Gotcha covered...

http://www.hosfelt.com/Leds/led1.htm