Ok, rather than going for LED fans iun my design I though I would put in proper performance fans. And on the front I was going to make a duct to the front fan so... Instead of the LED fan I was going to use I thought about lining the duct with LEDs to give the same effect. I have seen many people saying they are putting LEDs in their projects but I have never picked up how they used them. Would anybody care to enlighten me on how you connect them to the power supply etc? Also I have never made a sort of chain out of LEDs (so to speak) so how do you do that aswell?
I obviously didn't read far enough in that thread. You say you can't have that many in series to one another when I need 10 or 20 all to be switched on and off by he same switch, how you I go about doing this?
What this means is that if you want more led's, just use multiple strands of series all wired to the same power switch. Seems like the BT calc from that article might be fubared, try this one - enter the number of leds you want and it will show you how to wire them. You need to know the forward voltage and current of your type of leds; if you don't know, figure 2V for red, 2.5V for green and 4V for blue. I'd say 15-20ma is a good current value to start with. Of course, you would be better off if you are able to obtain the correct values for your specific devices. Be careful not to power them backwards, most led's cannot stand more than 5V of reverse voltage.
Yeah thanks, all useful. I have now sorted out my wiring. Although I need blue LEDs however these all seem a lot more expensive, especially for 10-20. Anybody know where I can get them from?
Seller jeledhk is currently top of my list on ebay for LEDs. They don't seem to suffer from the problems with the pure green LEDs that all the others do (flickering/dying quickly when driven by PWM).
Now then is there an advantage to using diffusing the LED? And if so and you dont get pre-diffused ones, how do you go about it?
i like the led guide, also to work out resister values, go to google and search led resistor calculator use the first two by linear! jsut a lil pointer 4 u!
Depends on your application. Diffused cases spread the emitted light more than non-diffused cases, so the viewing angle is wider. Non-diffused or water-clear cases tend to focus the emitted light in more of a beam pattern. The way the light is spread also effects the percieved brightness of the led; because of the spread pattern, diffused cases are usually rated as having lower optical power (over a wider area), where non-diffused leds are usually rated higher mcd (but only brightest viewed straight on). I have used fine sandpaper on non-diffused cases to roughen the case when I needed wider viewing angles from water clear leds.
