Bright LEDs

Thread Starter

navyguy

Joined Sep 27, 2019
108
hi navy,
Please give more information for the LED type, current rating, colour, voltage rating etc...

E
Thanks. Looking for yellow LEDs, Any size.
Just need them to be as bright as possible for a light show I’m doing.
The LEDs will be running on about 5 volts at I’m guessing 20 to 30 Milliamps
 
Last edited:

MisterBill2

Joined Jan 23, 2018
18,176
The really bright ones run closer to 300mA and around 3.5 volts . Chek the offerings of Digikey and Newark.
BUT you will need a much more detailed description of what you want. My friend has LED high beams on his car, they run on 12 volts and draw many amps. THOSE are super bright.
 

Thread Starter

navyguy

Joined Sep 27, 2019
108
The really bright ones run closer to 300mA and around 3.5 volts . Chek the offerings of Digikey and Newark.
BUT you will need a much more detailed description of what you want. My friend has LED high beams on his car, they run on 12 volts and draw many amps. THOSE are super bright.
Ok. Thanks so much. All I’m hoping to do is power about 16 LEDs through my Parallax basic stamp project board..
I’m very limited on how much current each one can pull. I was just wondering if there is a particular brand or type of LED that is brighter than the rest. The LEDs that I am using are not consistent in intensity. Some much brighter than others.
 

MisterBill2

Joined Jan 23, 2018
18,176
OK, now I understand the size a bit more. OK, DigiKey has sold high brightness LEDs described exactly that way. They may still sell them. So check their web site catalog.
 

Thread Starter

navyguy

Joined Sep 27, 2019
108
OK, now I understand the size a bit more. OK, DigiKey has sold high brightness LEDs described exactly that way. They may still sell them. So check their web site catalog.
Great. Thanks.
I just placed an order.
I got a bit more educated on millicandelle rating system.
 

Audioguru again

Joined Oct 21, 2019
6,674
Cheap (ebay) LEDs are dim ones in a case that focuses the light into a very narrow beam to be bright. But they barely light things a little to each side.
Modern Western LEDs can have a wide beam angle and still appear to be very bright.
 

MisterBill2

Joined Jan 23, 2018
18,176
It seems that there are wildly differing definitions of "very bright" . I classify Very Bright as uncomfortable to look at, and extremely bright as painful to look at, and possibly causing damage.
 

Tonyr1084

Joined Sep 24, 2015
7,853
One (complicated) way to illuminate multiple LED's at the same time is to NOT light them at the same time. Strobing them from left to right (or right to left, doesn't matter) so that only one LED is on for a brief moment, then the next, then the next, then the next and so on. Sweep them fast enough and they will all appear to be on.

Go have a look at your digital LED clock. The four 7 segment displays work in the same fashion. Only one segment of one display is ever lit at any given instant. Yet the affect to the human eye is to see all the numbers constantly lit. That's the way the human eye and brain works.

I've built chase lights using LED's in the past. Sweep them fast enough and they all appear to be on at the same time. And they don't diminish in brightness.
 

MisterBill2

Joined Jan 23, 2018
18,176
It usedto be that LEDs were strobed, but then it became clear that the higher freqiency switching was causing a lot of radiated RFI, and so mostly today, and for quite a few years, in fact, digital displays are not strobed. The reason for using the one at a time drive was a shortage of I/O on the very early processors. That time is long past.
 

Audioguru again

Joined Oct 21, 2019
6,674
Strobing LEDs from left to right (or right to left, doesn't matter) so that only one LED is on for a brief moment, then the next, then the next, then the next and so on. Sweep them fast enough and they will all appear to be on.

I've built chase lights using LED's in the past. Sweep them fast enough and they all appear to be on at the same time. And they don't diminish in brightness.
Of course they are dimmed. It is using Pulse Width Modulation. Each LED is "on for a brief moment".
 
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