I am working on building LED strobe lights to go into the wing tips of a real air plane.
I will be using a PIC to control them, I have 12VDC to power them with.
I know about the newer super LEDS but I also know they need heat sinks. The leds will eventually be put into a clear acrylic resin so I am worried about the heat the super bright ones put off, and they can be expensive. So I may end up using just standard 5mm leds. But I am becoming GOOGLE blind from all the things I have read about the color and intensity of the 5mm leds.
I can handle figuring out the current limiting resistors and wiring, just not sure who to buy from and what to buy.
I am hoping you can offer some suggestions. I need WHITE color, and all the brightness they can produce in a standard 5mm led.

Thanks
Bob

 

Another complicating factor is the lens on the LED. You can get very bright LEDs that attain such a high rating because they focus the light into a narrow beam. I'm guessing you want a wide beam with as much total light as possible. So I'd stick to the respected manufacturers (Cree, for instance) that will give you specifications for angular dispersion and such things. You can also be confident they will give you the most modern technology which tends to be the highest efficiency.

 

Good answer, but I'm afraid this is outside the Terms of Service. Liability issues and all that. I have asked a moderator to make a judgment call on this.

 

Huh, that did occur to me. I know all things automotive are off limits, but I thought flying machines might be different.

 

I think flying machines are even more demanding of "professional only" design and maintenance than cars. Make a bad tail light, get a ticket. Become invisible in the night sky and become a hazard to any other craft in the nearby.

 

Oh, I don't disagree. I wouldn't be qualified to change a sparkplug on an airplane. It's a question of the rules.

 

The rules are to protect this site as well as the OP.

I am closing this thread as a general safety issue, but the moderating staff will discuss it. If the other guys think it is OK we will reopen it.

 

I concede with the closing of this thread. It's in the essence of the ToS.

I'll just leave a final note saying that in order to choose an LED the questions you should ask are:
Who can sell at a reasonable price where I live? Are there any retail stores where I could test the LED perhaps beforehand and where I could get some live helpful conversation?

I'll also leave this link here, where at the middle of the first post are the websites of three Electronic Components Websites, suppliers so huge though, that you might have difficulties finding the clear list of viable parts.

I wish you complete your project.