How many mcd are adequate for LEDs?

[URBatORB]

Hello,

I have some blue LEDs with 2500 mcd lying around - they are a "little" bit too bright  8) for controller appliances. Did anybody use blue LEDs, and how many mcd did they have? I need them for my Ableton Live Controller (night and day use).

thx/Daniel

[moogah]

Best thing to do is not worry about the candel rating and just use a bigger resistor to limit the current.  This increases the life of the LED as well.  It can vary quite a bit from LED to LED but I find between 1k and 10k usually gets a nice comfortable level from ultrabrights.

Also note that staring into ultrabrights can be as harmful to your vision as a laser pointer in some situations, if diffused ones were commonly available I would reccomend that the clears be avoided.

[URBatORB]

Hello,

that ist maybe the best solution. I asked only because I had soldered the the standard DOUT resistors today. Certainly can I solder your additional proposed restistors in serial or not?

Thanks!

[moogah]

Indeed you can :)

Yea, 220R of resistance makes for nice photon lights, but really is a bit hard to look at ;D

[URBatORB]

... "the photon controller". Only for the really cool people with sun glasses 8) on stage at night.  ;D