Anything wrong with these LEDs?

[napierzaza]

Is there anything wrong with these LEDs? They're so cheap!

http://cgi.ebay.ca/NEW-SUPER-BRIGHT-8000MCD-RED-5MM-LED-X-1000pcs_W0QQitemZ190060750727QQihZ009QQcategoryZ66952QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQcmdZViewItem

[doc]

Hm ... sure you'll have to ask on eBay if anything is wrong with this offer.

For me it sounds good.

But pay attention: These leds need a high current for full brightness (forwarding current 30mA). You probable kill the 74HC595 by driving these with 30mA. If you limit the current to about 15 - 20mA you're on the save side.

greets

Doc

[Jidis]

You may want to check that viewing angle with some people here (+/- 10degrees). Seems tight to me, but I'm usually going with diffused LEDs. I guess it depends on the box too.

George

PS- Happy 500 Doc! ;)

[seppoman]

+-10 viewing angle should be ok - this just means, the majority of light will be in that angle, but you could still notice if it is lit from further off-axis. But there are two problems with these extra bright LEDs in general:

First, you need to give them enough current to be bright. With a large number of LEDs this means that you need a strong power supply and the 7805 will need a large heatsink. I don´t think it is cool if half of the power a unit needs goes into the LEDs.

Second, high brightness and a small viewing angle mean that there´s an ultra small and ultra light dot seen from directly above that can even do damage to your eyes if watched for a longer time from short distance.

Honestly, if you don´t need this ultra-bright stuff to show off to your friends or to read a book in a dark room, I´d always recommend low power LEDs. There are versions that need only 2 mA to work properly (i.e., use larger resistor values on DOUT boards) and are really bright enough. Price shouldn´t be a problem - you probably won´t need 1000 pieces anyway, and for e.g. 100 low power LEDs, everywhere else the price will be below the price of this auction incl postage.

[napierzaza]

So can you get them at a fair price from Mouser than? If this is no good I'll move on, eBay doesn't seem very good for LEDs.

[Jidis]

In the states, I've had really good dealings with this guy, but again, I just get regular diffused style lights right now:

http://stores.ebay.com/West-Florida-Components

He ships worldwide and is really helpful. There was a good assortment I got from him on green, yellow, red 3mm's a while back and I recently got a bag of 100 more reds. Indeed that eBay arrangement with the 100% item cost shipping is a PITA. They need to either get someone on there who sells assortments or who does a genuine "combined" shipping charge for a few different items. I'd guess that for lights, 3 or 4 different orders in one envelope or box probably wouldn't even change the real shipping cost, but they tend to give you a "price break" on multiples which comes out to crap.

George