Erv's mega long post.

[DACOTA]

Okay I know I didnt dream this but does anyone know where that mega long post of erv's is? I looked all over for it but it must be right in front of me where I cant see it.

[SpectreT65]

Which one? The last long one of his I read was in wiring discussion - an X-wing thread attempting to simplify electricity and diodes (Light-Emitting, of course) that would make a newcomer to electronics' brain detonate, once Eandoril and Erv got involved.

[DACOTA]

The one that was extremely long and you had to scroll down like a mile.

[SpectreT65]

http://forums.thecustomsabershop.com/showthread.php?t=4069&page=4

[Janias Saarkhan]

thats cool

[Dark Helmet]

There's however a difference between detailing and making things too complicated. There's also a difference between complicated and complex.
When someone says that something is too complicated, it can mean that he hasn't the right "educational level" (some times mis called "intelligence") OR... that it's badly explained or taught. So called bad students sometimes have bad teachers or unadapted teachers. Erv'

long as this was, it is striking. Iv'e been reading so much, and trying to become better at what I'm doing, but this hit the nail on the head.....i can punch a few numbers into the calculator on my cell phone and get a ballpark figure to overdrive my led with a resistor, that's easy, but truly knowing how this is all working is worth much more than that. I got into this hobby because i wanted to build my own saber, just like a jedi would build his/her own, so i wanted to have what was "my saber" as we all do...but i don't want to stop, i want to build/learn/create more than that. but this statement is standing out to me a lot, I want to find my strong points and cultivate them, and I think the rest of us should too....since doing my ancient saber, I can see it has given some new ideas to a few people... I never thought I would make something anyone would actually like, so it's nice to be a part of the collective knowledge here, to finally feel as if I did something right... I still have much to learn, but I have a lot of help from the best teachers out there...thanks for the link to this thread, it was well worth reading!

[Novastar]

Exactly, Dark. As simple as it sounds, a good and definitive way to help people... is to teach them to THINK FOR THEMSELVES. And, if they already do... well, booley for them and they have a great advantage over those who simply want "to be told" for this time around.

The "what's the proper resistor" thing is a great example. There are like 1000s of battery + resistor + LED possibilities... trying to cover them ALL is hard enough. This is not to knock Tim's awesome list--it covers the general basics of most any "logical" battery setup... 3v, 3.6/3.7v, 4.5v, 6v, 7.2v, 9v, etc.

EVEN SO... what better way to do it than to simply state ohm's law, expressing it as a neat & clean formula! Now... ANY possible battery + resistor + LED is calculable.

Further--you all *DO* know that even though a resistor is rated at (let's say) "1ohm"... it may actually be 0.92 ohms or 1.15 ohms or whatever? If you didn't, it's good to open your eyes to manufacturer variance... which is natural to an imperfect world.

Same with LEDs. That is why SOME appear "brighter" at X volts over an "identical" one your buddy has at the same X volts. What might be happening is that the more "sweet spot" on LED #1 is (let's say) 3.7v... whereas LED #2 is much happier/brighter at 3.87v. Sure it ain't much... but it can make a difference.

But BOTH would likely be rated "the same" by manufacturing specs.

Also--it is quite normal for manufacturers to OVER-compensate for things. What the hell does that mean. Well, I mean... ok... sure you can light up Luxeon A at (let's say) 3.6v. BUT it is TECHNICALLY rated at 3.85v. Why. Because when you make 1,000,000 little LEDs that are flying across little conveyor belts on giant spindles/reels or whatever... well... YOU DO THE MATH on taking the AVERAGE or MEDIAN:

min is (let's say): 3.58v
max is (let's say): 3.94v
Add them both and divide by 2. It's basically 3.76, so maybe they'd call it 3.8v for forward voltage.

Now, that is most certainly NOT exactly how they do it, but you get the idea.

Finally, although I could say more... don't forget the simple fact that it's not like a Luxeon will ONLY light up at a SPECIFIC voltage... there is more of a range it falls into. In some cases, you may not even be able to detect the difference at 3.7v vs. 3.8v. Especially if the current sent in there... is one and the same.

So there ya have it. Sometimes... taking things "at face value" can be helpful to the newbie. Other times... it's simply TOO simple.

Although I for one think a lot of what is explained will PUSH AWAY the newcomers! It sounds too complex. It'd be like me asking someone to do my job with no training, and take it over full time. No, no no! Little steps. Add a challenge... progress. Attempt, fail, succeed. Add another challenge, etc.

Alright. Enough! :)

[DACOTA]

Such wisdom you have Nova. Talk like Yoda I now do. See you later I will.:D