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thestr8metaledge
04-22-2006, 09:03 PM
hey, so the amber LED that I ordered got here, and it was working great. problem is, I left it sitting on for about 5 minutes by accident last night and I noticed a massive drop in brightness. do they really drain batteries that fast? I've had my blue LED on for an extended period of time as well, and it didn't dim half as much as the amber did. I thought the amber took less power than the blue. has anyone else noticed certain colors drain batteries faster than others?

Jedi Ranger
04-22-2006, 09:37 PM
Were the batteries fresh?
What type of battery (pack) were you using? 9v will last EXTREMELY short, AAA slightly longer, and AA much longer.
Was the LED properly resistored?

As far as I know, there should not be that much difference between colours and battery life.

Other than that, my "help" is rather limited.

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thestr8metaledge
04-22-2006, 09:41 PM
I was using a 4 AAA battery holder, and the only thing I can think of with the resistor is that it's slightly higher than recommended. not by much though (5w as opposed to 4.6).

xwingband
04-22-2006, 09:57 PM
Was it left without a heatsink? 5 minutes unheatsinked will probably do that....

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thestr8metaledge
04-22-2006, 10:12 PM
no it was attached to the heatsink, but that's good to know. would that permanently dim the LED if that happened?

james3
04-22-2006, 10:25 PM
xwing ya read my mind dude.
Just for kicks I took a few LED's and tried them with different heat sink materials, and one with out a sink.(Yes, Master Do-Clo I know that I shouldn't be doing that[}:)]) There is a difference with how the heat is disipated and with little and no sink the things would just chew a battery pack up. I had my notes to keep track of time, temp and all the cool tech stuff but alas, my four year old wiped it out with a great big glass of grape juice[:(] Anyway, you will be happy to know that Tim's LED/blade holder combo was as good as an old cpu sink that I used for one. Color didn't seem to make a difference that I noticed, and I used the same resistor for all colors(overkill but safe) Maybe this week I will do it again if I pick up a new pack of batteries.

Of course ya may of just had a crappy set of batteries or somethin'[:D]

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james3
04-22-2006, 10:28 PM
Ya jumped in there while I was typing, you could end up burning your LED by not giving it a proper heat sink. Whenever in doubt, sink it[8D]
EDIT-Sorry for the doublepost guys[B)]
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Do-Clo
04-22-2006, 10:39 PM
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by james3

xwing ya read my mind dude.
Just for kicks I took a few LED's and tried them with different heat sink materials, and one with out a sink.(Yes, Master Do-Clo I know that I shouldn't be doing that[}:)]) There is a difference with how the heat is disipated and with little and no sink the things would just chew a battery pack up. I had my notes to keep track of time, temp and all the cool tech stuff but alas, my four year old wiped it out with a great big glass of grape juice[:(] Anyway, you will be happy to know that Tim's LED/blade holder combo was as good as an old cpu sink that I used for one. Color didn't seem to make a difference that I noticed, and I used the same resistor for all colors(overkill but safe) Maybe this week I will do it again if I pick up a new pack of batteries.

Of course ya may of just had a crappy set of batteries or somethin'[:D]

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<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

James for punishment you must write I will use a heatsink 1000 times[}:)]

Do-Clo
Brotherhood of the Sith

Don't make me destroy you...

GFORCE13
04-22-2006, 11:08 PM
[:D][:p][:o)]

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