Force Action Lightsaber ID request

[Novastar]

Matt... I don't want you to be confused...

The amount of voltage you give a circuit does NOT change within the circuit all by itself. However, since electronics, software and hardware can be made to do many things... step-down drivers like buckpucks (or Crystal Focus and/or the Ultrasound board and/or the Corbin v1 & v2 drivers) work in special ways to regulate CURRENT... and therefore, you can often provide far more voltage than the LED's fwd voltage... because the driver is handling the voltage, and NOT passing on 100% of it to the LED all at once. Drivers here are regulating current.

For example... if you have a buckpuck that provides 1000mA (so it is regulating current)... and an LED that best prefers ~4v (say 3.7v minimum, 4.2v maximum)... you can feed the buckpuck 12v (most can handle this, although extreme voltage would kill the puck), and it will STILL provide 1000mA to the LED pretty much the whole time.

Now... the specific VOLTAGE going to the LED while it's being run by a buckpuck?? I don't know for certain... it's actually a curved range that is somewhat "all over the map", but within the right amount to LIGHT THE LED... but: voltage and current are RELATIVE to one another. So yes--giving too much voltage to an LED will destroy it... if the current provided is also high enough.

Now... let's take the basic example: direct driving. In other words--you're not using ANY kind of "smart" electronics. You're going to hook a battery setup directly to an LED...

Well, if the forward voltage is (again) ~4v... and you feed the sucker 7.2v... it won't be pretty.

5v... you MIGHT get away with it. You might not.

3v... it will work, but it won't be bright.

And in ALL of the cases here... 3v, 4v, 5v, 7.2v... ALL of them will be providing a different amount of CURRENT flow.

So just keep all of this in mind. The Force Action saber (as far as I know) is *NOT* a current-regulating device. It's pretty rudimentary, and if you are not careful, you'll destroy your LED.

Granted, (as I've said before)... losing a $6 to $8 LED is not THAT big of a deal...

[Matt Thorn]

Thanks, Novastar. You made me realize that I hadn't properly absorbed what I had studied, which is that voltage is like water pressure, a resistor or driver is like a pipe of a certain diameter, and current is like the amount of water coming out the other end, right? So as long as I'm using 4 AAA batteries (totaling 4.8 volts), I don't have to worry about frying a Luxeon III, even if wired directly...but a 1000 aM BuckPuck will ensure a steady current and extend the life of the LED...?