Recent Posts

Gary,
  We dont really stock other electronic components as we specialise in LEDs and LED products. However, we are developing new LED related products, and I have a small LED flasher module in the pipeline. It will be a small circuit board with a 555 timer based flashing circuit and a MOSFET output capable of driving much more than just a few LEDs. You will hopefully be able to adjust flash rate and duty cycle. All going to plan, it should be available in 6-8 weeks time.

  If you want to purchase components, Jaycar usually have a small range. Otherwise electronics engineers like myself will purchase from Farnell, or if we are making a bit of an order $125 or more, I order from Digikey, as they offer free shipping on orders over $125.

Cheers,
  Carl

Thanks Carl
Do you stock components i.e. 55 timers, resister etc I couldn't see on the site where to look.
Cheers
Gary

Gary,
  Thank you for the post, and welcome to the forums. As long as you have the basics down (which it sounds like you do) you can pick it up again no problem. There is heaps of good info here on the forums, and if you have any questions we would love to hear them. The idea is to build a place where other peoples projects and experiences can help others in the future.

Cheers,
  Carl

Thought I'd stop by and say hello and introduce myself.
Seems like an interesting thing you have here Carl, I like the idea where there is somewhere I can go to get help without the snobbery that most places like this have.
Many many years ago I was an electro-mechanical engineer but I've been in IT for the past 18 years so I've forgotten most of what I knew except how to solder and ohms law 
I took up modelling again after a long break and I'm looking to build some simple LED lighting effects for my models so expect lots of dumb questions 
Thanks again.
Gary

Hey mate. By dual power supply do you mean in my Reply #1 above?
You will be using two supplies now wont you? One is the tail supply and the other is the break? It's just a different configuration.
With my schematic above, basically when just the tail is on the LEDs are powered from 12V via both resistors. When the break wire is powered, the first resistor is bypassed, and not used, so the LEDs are powered via the second resistor only, thus increasing the current.
Oh, and while I think of it, you may need a diode on the break wire, as it may go to 0V when not powered.

I'm actually thinking of scrapping them and starting again, but I want to use the dual power supply idea, is there a way it can be better suited to daytime braking?
E.g. 80/20 split on the power? so at night it turns on 20% when lights are on and jumps up to 100% on braking?
This would give me 80% luminosity during the day.

I'd prefer to run more lights in a single circuit instead of my current setup of two separate circuits as this will allow me to fit things in better.

Cheers for the advice Carl. I've decided I'm going to use your 2 led + 220R suggestion with the white diffused leds (I actually meant them in my last post but just copied and pasted the first white led I saw on the led page by mistake). Hopefully I can get my AintoG soon and get these done and if they're a success maybe post pics in your led designs forum for others to get ideas from.

Chris,
  Your project reminds me of the Ambilight feature on (i think it was) the Philips LCD TV we had a while back. I would assume you want a soft diffused light, in which case you want to think about the light you will get from the LEDs. Most of our LEDs are high brightness, which means they have a clear lens and a reasonably narrow angle. For example, if you point the LED at a wall, you will get a circle of light more or less. I would suggest using diffused lens LEDs which will give a glow, rather than spots of light. Unless you are planning on putting the LEDs behind a diffuser of course.

  About wiring them up, you could put 2 in series with a resistor from 12V. To run them at 25mA, you would use a R = V / I = (12V-2x3V) / 0.025A = 240 Ohm resistor. You could use 220R as it is a standard value, or a higher value if you wanted a lower brightness.

  The reason I say 2 LEDs from 12V is because you want to leave a bit of voltage for the resistor. If the 12V is stable, which it usually is from a comp PSU, you could run 3 LEDs in series if you want to reduce the number of resistors. In this case you would use a R = V / I = (12V - 3x3V) / 0.025A = 120 Ohm resistor.

  Much of this info is in the wiring up LEDs thread, so have a read of that too.

Cheers,
  Carl

illuminator,
  You have a typical lighting setup, but what LEDs you put in depend on what style you want, and how bright you want it. If you want to keep the 3-way lamp setup, then you can do this, but LED bulbs in the bayonet base are not common. LEDstuff has GU10 and MR16 halogen replacement bulbs, which go up to a 50W equivalent (the high power 5W LED). 6 of these would be plenty of light. I would recommend the GU10 base as it runs directly from 230V and does not require a power supply like the MR16 base. If you are able to swap the fittings to GU10, that would be ideal.
  Another option is to remove the 3-way light fitting and use a downlight unit. 12W and 15W versions are available with a wide 120 degree beam angle, so they are good for general lighting. The 15W one is similar to a 100W incandescent, so two would be enough light for a medium sized lounge.

Gidday Carl,
I was just wondering what your thoughts would be on making an ambient backlight for a plasma TV. I'm wanting to do this for both aesthetics and to increase the perceived black levels of the TV (more the latter). At this stage I'm thinking I would make two strips of 10 led's down each side behind the TV using your "20pk 1.8mm Bright White LEDs" (Wanting to get as near to 6500k as possible). I would be powering them off the psu from my HTPC. It's been a few years since I did electronics in high school so would rather call on your knowledge to get the optimum led/resistor config than completely miscalculate on my own and burn my flat down. Your help with ideas on possible configurations would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers,
         Chris