What brightness of LEDs

[Somicide]

not to be a *&^*&^, as this is related to my "visual effects" thread in the Lounge, but I figured I'd get more responses out here.

what kind of LEDs should I buy for this thing?  I want them as bright as possible, prefereably in a 3 to 5mm package.  Thanks,

PnL,

Jeff

[Somicide]

 oh, I hate you guys  

I kid, but some suggestions would be nice

PnL,

Jeff

[RJ]

Hi Jeff,

I recently bought some LEDs off ....*whispers*... EBAY .... that I think would work well for your application.  

They're 5mm ultra bright LEDs that come in blue, green, red, and white.  They're all 6000 mcd....if you connect them to 9V with a 1k resistor they're uncomfortably bright...they make me see spots if I look near them!  I also have white LEDs that are 20000 mcd....they're like little 5mm spotlights.  

You can also get 3mm LEDs with an output of several thousand mcd....they're very bright and come in lots of colours and I think would give you some cool options.  

I don't know if you prefer to not use EBAY or not, but there really is a huge selection of LEDs available there....some for only a few dollars for a bag of 50 or 100.

Hope that helps, until better suggestions roll in  :wink:

-Ryan

[Peter Snowberg]

http://www.superbrightleds.com

[Somicide]

thanks, i appreciate it.  I don't really hate anyone here; you guys're too cool to hate.  and I mean that about everyone.

PnL,

Jeff

[Somicide]

so should i go for the highest mcd I can get to run at 9v?

keep in mind, I'll have 10 of these running at once, Per drum.

PnL,
Jeff

[RJ]

I always just get the highest mcd LEDs I can find....cause like Sir-Mix-A-Lot says, I like bright LEDs and I cannot lie.

I'd rather have LEDs that are too bright and have to choke them back with higher value resistance, rather than not have that too-bright option.  

If you just want the drums to glow softly or faintly you could probably use plain old diffused 150mcd LEDs....but if you want them to look like exciting glowing orbs from another dimension you might need considerably brighter LEDs!

-Ryan

[Somicide]

got some that are min 5000mcd.

PnL,

Jeff

[Mark Hammer]

Try buffing them with steel wool a bit to make the illumination more diffuse.  Keep in mind it is only *partly* the brightness that makes them more visible.  How the light gets diffused is the other half of the equation.  Better diffusion lets them be seen better at angles.

[Pierre]

hi !!!
maybe this is dumb question but...what resistor should i use for a 3mm ultrabright blue (7000mcd) in a 9V stompbox? :roll:

[Mark Hammer]

I haven't worked with blue ones before, but 7000mcd is pretty damn bright.  Start with 10k and take it from there.  My guess is you wouldn't likely go below 8k2, and probably not much higher than 27k, but obviously it depends on what you consider to be decent visibility.  The black plastic collets you can buy at Radio Shack may not look as classy as the chrome ones, but the black surround DOES make changes in the state of the LED (lit/unlit) very easy to see even when dimly lighting the LED.

[Somicide]

nifty tip about the steel wool, Mark.

i'll try it.

-PnL,
Jeff