ma draw on pedals

[Joecool85]

I tested my 5th gear OD and it pulls 0.6ma when "off" and 16ma when full tilt.  Which makes me realize how much the LED pulls lol.  That means that the circuit minus LED is only 0.6ma!  But, its worth it to have the LED.  Even with 16ma, most 9v batteries have something like 750mah, so thats around 46 hours of use!

[Mark Hammer]

From your description, I would think there is more than just the LED drawing current when in the "on" state. True the power is still connected to the circuit even when bypassed, but there is a difference between quiescent current demand with no signal, and what happens when you feed a signal into a high gain circuit.

All of that being said, one of the reasons why ultra-bright LEDs are recommended is because you can achieve much greater brightness/visibility levels with the same current by using them.  That also means you can get the same visibility/brightness levels using much less current.  A garden variety red LED probably wants a 1k current limiting resistor.  An ultrabright can easily get away with 10k and still be brighter.  If the LED is drawing less current, the battery life will be extended.

[Joecool85]

Well, the LED I used draws 15ma, and I set up the resistor accordingly to get full brightness.  I could change it I'm sure, but I don't really care, I mean seriously, how much battery life do you really need?

[Mark Hammer]

seriously, how much battery life do you really need?

Depends on how much your average battery purchase costs, how critical it is to you to have a battery that will knowingly last through a gig, and how much it means to you to not be filling the earth up with contaminants every 3 weeks.  They may be cheap, but they're still garbage.

[Joecool85]

Rechargeables, or wallwart.  No sense in using regular batteries if you are going through them alot.  I'm an environmentalist, I'm getting a solar charger for my rechargables.