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Let's drop in
on Wily and look over his shoulder at his latest project.... |
High Power Flashing LED |
Wily got an
unusual request from a caller. The company wanted to use an
off-the-shelf solar powered LED path light but instead of a steady state
light, they wanted the thing to flash. The company did not want to go
into detail about the ultimate application but they wanted the light to
flash at a certain rate, a specific duration and be very bright. The
kicker was that instead of flashing a visible light, they wanted this device
to flash invisible infrared light. Wily suspected that the device was
going to be used for some kind of military application but he didn’t push
the company for more details..... |
con't page 7 |
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Wily Widget,
the Lone Inventor
with Gadget & Gizmo |
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WHAT
THE WORLD NEEDS NOW is a. Long Lasting LED Night Light |
I have tested a lot of
fluorescent and LED type night lights over the years. I have yet to
find one, which is worth what I paid for it. All of the fluorescent
lamps died within a few months. All LED lights faded to the 50% point
in one year or less. A 7 watt incandescent night light lamp does not
put out much light and usually dies within 6 months but it is cheap and
works the same predictable way from day one to when it dies. I use a
brighter 7 watt lamp in my laundry room, where it runs 24/7. I use
that position for testing the lifetime of various night lights. There
is a gray smudge above the power outlet in that room, left by the puffs of
smoke that came out of many of the night lights I have tested over the years
when they died..... |
story
con't on page 6 |
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Fading White
LEDs
By: Dave Johnson
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There is a “dirty
little secret” in the LED lighting industry. You will not see much
being written about this because the industry does not want to talk about
it. “White LEDs fade.” Some LEDs from China fade very rapidly.
I have seen some devices where the light output drops by 50% in only a few
weeks. I cringe when I see those same devices being used in
incandescent lamp replacement fixtures, nightlights and flashlights..... |
story con't on page 8 |
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New Products 2009
New product announcements are made nearly every
day. I subscribe to many trade journals and each is filled with
hundreds of flashy advertisements. But, only a few of those product
ads catch my eye. Since I’m a circuit designer, I especially like
those components that trigger many new application ideas in my mind.
Sometimes it is the smallest products that are the most useful. I
often discovered new products in surplus electronic catalogs. The
surplus companies often buy up stock that came from companies that went out
of business. Bad marketing or bad management may have killed a
perfectly good product idea. Their loss can be your gain if you can
spot the bargain.
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White LED
Lifetime Tests
By: Dave JohnsonA dirty little secret
in the lighting industry is that all white LEDs fade over time. I’ve been
conducting some more experiments on some white LEDs offered on Ebay. I
have purchased many LEDs through eBay over the years but I have yet to find a
quality white LED, made in China. I want to world to know that many of the
so-called white LED bargains on Ebay are not bargains at all. .
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story con't on page 4 |
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Wrong LED Wavelength
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I got a call from a lighting
company. The company made custom overhead light assemblies, used mostly
for hospitals. One of the accessories the company offered with their
lights was a hand held infrared remote. The user could point the remote
at a light receiver built into the toggle switch panel and control the lights.
The company had been buying these simple remotes from the same company for
many years without problems..... |
story
con't on page
3 |
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Another Bad LED Night Light |
The wife bought me yet another
LED night light to test. She bought it at Walgreens. This thing
was fairly small. As shown below, it was sold in a blister pack
containing two lights. The package claimed that the light would last
50,000 hours, which if used 24 hours each day would be 5.7 years. Each
light contained three wide angle white LEDs. It was designed to screw
into and replace a standard 4w incandescent lamp, using a miniature screw
base..... |
story con't on page 5
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