This is an attempt to record the very edge to which an LED can be driven. A failed attempt.
I tried to post this as a component page, but it would not take embedded video...
The LEDs I tried are rated at 30 mA maximum. The forward voltage is between 1.9 and 2.1 V. I used a power source of 8.1 V and a variable resistor in series that could range from 5000 to 0 Ohm.
I consider this experiment failed because I could not bring the LED to the brink of extinction (or rather ignition). It proved very difficult to bring the current through the LED to exactly 30 mA using nothing but a simple 5k linear potmeter. Once at 25 mA, it went straight up and off the scale. The difference in the angle of the potmeter was unnoticeable. I suggest someone takes this from my hands (and budget) and continues with a PWM signal generated by a micro controller. That should be much more manageable.
Good grief, I am going to have to take a crack at this. Maybe after making my lab coat.
I have a TON of pots (all leftover from school x2 because there was a paperwork issue and I got two sets g). For some reason I still hold the notion that every component I have is precious and I should do all that I can to not destroy them for the sake of amusement.
Maybe if I perform a sacrifice of an LED my projects will go more smoothly?
Add a resistor to your circuit Add something small that by itself would limit current to aomething you believe would be too much for the LED, then have the pot to dial the mA you want. The multiturn pots would probably be better, more precise. And a smaller value pot as well, so more of the “swing” is needed to change the mA. Maybe a 47 ohm resistor in series with a 1k ohm pot. 8.1 volts - 2 volts = 6.1 or so to dropped across the resistor, so with the pot at 0, the 47 ohm would give 127 mA, and 1047 ohm would give 5.8 mA. Now te LED might be lit at both ends of this range, but you’d have a larger amount of the turning that would be more controllable.
Only today I discovered that another one of my videos got censored by YouTube because of my flagrant abuse of copyrighted music (I paraphrase). Instead of re-editing, contesting or finding a new hosting service, I decided to move on and forget about the whole thing.
