This series is a gem! I don’t know anything about electronics but my 10 yr old son is SUPER interested in it. Finding videos that explain the topic so clearly (and, honestly, entertainingly) that we both can stay engaged with, understand, and talk about these concepts was very challenging. So I’m very grateful that you took the considerable time and effort to create this series, and make the world a better place than you found it.
My first job after getting my BSEET degree from College was at the Trans-Lux Corporation, manufacturers of large scale LED displays. At the time, only yellow, green & red LEDs, mostly for the NYSE, AMEX, CBT & CME. I was the LED Specialist, responsible for equal radiation profile for all LEDs in a scrolling display. One day, we got a sample, a Blue LED ($500) that was barely 20 Candellas. But it was a whole new ballgame. Engineers flocked around it like babies to a Christmas Tree. From that humble beginning, we were able to feed RGB Video to the new RGB LED displays and revoluionized the Full Spectrum Large LED display market! I was There! yo.
Thank you, this is just what I need. I want to try putting lights into various projects but I also want to do it right and keep it safe. I had doubts about whether tiny LEDs with batteries could be a fire hazard (I'm starting from zero here so I need the core knowledge) and now that I see what can happen, I know I was right not to rush in. But the great bit is knowing why. I don't like stumbling in blindly. I watched another video here where a dude just snipped off both wires and soldered the thing to some copper wire and then a switch without worrying about resistors or which wire was which. He said you had a 50% chance so no worries.The comments below it were full of people basically tearing their hair out in exasperation so I thought I'd better find a quality source of information before I even buy the supplies... outside of the soldering materials, which I have.
Thomas Edison did not invent the incandescent light bulb from scratch, but he did produce the first practicably usable one. He filed for a patent on the filament-based light bulb in November, 1878. He did not get the idea from Tesla, who emigrated to the United States in July 1884, having produced nor patented such a device. Tesla is best known for his work with alternating current, essentially inventing the modern AC power grid still in use to this day, much to the chagrin of his competitor Edison, who did everything he could to sabotage Tesla.
As the narrator said, Edison invented the first commercially viable incandescent bulb. Just as importantly, he invented and installed a practical and profitable electrical power generation and distribution system to support electric lighting.
Edison's system was NOT practical in any sense of the word. It was inefficient, ABSOLUTELY unsafe, impractical to distribute and hideously EXPENSIVE. Plus, you could be killed simply by walking over the buried cables during a rain storm. Dogs would scream and horses would bolt when crossing Edison's buried cables.
Man your channel is wonderful. As a software developer trying to go deeper into learning about the internet of things your content is just what I needed to not stay lost.
Thank you!! I am learning so much about the basics in Electricity. I have been looking for basic teaching like this for weeks. I’m so glad I found your playlist full of knowledge. I love your videos, and they are so educational. Thank you for all you do!
So far this is the best and most concise I have found on the subject. I am a woodworker trying to incorporate some LED lighting into some of my power tools like all my routers, mitre saw and a few others so I am trying to understand how the basics work in order to incorporate an integrated LED driver directly into the tools' body to run some LEDs at directly at the cut. This has helped immensely along with some of your other videos and been an instant subscription. Thank you.
I've always loved LEDs, ever since I got my first electronics project kit from Radio Shack as a kid. I was fascinated by the soft pure red light they put out. That was back in the early to mid 80s, long before blue or white LEDs hit the market, or anything with a high intensity output. Great video! I'm always looking forward to the next one. I used your laser tripwire project to make a circuit that will be used to open up a solenoid valve to release a jet of compressed air and scare birds away from making nests on my house. It's almost complete and needs a good box to put it into so I can mount it on the side of the house next spring.
I've been playing with semiconductors for a long time now and have always enjoyed making circuits just for fun, your site has sparked new interest, thanks...
Once I was at a casual robotics workshop (making things move) and the LEDs supplied by the organisers were cheap chinese ones with inverted leads: shorter Anode, longer Cathode. I've been using the death test to figure out max current for a while now, and my Fluke tells me the Vf when I test a diode. Good to see more frequent videos from you again, by the way :)
I thought of my daughter as I nearly blew us up that time. No one was Arnied fortunately but I still am alone in the lab 😂. Some things are meant to be.
I want to start using LED's in my model building. I am VERY electrically ignorant. This very short video was incredibly informative. Thank you for educating me.
That's neither true nor an interesting conspiracy theory. Even the mercury-containing compact fluorescent light bulbs, which are totally different from LEDs and look nothing like them, are very safe relative to something like a mercury thermometer, which many people over 50 never worried about having in their homes.
Concerning forward drop voltages, there are two different types of green LEDs in production, one that is phosphide-based (yellow-green), another that is nitride-based (blue green). It appears that older green LEDs tend to be the former type, and newer units are typically the latter type.
I just repaired an LED magnifying lamp. Apparently, there were many LEDs that were burnt out or simply tired. The circuit is 16 x 6 LED strings in parallel to an 18 VDC supply. Half the strings were either flashing or simply not on. Instead of trying to discover which LEDs were bad, I simply replaced an entire string. The new LED's are much brighter than the old ones. I may just replace all of them.
When I started to learn electronics, only red LEDs were available and green ones came out a while after. Then later I saw a three color LED at a Radio Shack store, which could glow yellow when connected to an alternate current source. It was glowing green when connected in reverse polarity. One day I shook it while it was yellow then noticed it was alternating between red and green. So cool I felt that day. Before I saw blue ones then finally the white ones, many many years passed.
Good video and well presented too. I haven't dabbled with electronics since a young lad and things were a lot different then, valves were pretty important then for a start, so I've got a lot of catching up to do. I think your channel is just what I need, thank you.
i saw an ultra bright LED flashlight video on UA-cam... Can you (or are you going to? if yes, then when?) make some CRAZY things that we can do with electrical components (as a series)? Like, the ultra capacitors was pretty CRAZY, it would be fun to know how a simple component we use, can do on a super saiyan mode.
I hope you finally come back and i don't need to wait 3-6m for a video :( i really like your channel. This channel help me a lot with my electronics projects :D Thank you @Afrotechmods
I found your channel some time ago, but it hadn't been uploaded to in some time. I remember your website from my high school years. Are you the same creator that brought us such great hits as the super megason IV review, the home made wireless charging mouse, and penny ram heat sinks? If so you provided my friends and I hours of hilarious entertainment. It is great to finally get the opportunity to thank you for helping cultivate our passion for electronics. This channel you have made is amazing. Glad to see you are still doing well and that you have found a way to educate people while still keeping a touch of that flare for humor I used to love! It would be great to know if you still have some of those old articles from you website somewhere. I'm sure people would still find your musical hard drives, among other creations, funny and fascinating.
OMG!!! Best videos I’ve ever seen regarding this subject. So informative, comprehendable, and easy to understand, I even took notes!!! Thank you so much for these!! Subscribing!!
Thanks for blowing up those LEDs without the current limiter ... saves me from having to demonstrate this myself to my students and burning out my own LEDs! 😆👍
awesome video as always ! for me i usually know the cathode from the anode is by the metal area inside the plastic the cathode is bigger we usually say "the flag side is the cathode" sorry for my bad english
If you don't know the forward voltage of your LED, use a power supply which has a constant current mode and can display voltage and current. Turn up the voltage until your LED draws 20mA. The voltage is your forward voltage. Use that to calculate a suitable resistor. Not all LEDs run well with 20mA. The high power ones generally run with 300-700mA. They get really hot, so don't forget the heatsink.
There's some good information here, but I think you should post the information about limiting the current with resistors as soon as possible. Sure, the LEDs don't cost much, and could be regarded as expendable, but I've worked in semiconductor manufacturing and I hate to see perfectly good components die for no reason.
I recall, back in the late 70s, red LEDs were available, though very expensive. They glowed, rather than shined. In 1980, I bought a pack of 50 once, for a light chaser project. They cost quite a bit. I never did complete that project and that pack is still around somewhere. Then came green LEDs and suddenly the technology was interesting. Blue were first announced in a Dutch magazine called Electra. TVs screens couldn't be that far behind.
There are Three ways to tell the cathode from the anode: the two you mention and looking inside the clear plastic: the *Cup-shaped* side is the *Cathode* side. C = Cathode
The voltage for led lights is dependent on what light they are built to emit. Take 1240/wavelength of light emitted to get the eV. eV are called electron volts for a reason since they are for every electron that gets excited in the LED, it emits a photon and best does so at that voltage due to the bandgap energy of the piece of semiconductor inside the LED. High voltage will overheat the light when so many electrons going through very quickly just like anything that short circuits and overheats.
Nice! The electric current (flow of electrons) actually comes from the minus (-) and goes towards the plus (+) but most of the time that's not very important.
If you are too stupid to know what "commercially viable" means then don't bother leaving a comment about Thomas Edison.
Woah recent update. Dude please come back!
Also, who is this comment for?
Smart ass.
Gee, now I want to know who said what, lol!
@@flyurway Same
@@flyurway Name names
Love this video! You take me back about 30 years blowing up LEDS. I love when things are explained simple, so everyone can understand. Thanks!
This series is a gem! I don’t know anything about electronics but my 10 yr old son is SUPER interested in it. Finding videos that explain the topic so clearly (and, honestly, entertainingly) that we both can stay engaged with, understand, and talk about these concepts was very challenging. So I’m very grateful that you took the considerable time and effort to create this series, and make the world a better place than you found it.
My first job after getting my BSEET degree from College was at the Trans-Lux Corporation, manufacturers of large scale LED displays. At the time, only yellow, green & red LEDs, mostly for the NYSE, AMEX, CBT & CME. I was the LED Specialist, responsible for equal radiation profile for all LEDs in a scrolling display.
One day, we got a sample, a Blue LED ($500) that was barely 20 Candellas. But it was a whole new ballgame. Engineers flocked around it like babies to a Christmas Tree. From that humble beginning, we were able to feed RGB Video to the new RGB LED displays and revoluionized the Full Spectrum Large LED display market! I was There! yo.
I liked this story thank you
Woow
Stephen Beres how seven segment display get made?
Stephen Beres
Best story this year! yo.
They have Mercury inside?!
I love the new round of super-basic videos. They will be great for my classes with the younger students. I am looking forward to the next one.
Thank you, this is just what I need. I want to try putting lights into various projects but I also want to do it right and keep it safe. I had doubts about whether tiny LEDs with batteries could be a fire hazard (I'm starting from zero here so I need the core knowledge) and now that I see what can happen, I know I was right not to rush in. But the great bit is knowing why. I don't like stumbling in blindly. I watched another video here where a dude just snipped off both wires and soldered the thing to some copper wire and then a switch without worrying about resistors or which wire was which. He said you had a 50% chance so no worries.The comments below it were full of people basically tearing their hair out in exasperation so I thought I'd better find a quality source of information before I even buy the supplies... outside of the soldering materials, which I have.
"don't try this at home." I already did. That's why I am here.
:D
Been there, done that.
James Scobie hhg
Maybe you needed to come here first
😂😂😂
Afrotechmods is finally back🙌 Thank you😀
Check my channel there may be some recent videos you missed.
You've been missed, sir!
Thomas Edison did not invent the incandescent light bulb from scratch, but he did produce the first practicably usable one. He filed for a patent on the filament-based light bulb in November, 1878. He did not get the idea from Tesla, who emigrated to the United States in July 1884, having produced nor patented such a device. Tesla is best known for his work with alternating current, essentially inventing the modern AC power grid still in use to this day, much to the chagrin of his competitor Edison, who did everything he could to sabotage Tesla.
As the narrator said, Edison invented the first commercially viable incandescent bulb. Just as importantly, he invented and installed a practical and profitable electrical power generation and distribution system to support electric lighting.
Edison's system was NOT practical in any sense of the word. It was inefficient, ABSOLUTELY unsafe, impractical to distribute and hideously EXPENSIVE. Plus, you could be killed simply by walking over the buried cables during a rain storm. Dogs would scream and horses would bolt when crossing Edison's buried cables.
Man your channel is wonderful. As a software developer trying to go deeper into learning about the internet of things your content is just what I needed to not stay lost.
I'm a visual learner...so the demonstrations are really helpful and make it easier for me to retain the information. Can't wait to view more videos
Thank you!! I am learning so much about the basics in Electricity. I have been looking for basic teaching like this for weeks. I’m so glad I found your playlist full of knowledge. I love your videos, and they are so educational. Thank you for all you do!
FYI for German viewers: In German, simple to remember the leg length: "Kurz" (German for 'short') for "Kathode". So the short wire is the cathode.
Henner Zeller Guter Tip, werd ich mir merken!
Malte. ich mir auch
Henner Zeller and how do I remember what the cathode does. its always try and error for me:D
think of *c* o l d ( *c* a t h o d e ) as in *minus/negative* temperature :)
ABaumstumpf 7
I'm really happy that you're back. You have a good way in explaining. I hope you're here to stay for a long time!
So far this is the best and most concise I have found on the subject. I am a woodworker trying to incorporate some LED lighting into some of my power tools like all my routers, mitre saw and a few others so I am trying to understand how the basics work in order to incorporate an integrated LED driver directly into the tools' body to run some LEDs at directly at the cut. This has helped immensely along with some of your other videos and been an instant subscription.
Thank you.
I've always loved LEDs, ever since I got my first electronics project kit from Radio Shack as a kid. I was fascinated by the soft pure red light they put out. That was back in the early to mid 80s, long before blue or white LEDs hit the market, or anything with a high intensity output.
Great video! I'm always looking forward to the next one. I used your laser tripwire project to make a circuit that will be used to open up a solenoid valve to release a jet of compressed air and scare birds away from making nests on my house. It's almost complete and needs a good box to put it into so I can mount it on the side of the house next spring.
Sounds cool
A million thanks to you, now I know why my LED stop lighting on when I connect it to 9V Battery.
And how much did you destroy?
I've been playing with semiconductors for a long time now and have always enjoyed making circuits just for fun, your site has sparked new interest, thanks...
I've literally searched the internet for an explanation like this! Amazing, and finally lol!
Sadly this channel died
@@fahoudey what? Why?
@@fahoudey yeah true, do you know if there's a specific reason?
Brilliant, simple, easy, and clear instructions. Who could ask for anything better than this tutorial?
Once I was at a casual robotics workshop (making things move) and the LEDs supplied by the organisers were cheap chinese ones with inverted leads: shorter Anode, longer Cathode.
I've been using the death test to figure out max current for a while now, and my Fluke tells me the Vf when I test a diode.
Good to see more frequent videos from you again, by the way :)
No way, new videos from WhatYouOughtToKnow and Afrotechmods in the same day?? Is this heaven??
I love the brain. When the LED fried at 3:50 i smelled the smell of burned LED's.
Good and short video, very precise.
I thought of my daughter as I nearly blew us up that time. No one was Arnied fortunately but I still am alone in the lab 😂. Some things are meant to be.
I want to start using LED's in my model building. I am VERY electrically ignorant. This very short video was incredibly informative. Thank you for educating me.
thanks this video help me a lot. Now i can finish my project.......
Clear and conscious, easy to understand even for a guy like me - job very well done,
Cheers.
You explain it so well for the layman. Awesome! I only wish I could explain it so simply and be interesting at the same time.
Diodes are pretty darn cool!
Not if you put enough current through them. HA!
_So many thumbs down!!_
Must be *_PEOPLE for the ETHICAL TREATMENT of LEDs_*
The technology is great, however these LED bulbs have Mercury! When lit for periods at a time, it seeps into your homes!
That's neither true nor an interesting conspiracy theory. Even the mercury-containing compact fluorescent light bulbs, which are totally different from LEDs and look nothing like them, are very safe relative to something like a mercury thermometer, which many people over 50 never worried about having in their homes.
Richard Head,
The thumbs downs are probably because he told everyone the voltage to use, but not watt (pun intended) resister to use.
Or unethical treatment of their heads - made them hurt, too much information.
Ok
This is a component that instantly attracted my attention as a kid, about three decades ago.
Concerning forward drop voltages, there are two different types of green LEDs in production, one that is phosphide-based (yellow-green), another that is nitride-based (blue green). It appears that older green LEDs tend to be the former type, and newer units are typically the latter type.
Wow, hello again Afrotech. Still loving the old sites stuff. Thanks for staying online and making new stuff.
I would listen to any book you narrate . awesome voice .
very clear explanation & easy-to-understand demonstration.
You explained it very well. I also like that fact that you used the DC power supply. Thank you for sharing. Thumbs up for you. I just subed!
Glad it was helpful!
I am trying to make a plane model detailed with fully functional Gear, Lights, etc. This will be my first step.
I'd like to know how it turned out please. I would think that the flight functionality would be advisable to work on first
So? Is it finish
I abandoned this project due to things I forgot, but since we're in a pandemic, might as well try again.
Being an electrical engineer and hobbyist I could smell the burning led in my mind when you fried it.
I just repaired an LED magnifying lamp. Apparently, there were many LEDs that were burnt out or simply tired. The circuit is 16 x 6 LED strings in parallel to an 18 VDC supply. Half the strings were either flashing or simply not on. Instead of trying to discover which LEDs were bad, I simply replaced an entire string. The new LED's are much brighter than the old ones. I may just replace all of them.
Like a professor you nailed it on our brains 👏👏👏👏👏
Okay, I am hooked, your instruction is extra-ordinary.
When I started to learn electronics, only red LEDs were available and green ones came out a while after. Then later I saw a three color LED at a Radio Shack store, which could glow yellow when connected to an alternate current source. It was glowing green when connected in reverse polarity. One day I shook it while it was yellow then noticed it was alternating between red and green. So cool I felt that day. Before I saw blue ones then finally the white ones, many many years passed.
welcome back mr afrotechmods
The cathode of a device is indicated by the letter "K" not "C". The letter "C" is used to indicate a collector. See IEEE 315 Clause 8.4
You are finally back, i am so glad
LED 101: High Current = Bang!
Great to see you back.
excellent video!!! like always xD thanks. saludos
Hi Gastón :)
Proyectos LED
Nice to see you back
Your tutorials are the best man I watched all of them, please post more, I already see that a lot of people like them too
Crikey chap! You have a real talent for this!
Good video and well presented too. I haven't dabbled with electronics since a young lad and things were a lot different then, valves were pretty important then for a start, so I've got a lot of catching up to do. I think your channel is just what I need, thank you.
This guy has really a talent for explaining things! Thanks
I remember LED numerical readout display on hand calculators back in the 1970's!
Yes, and on watches where a button had to be pressed to make the display light for a few seconds.
The first kid in my school that had one... you read 4 digits then you had to press a button to read the next 4 - that is how expensive they were then!
Good to have you back!! Been waiting for your videos!!
seriously why somebody thumbs down this?? WHY? It does exactly what title say in best way possible...
i saw an ultra bright LED flashlight video on UA-cam... Can you (or are you going to? if yes, then when?) make some CRAZY things that we can do with electrical components (as a series)? Like, the ultra capacitors was pretty CRAZY, it would be fun to know how a simple component we use, can do on a super saiyan mode.
best tutorials and explanations yet keep them coming.....
A simple and clear explanation. genius 👍👍👍👍👍😊
Great video! Short and straight to the point. I thought the 9V battery trick was interesting.
Happy ! Such a resourceful channel has got life.
I hope you finally come back and i don't need to wait 3-6m for a video :( i really like your channel. This channel help me a lot with my electronics projects :D Thank you @Afrotechmods
Easy and uncomplicated to understand. Thanks!
thanx brorher its shed yet more light on things we take for granted.no pun intended
I found your channel some time ago, but it hadn't been uploaded to in some time. I remember your website from my high school years. Are you the same creator that brought us such great hits as the super megason IV review, the home made wireless charging mouse, and penny ram heat sinks? If so you provided my friends and I hours of hilarious entertainment. It is great to finally get the opportunity to thank you for helping cultivate our passion for electronics. This channel you have made is amazing. Glad to see you are still doing well and that you have found a way to educate people while still keeping a touch of that flare for humor I used to love! It would be great to know if you still have some of those old articles from you website somewhere. I'm sure people would still find your musical hard drives, among other creations, funny and fascinating.
Me too.
good video. It was so illuminating
I saw the light.
Thanks, please do more basic tutorials.
glad to see you back at it, thanks.
Seriously awesome tutorial. Exceptional content for such a short video. Just subscribed.
Great basic knowledge on LED'S ,
OMG!!! Best videos I’ve ever seen regarding this subject. So informative, comprehendable, and easy to understand, I even took notes!!! Thank you so much for these!! Subscribing!!
I like how you explain and illustrate the topics.
Subscribed!
BeSt presentation ever. No fidgeting fingers, No hem/haw or senseless drone..No.. off topic chitter chatter. Just that FaCTS !
I thought you were going to get into how a LED works. Thanks for the video, I did learn something.
I'm not sure what LED me here, but I really enjoyed the video!
Happy that Afrotechmods is Active on youtube again! \m/
Thank you for making and posting this video. God Bless you.
This was so helpful....
It helped in my science project
Thanks a lot for your explanation
Great video, Are there DIY kits out there to do your own LED boards for projects such as side marker lights, signal, and tail lights for older cars?
Thanks for blowing up those LEDs without the current limiter ... saves me from having to demonstrate this myself to my students and burning out my own LEDs! 😆👍
Make sure to explain how LEDs have a non - linear IV curve in the resistance video.
Maybe a section on bandgap, doping etc?
This is a great video, I learned so much. Thanks.
You are a genius and make this so easy to underse
awesome video as always !
for me i usually know the cathode from the anode is by the metal area inside the plastic
the cathode is bigger we usually say "the flag side is the cathode"
sorry for my bad english
If you don't know the forward voltage of your LED, use a power supply which has a constant current mode and can display voltage and current. Turn up the voltage until your LED draws 20mA. The voltage is your forward voltage. Use that to calculate a suitable resistor. Not all LEDs run well with 20mA. The high power ones generally run with 300-700mA. They get really hot, so don't forget the heatsink.
Simply awesome videos on electronics. Really well explained and easy to understand.
Very Nice
Thank for the video.
Basic information is the place to start with. Looking forward to more videos from you.
I will eagerly awaiting the next video installment. I'm very interested in making some simple LED system and it's power supply.
There's some good information here, but I think you should post the information about limiting the current with resistors as soon as possible.
Sure, the LEDs don't cost much, and could be regarded as expendable, but I've worked in semiconductor manufacturing and I hate to see perfectly good components die for no reason.
Excellent video. Very straight forward.
welcome back afro!
Nicely done. Great examples, Thumbs Up.
I recall, back in the late 70s, red LEDs were available, though very expensive. They glowed, rather than shined. In 1980, I bought a pack of 50 once, for a light chaser project. They cost quite a bit. I never did complete that project and that pack is still around somewhere.
Then came green LEDs and suddenly the technology was interesting. Blue were first announced in a Dutch magazine called Electra. TVs screens couldn't be that far behind.
There are Three ways to tell the cathode from the anode: the two you mention and looking inside the clear plastic: the *Cup-shaped* side is the *Cathode* side. C = Cathode
The voltage for led lights is dependent on what light they are built to emit. Take 1240/wavelength of light emitted to get the eV. eV are called electron volts for a reason since they are for every electron that gets excited in the LED, it emits a photon and best does so at that voltage due to the bandgap energy of the piece of semiconductor inside the LED. High voltage will overheat the light when so many electrons going through very quickly just like anything that short circuits and overheats.
If you cant remember which is Anode and Cathode, remember that + comes before - and A comes before C => (+A) (-C)
I love the cat meme 'What the heck am I doing?" lol
WHAT THE HECK IM DOING ???
Cat your writing....
@@lynzcan0n_ AND using a calculator at the same time!
Nice! The electric current (flow of electrons) actually comes from the minus (-) and goes towards the plus (+) but most of the time that's not very important.
Conventional current (which is used in electrical engineering) flows from positive to negative.
Yup, electrons don't like hanging out together in big crowds for too long, too many negative vibes
Very helpful video. Easy to understand a nicely made.
GOOD direct information tutorial could not have made it any better ... thanks.
4:06 So you're saying if an LED blows up in my face I will look like Arnold Schwarzenegger? Sounds like a good deal to me!