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Subject: 
Home-made Light Bricks
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.dear-lego, lugnet.robotics
Date: 
Wed, 26 Jan 2000 23:31:21 GMT
Viewed: 
75 times
  
Hi all,

I would just like to pose a new idea. Current light bricks have lights, and
different caps to provide different colors. What I am experimenting with now
is the use of Light Emmiting Diodes(LEDs).
    LEDs will only light up if the current is travelling in the right
direction (polarity). So what I did was connect two LEDs, one green and one
red, in different directions. What happens is this:
    The green LED lights up if one button is pressed, and the red one lights
up if the other one is pressed.
    But be careful if you are using the 9-volt power pack. you must use a
resistor if you don't want to blow your LEDs. If you are using mindstorms,
you could probably just lower the power level for that output.
    I think this would be interesting to use in a robot as an indicator of
some sort. I hope to get some pictures online of what I've got so far, but I
don't know who to borrow a digital camera from.

        Tom

PS LEDs at Radio Shack are not very expensive, and ask about resistors.



Message has 3 Replies:
  Re: Home-made Light Bricks
 
(...) You can actually buy a single LED which operates the way you described. It will be colorless when off, light up red one way and green the other, and if you supply AC (lighting both) it will appear yellow. --Ben (24 years ago, 26-Jan-00, to lugnet.dear-lego, lugnet.robotics)
  Re: Home-made Light Bricks
 
Tom Covo wrote in message ... (...) now (...) lights (...) The way the RCX controls power level, you would still need a resistor since it is pulse width controlled, not voltage controlled. This reminds me of the time in college we had to design our (...) (24 years ago, 27-Jan-00, to lugnet.dear-lego, lugnet.robotics)
  Re: Home-made Light Bricks
 
Hi Tom, I started a thread about this subject on november 12 last year. I got a lot of useful responses from people who had experience with LEDs. Not only about the resistors to use (I figured that one out for myself), but also about mounting the (...) (24 years ago, 27-Jan-00, to lugnet.dear-lego, lugnet.robotics)

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