Best Type Of LED's

**Furgo** · 14th December 2002

what is the best type of led's to use when changin them in a computer, water clear or diffused, i know they are both the same but which one gives off best light etc, was goin for the NICHIA 5mm blue which are rated at 3cd and have a 15 degree viewing angle,

also does anyone know of any sites telling you how to open up a laptop, i know they use SMD led's i have changed the one on my CD-ROM to a bright red one, looks better now, i can see it working in the dark,

it is a Toshiba Satellite 4080 XCDT or summat close to that, not sure on the last letters

**mazfg** · 9th January 2003

Hi,

Diffused or clear depends on how you like to view them. The diffused is gonna give you light from the sides, clear will only tend to be noticeable at tighter head on angles(they seem to look brighter but that's usually because the light angle's so tight)!
Where are you getting your blue led's from????

As far as taking laptops apart they're all different and some worse than others. Toshiba satellites tend to come apart with the top of the case(around where the keyboard sits) together with the TFT screen. You have to remove a fair few screws underneath. Sorry it's not much info but they're all different, even different models of the same manufacturer.

Mazz

**Furgo** · 15th January 2003

Maplin is where i buy my blue led's from, Nichia blue rated at 3cd or 3000 mcd how ever u want to look at it, they have a viewing angle of 15*

dont worry about the laptop thing, i changed the led in the CD-Rom to a red one, didn't have any blues luyin around and cant be bothered to order any more, they are the SMD - SMT however u want to look at it, in the 0603 size but u could get away with 0805 just about

0603 = 0.6mm x 1.8mm
0805 = 1.2mm . 2.25mm ( as far as i remember, its been ages since i needed to remember the size of them, )

**fisherman** · 28th January 2003

The white leds are very nice and are very bright and I have never seen any system with them in, the only prob is they are expensive.

**mazfg** · 28th January 2003

Try ebay for leds.
I've just bought 100 blue leds (3000mcd brightness) for �17 and 50 white leds (4000mcd) for �13. Some guy from Hong Kong is selling them aparently direct from the factory.

Mazz

**sambo** · 5th April 2003

diffused are when the leds are the same colour as the colour light it produces were as clear are allways white looking but produce for example red light

**Mr IP Freely** · 12th May 2003

This maybe a silly question but...

I'm looking at getting a nice bright blue led for my floppy drive. What should the voltage be. I was told 3.6v but i can't find any of that voltage on www.maplin.co.uk only white.

Can anyone help... Thanks