Blown LED
2006-06-04 by Richard Brewster
This is sort of off topic, but may be of interest. I had to replace the
power LED in my computer. The original was bright blue. Its failure
mode was that for several weeks it was intermittent and would flicker,
sometimes on, sometimes off. Then it died for good. I checked out the
wiring and concluded it must be the LED, which was mounted on a small
board fastened to the front panel with two machine screws (in a nice
computer case). It was easy to remove the board and replace the LED
with a red one from my parts bin.
Now, what do you think caused the blue LED to fail? Could it be a
current overload? The new red one looks to be normal brightness (much
less than the blue had been). I was wondering if the resistor, which I
didn't measure, was chosen for a normal LED and when mated to the blue
resulted in too much current? LEDs normally last almost forever.
Richard Brewster
http://www.pugix.com
power LED in my computer. The original was bright blue. Its failure
mode was that for several weeks it was intermittent and would flicker,
sometimes on, sometimes off. Then it died for good. I checked out the
wiring and concluded it must be the LED, which was mounted on a small
board fastened to the front panel with two machine screws (in a nice
computer case). It was easy to remove the board and replace the LED
with a red one from my parts bin.
Now, what do you think caused the blue LED to fail? Could it be a
current overload? The new red one looks to be normal brightness (much
less than the blue had been). I was wondering if the resistor, which I
didn't measure, was chosen for a normal LED and when mated to the blue
resulted in too much current? LEDs normally last almost forever.
Richard Brewster
http://www.pugix.com