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Slow cycling color change LED's: Anyone have experience?

Started by somnif, August 05, 2017, 01:05:35 AM

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somnif

I came across these in a Big Clive youtube vid, and I was struck by the thought that they might look fantastic in a light-plate style setup for a psychedelic-tinged pedal. I was curious if anyone around here has tried using them in a pedal context and what their experience was. Do they work at all? CLR ranges to consider? Too bright or dim? Do they add any noise to the circuit?

Basically, just curious. I can get a handful fairly cheap on ebay and may experiment a bit but there are many options: size (3/5/8/10 mm), shape (square, round, flattop, etc), diffuse vs clear, blah blah blah.

Anyone care to chime in?

jambforthelamb

I stole one out of kids toy once and it introduced and oscillation type noise into my circuit. I don't have the smarts to isolate it from the audio, so I just went with a traditional one. That was a while ago, and YMMV.
Thanks!
-Kevin

mjg

I was soldering up some recently for a friend who builds replica movie and game props.   Not sure if they will affect the audio in a pedal, but I can tell you that a 5mm colour changing LED sitting underneath a 10mm ultraviolet LED, so the colours shine through the UV....looks very pretty.   :D

I used a 150 ohm CLR, with a 3v supply.

culturejam

I tried one a long time ago, but I couldn't get it quiet. The LFO in the LED bleeds into the audio range quite badly.
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somnif

Blah, that's what I was afraid of. Oh well, thanks for the heads up.

Philthy

I've tried including cycling leds as "on" indicators in my builds twice now. On both occasions they introduced noise and I pulled them out.

Have had no problems with common annode/cathode non-cycling multi-coloured LEDs eg: John's cardinal trem rate indicator. Different animal though.

somnif

Quote from: Philthy on August 10, 2017, 12:19:00 AM
I've tried including cycling leds as "on" indicators in my builds twice now. On both occasions they introduced noise and I pulled them out.

Have had no problems with common annode/cathode non-cycling multi-coloured LEDs eg: John's cardinal trem rate indicator. Different animal though.

Yeah its the onboard LFO that I was concerned about. I was hoping it was small enough or well enough designed to avoid bleedout, but apparently thats not the case. Curses!