Tag Archives: LEDS

Ultra-dimmable first retrofit premium 850 lumens LED lamps

Ledzworld, the Netherlands Company based in Amsterdam, has launched the world’s first ultra-dimmable retrofit LED lamp producing 850 Lumens from a single source. The product AR-111 LED lamp has been developed with several notable features incorporated with the user in mind. Ledzworld is a world-renowned company that has been a pioneer in harnessing LED technology and it is no surprise that they have come out with these LED lamps to be used in various places. This innovation is considered as an ideal replacement for the halogen lamps that has been in use for a long time now. The AR-111 LED lamp is well tested, cost effective, highly efficient and the design is perfect for the user, makers, designers and installers.

AR-111 is a single source LED lamp that comes with a CRI of 80. It is also offered with a CRI of >90. It also has the company’s special Chameleon Driver, which is a technological breakthrough that has the self-adjusting feature to make it a perfect fit. It can be used with a variety of combination of drivers and dimmers. The Chameleon Driver detects the transformer type initially and then it goes on to analyze the waveforms to suitably change or transform itself into a perfect fit.

Jan Kemeling is the founder and the Chief Sales and Marketing Officer of Ledzworld. He says, “A large number of current luminaires on the market with integrated LED light engines look bulky, but Ledzworld’s unique AR-111 Platinum Ultra Dimmable LED has the appearance and characteristics of a sophisticated track-luminaire while efficiently delivering 850 Lumens.” The looks are aesthetic and match perfectly with the ambience of museums, lounges, hospitals, hotel, residential, retail displays and restaurants. Kemeling also opines, “This innovative Chameleon Driver makes our AR-111 Platinum LED lamp a true ‘plug and play’ solution that can be trusted with no surprises or disappointments.”

The AR-111 has the intelligence to monitor the temperature within its driver compartment. The beam angle can be adjusted to 25 degrees or to 40 degrees, with the help of Reduced Glare Optical Technology developed by the company. The lamp comes with three-color temperatures of 2700K, 3000K, and 4000K. It has an overall dimension of 62×111 mm with light of single focus. When compared with halogen lamps, AR-111 allows a saving of 80% of the energy consumed. The removable outer ring is patented for the product and it allows the option of matching the color to the application or fixture. Ledzworld offers a three-year warranty for continued usage of this LED lamp.

Given the company’s global reputation in manufacturing LED lamps, this ultra-dimmable AR-111 LED lamp is bound to play a path-breaking role in its use. It offers several benefits by way of energy saving, operational efficiency, convenience in use along with its robust features. The most important aspect of the product is that it is a replacement for halogen lamps that are still used very widely. This effectively means that users gain cost wise as well in its operational efficiency.

Are OLEDS better than LEDS?

Chances are, you still own a TV that is bulky, has a picture tube and is kept on a table. Well, with advancing technology, TVs have become slimmer and lighter, can hang on the wall and do not have a bulky picture tube.

The new TVs have an LCD or a Liquid Crystal Display in place of the earlier picture tube. Now, unlike the picture tube, LCDs have no light of their own, and have to be lit with a backlight. Until recently, most LCD TVs were backlit with plasma discharge tubes or CCFL lamps.

The CCFL lamps are placed directly behind the LCD panel and this adds to the overall thickness of the TV. Another newer method of lighting up the LCD panel is with LEDs and these are placed all around the panel, just beneath the bezel of the screen. Some models, especially the larger sized TVs place the LEDs behind the panel.

According to the TV manufacturers, LED models provide a better contrast (difference between black and white parts of the picture). This is because LEDs can be turned off completely to render a complete black portion. With CCFLs, there was no turning off, and the blacks produced were not so deep.

With further advancement of technology, there is a new kid on the block, called OLED or Organic Light Emitting Diode. This is a thin layer of film made from an organic compound which emits light in response to an electric current. Unlike an LCD, an OLED screen needs no backlighting, making it the thinnest of all the screens for a TV; a screen, which can be rolled up.

Other advantage of OLEDs is its very high switching speed, which produces practically no blur when there is fast movement in the picture. Moreover, OLEDs can be switched off to produce black color, and there is no leakage of light from the neighboring OLEDs. This allows OLEDs produce the highest dynamic contrast among all the displays. Does that mean OLEDs are better than LEDs?

As the technology is relatively new, there are some primary difficulties that OLEDs face today. The first is OLEDs are still not as bright as LEDs are, and that makes them harder to see in sunlight or even in broad daylight. Additionally, with the present structure of the OLEDs, producing blue light is harder. This makes the images just passable.
Another issue with the OLEDs is their lifespan. At present, the OLED has the shortest lifespan among LED, LCD and other technologies commonly available on the market. The average lifespan of an OLED is only 14,000 hours, which means if you watch eight hours of TV every day, the OLED screen will last only five years.

Although OLEDs are good at displaying high contrast, they hog quite a bit of power when displaying all whites. Moreover, similar to the old cathode ray tubes or picture tubes, OLEDs are prone to burn-in, meaning if you let the picture remain static for long, a shadow of the picture remains on the screen.

The last disadvantage of OLEDs is their prohibitive cost.

West Florida Components in the community making LED Throwies

West Florida Components was recently invited to participate in a science experiments fair held in conjunction with the USF Education Department.

Each business staffed a booth where elementary school aged kids along with their families could conduct science experiments. The community event was an opportunity for families to enjoy and see the benefits of science in a fun atmosphere. The West Florida Components station was one of about 18 stations at which participants could interact and have fun with science. The event met a significant need identified at the national, state and local levels which is to increase the scientific literacy of students as a way to improve the local, state and global competitive status of our communities and our country.

The staff from West Florida Components made LED Throwies with the fair attendees. Each family member was given an LED, a 3V battery, a magnet and some tape to put their LED Throwie together. Once the Throwies were assembled, they could toss their Throwie at a metal board to earn points. The families learned the science behind the Throwie and were given additional LEDS to take home to so they could rebuild their throwies and experiment further.

If you’d like the instructions to make the LED Throwies, you can visit our web site where we give full instructions with pictures.

Make a 9V headlamp head flashlight

Here’s an easy project that simple enough for electronic beginners, plus the supplies required are probably laying around your house or workshop.

Could you buy the same thing for just a few dollars more? Sure you could, but you’d miss out on the satisfaction of assembling this project all by yourself.

Here’s what you need:
2 high intensity white LEDS (you can use other colors if desired)
small perf board
2 470 ohm resistors
toggle switch or slide switch
9V battery snap
9V battery
small project box (you can use an Altoid tin)
electrical wire (about 2′ total)
soldering iron
solder
hot glue
electrical tape

For full assembly instructions, you can view the pages here:
http://www.instructables.com/id/9-Volt-Headlamp/

Solar & LEDS: Tech company’s new and improved business model

Applied Materials announced this week that it was planning a major restructuring of it’s business. The goal? To place a “primary emphasis” on LEDS and crystalline silicon solar panel technology.

This restructuring would effect the bottom line of the company in many ways including the elimination of 400 – 500 jobs and the closing of their thin-film solar technology lab among other plans.

The future of Applied Material’s solar technology would focus on the crystalline silicon solar product development over the thin-film solar business. Historically, crystalline silicon (c-Si) has been used in many solar cells as a light-absorbing semiconductor although it is considered a relatively inefficient for light absorption. It also requires a considerable thickness (several hundred microns) of material.
Despite this, it has proven to be desirable because it produces stable solar cells with good efficiencies (11-16%, which is half to two-thirds of the theoretical maximum). It uses process technology developed from the huge knowledge base of the microelectronics industry.

LED Basics: How to tell which lead is positive or negative

Here are more questions we get asked a lot:
What is the positive (or negative) lead on an LED? How do you determine the polarity of an LED?

If you are talking about through hole LEDS, in most cases it’s pretty easy to determine the polarity.

Through Hole LED

Through Hole LED

If the LED has two leads, one longer than the other,the longer lead is the postive (also known as the anode) lead.

If the LED has two leads with leads that are equal in length, you can look at the metal plate inside the LED. The smaller plate indicates the positive (anode) lead; the larger plate belongs to the negative (cathode) lead. Unfortunately, some jumbo LEDS have the plates reversed so this is not a fool-proof method.

If the LED has a flat area (on the plastic housing), the lead adjacent to the flat area is the negative (cathode) lead.

It’s a little bit harder to determine the polarity with Surface Mount LEDS. Some are marked with a (-) to indicate the negative lead, but often, they are not. The single best way to determine the polarity is through the use a multimeter.

Surface Mount LED

Surface Mount LED

Set the multimeter to the diode/continuity setting. Usually,the multimeter will supply enough current into the LED which will just barely light it up. The black (common) lead on the multimeter indicates the negative (cathode) lead, and the red indicates the positive or anode side.

Of course, if you can find the datasheet for your LED, the pinout, along with all the other specs will be readily available on the datasheet.

RGB Tricolor Flashing LEDS – Exciting New Product!

West Florida Components has just started to carry an exciting new product – RGB Tricolor Flashing LEDS!

At first glance you might think “Why are they calling them both RGB AND Tricolor?” The reason is that each LED is actually 3 separate LEDS housed in one case.

They operated in a sequence: first one color is lit at a time, then two light up, then all three. The cycle is completed when all three LEDS have been lit slowly, then begin to flash. Max voltage is around 3V.

We were trying to think of some interesting uses for these LEDS. Certainly they’ll be fun to use around the holidays – in garland or in wreaths or other holiday projects. How about as a centerpiece? They would also be great for costumes and for jewelry making.

Here’s a challenge for our customers:

Use your imagination and find a great project to use these in. We’ll feature the best suggestions/projects in a video on our home page!

7 Segment Displays

7 Segment LEDs or 7 segment displays are a type of electronic display devices used for displaying decimal numbers, in place of the more complicated dot matrix displays. 7 segment LEDs are used in a number of applications such as electronic meters, digital clocks and other such electronic devices.

7 Segment Display

7 Segment Display

As the name suggests, these electronic components are made up from 7 segments that are used for displaying each of the numerals from 0 to 9. The segments are arranged in a rectangle pattern with two vertical segments placed on each side, and a horizontal segment placed on top and bottom. In addition, another segment is placed bisecting the rectangle horizontally. This way, the figure obtained is of the number ‘8’. The segments are identified by lower case letters “a” to “g”, that begin with “a” on the top and going clockwise, with the center segment being “g”.

In some 7 segment LEDs, an additional segment is used to denote a decimal point and is referred to as DP. In some LEDs an extra triangle is also included to turn this decimal point in to a comma, which improves the readability of larger numbers.

Most of the 7 segment displays are slanted to make the numbers look like they were written in italics. This allows for one digit to be placed upside down along with another digit, such that the two decimal points appear like a colon between the digits. This arrangement of these electronic components is widely used in digital clock displays.

What is Infrared?

What is Infrared?

The electromagnetic spectrum has waves of various wavelengths. Human eyes are capable to seeing the light that form a small part of electro magnetic spectrum. The waves with shorter wavelength as well are longer wavelengths than the visible spectrum are not visible. Infrared are waves that have longer wavelengths than the visible spectrum. The wavelengths corresponding to the Infrared waves are in between 750nm to 1mm.

Infrared waves cannot be seen but can be felt in the form of heat. Since the main source of infrared emissions is thermal source, so any thing that has temperature will emit Infrared emissions. Most of them are not noticed because they are not so strong. Higher is the temperature of the object, greater will be the Infrared emissions. Substances that seem cold such as a cube of ice also emit infrared.

Uses of Infrared:

  • Night vision: Infrared filters are utilized to filter 99 percent of the light of the visible spectrum and allow maximum infrared light to pass through them. This helps in viewing objects even in the dark based on their infrared emissions.
  • Thermo vision: Infrared emissions are utilized to find out the temperatures of distant objects. All celestial bodies emit strong Infrared emissions. These emissions are an easy way to study about the topography as well as climate of the celestial bodies.
  • Communication: Infrared transmission is an easy way to transfer data for a short distance. Infrared finds its application in remote controls in which the Infrared LEDs are utilized to emit radiations that are focused over the Infrared acceptors. The Infrared LEDs also find their application in movement sensors such as optical mouse used in our desktop.
    • IR LEDS

    IR LEDS

  • Spectroscopy: Infrared waves find their applications in analysis of the molecules.
  • Satellite images: Infrared imaging is utilized by satellites to send in the details regarding the weather and geography of a place.