RadioShack® 5mm LED (Blue)

Comments about RadioShack 5mm Blue LED:

430 nm sounded fishy so I tested this in the lab's spectrophotometer.
The peak for my LED is at 450 nm with a full-width-half-maximum stretching from 432 nm up to 504 nm.
The spectral response is not a clean gaussian. This will lead to much trouble when using a photodiode to measure flux, as such devices must be calibrated to a certain wavelength. If obliged to do so, I suggest using the centroid, which for the LED I tested is 465 nm.

Comments about RadioShack 5mm Blue LED:

half this price I may of got more but as I said - emergency only! You can find a 50 pack for this price.

Comments about RadioShack 5mm Blue LED:

I've used these LEDs on computers ,ext hard drives,printers , home phones ,tvs ,coffee pots ,radios ,cars int lights, car radios,car amps . I like them I will use them again.

Comments about RadioShack 5mm Blue LED:

I wish they would display the color of these on the website or in stores you you can see what your buying. I hooked up these LEDs and lots of them did not even work on the circuit board, wish i'd get what i paid for!

Comments about RadioShack 5mm Blue LED:

This store bin lists this as a 6 volt led.The package lists this as a 5 volt led.The tech specs on this web page do not list any usable specs. Forward voltage? Operating current?Please look elsewhere.

Comments about RadioShack 5mm Blue LED:

It would be great if the proper spec's were givin, like Forward Voltage & Forward Current, and other related infomation

Comments about RadioShack 5mm Blue LED:

I used this LED in a computer case as a power indicator. I had to resort to this when the motherboard's power LED output stopped putting out the proper voltage following a BIOS update.

I recommend using a 68 Ohm 1/8 watt (or more) resistor in series when being driven directly from a 5 Volt constant voltage source, for example from a PC power supply red-black wire pair. When driven directly, as the 5 V forward voltage spec would suggest, the LED gets quite hot, and service life would be expected to suffer because of this. All LEDs need a current limiting resistor, and as far as I can tell, this LED does not have one built-in.

I experimented with 47 and 100 Ohm resistors as well. With a 47 Ohm resistor, the LED still heats up too much for my comfort. With a 100 Ohm resistor, the LED runs cool, but is dimmer than with a 68 Ohm resistor. With a 68 Ohm resistor, the LED still produces a little heat, but the brightness is good. If you can find an 82 Ohm resistor, that might be ideal, but RS does not carry that value. These results suggest that Vf (forward voltage) of this LED is roughly 3.5 Volts, which is typical for a blue LED, not 5 Volts as indicated on the package.

Comments about RadioShack 5mm Blue LED:

I replaced the burned out lights in my computer tower with these, they last for about 4 years before they start burning out again they are nice and bright

Comments about RadioShack 5mm Blue LED:

This led filled gaps that other could not. Quality led

Comments about RadioShack 5mm Blue LED:

These were ordered along with other LED's, the ones I used are all working fine, all came without any shipping damage.