Leviton making it brighter?

[TrueBrit]

So my desire is to replace the LED that comes in a Leviton 515CV-LIT Grounding Lighted Cord End Replacement with a larger/brighter one. The wish is to make it more visible in daylight.

Let me show you the internals of the Leviton and the LED inside. Pictures here

I think the you can see from the photos that the leads to the LED are just placed in the housing and the contact is made between prong and the housing. Simple and it works. There is a dome that goes over the LED and that dome is large enough to take a LED that is twice the physical size on the original. I did a Google search for the numbers that are on the LED in the pictures but I get nothing.

Does anyone have a recommendation for a brighter/larger replacement LED and the resistor I should attach for 120v? Brighter is more desirable than larger. I would not be offended if you pointed me to a vendor that would sell same.

Thanks in advance.

 

[snakebite]

seems to only have a resistor.
so the led has 2 dice in opposite polarity.
you can do this with 2 separate leds.
this setup is poor to start with.
you can up the output by lowering resistance but heat becomes the problem.

 

[Got Lumens?]

How about a Neon Bulb from a 300V test light?

 

[Dave_H]

Sorry, for some reason I can't get to the images.

I guess it's a question of "how bright is bright enough"... and "too bright" may be distracting.

Small neon lamp with resistor can be fairly bright and could last 100k hours if not driven too hard. NE-2 is
rated 1/17W and brighter NE-2H is 1/4W max. with appropriate series resistor (use 1/4W). These are available
from sources such as DigiKey. Any device in a voltage tester is likely to be the lower one. Not sure how
much the colour matters for visibility, would be interesting in bright indoor/outdoor visibility given that LEDs
in general tend to get "washed out" in these conditions.

LED with two chips in inverse-parallel could conduct on both half-cycles but is that essential?
The early 2-colour LEDs were like this, but most these days appear to be two in the same direction
with a common pin (3-pin package); or RGB in a 4-pin or 6-pin package.

I am also thinking that using a single LED/resistor, a high-PRV blocking series diode (200v or greater) is
a good idea as during the off half-cycle the LED is subject to voltage far above its reverse breakdown
(typically 5v) albeit current-limited through resistor; but may impact its reliability. 1N4004 is cheap and
common.

Functionally, yellow/amber/orange makes sense for an energized outlet, whereas red usually indicates
"danger" or "fault", and green suggests "everything is fine" and no risk involved.

For high-ambient visibility, would be interested in any data/experience for which colours are best,
and least good.

Some low-cost LED ac indicators conduct on half-cycle with some flicker; probably not that important but
based on LED Christmas light strings, can be distracting or attention-getting depending on your
perspective.

Dave

 

[Dave_H]

Specific series resistance value and power rating depends on LED current which depends on how bright
you need it to be. Simple series resistor for single LED (or even a few series) is very inefficient; >95%
of power is burned up in the resistor at 120vac (and I hate to think of 220vac). This limits current to perhaps
10-20mA in practical terms. With a good LED you can get quite a bit of light for this, may or may not
be enough.

120vac RMS has peak value around 170v. If the LED is only driven on half the cycle, need to account for
the lower RMS value, but also not exceed peak current rating of LED. Specific LED(s) with datasheet helps.

For widest viewing range, best to use a LED with wide dispersion angle (130 degrees or more) unless using
a diffuser, which complicates things. Neon lamps are really good in this aspect.

I've opened up a number of line-powered LED night lights to see how they do it. Aside from light detection
circuits for automatic switching, beyond the scope of this usage, there are some variants. Some use a
series capacitor as an impedance to limit current based on line frequency, which typically does not save
any space as the capacitor itself is fairly large (but does not dissipate much heat). Another circuit in
addition used four diodes to full-wave rectify the line which essentially eliminates flicker and raises average
voltage across the LED for a given resistor. This may or may not be useful to this case.

You may have to pick some LEDs and experiment a bit. You could find the right brightness using low-voltage
dc, then set equivalent for line-powered circuit.

Dave

 

[Got Lumens?]

I just bought a Leviton Lighted 120V 15A Female corded receptacle, it's Green, not amber and much easier to see in daylight.