Newbie With a Project

[fuzyfeet]

I'm new and this is my first time posting so bare with me.

I'm a bit of a Steampunk fan and found these plastic tubes with end caps and a wire through it that look like some kind of Steampunk fuse. My idea is to run a yellow LED into to (more like hiding it in the cap) for a dramatic effect. I've played around with electronics and done some cool things, but since I've never attached an LED to a battery I was wandering what I should know, like: What type of battery should I use? Would a AAA be too much?

Thanks so much in advance,
Ju Ju

 

[jason 77]

Well while the link you gave to the yellow LED doesn't give any specs "forward voltage, current draw" Most yellow LEDs have a vf of about 2.0-2.1 Vdc. I would guess that 3mm LED to have a current draw of about 10mA.

So a AAA 1.5 Vdc battery would not be enough voltage, two in series giving you 3 Vdc is too much voltage and current for a direct drive. You need a resistor in series with the LED.

I would use this link to calculate it...

http://led.linear1.org/led.wiz

 

[fuzyfeet]

Thank you that tool helps, but I have a question about ohms. Changing the configuration gives me the same W resister but the ohms vary from 33 to 100. What would happen is I used the wrong one?

 

[Neondiod]

The W of the resistor just tells how much heat it can handle. It doesn't reflect the resistans. If a resistor have to handle more W (the sum of V x A) than it's specified for, it will break. You shall always use a resistor that is specefied above what it shall handle. You can't have a too big resistor but it costs more and takes more space the higher W it can handle.