Is 5w HD slug electrically neutral?

reefphilic

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Apr 12, 2003
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Singapore
Hi,

Where can I find informations on the electrical state of the white 3W HD and 5W HD Luxeon emitters? TIA.
 

Doug S

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Jun 20, 2002
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Chickamauga Georgia
There are a pair of diodes with their anodes connected to the slug and one cathode to the LED + and one cathode to the - connection.
 

reefphilic

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Singapore
I'll be using either the 3W or 5W white LEDs as replacement for mine vehicle's dome light. The LEDs will be glued with artic silver thermal epoxy to an aluminium heatsink which is in turn screwed onto the metal chassis. As the metal chassis is also the ground of the vehicle's electrical system. I am worried that it might affect the operations of the LEDs.
 

shiftd

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as long as your slug does not touch + V of the source, you will be fine. I believe white, cyan and blue all have ground slug, while the red and orange ones have + slug.
 

reefphilic

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Thanks again to all who responded. I was worried when I read the Luxeon III and Lux V datasheets which stated that the slug are not electrically neutral and have to be isolated from surrounding LEDs. Now I know I can proceed safely at least when connected in parallel.

I'll be using a simple resistor to control the current. Wayne mentioned about the possibility of load dump transient voltage spike. Is there any simple solution to protect the LEDs?
 
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