Could this be why my UVMag LED hasn't burned out yet?

i built a UV Minimag with the LED from the Discovery Channel store "Invisible Ink" writing kit, it was driven by 2 3V lithium button cells, i currently have it driven in the Minimag by four 1/2 AA 3.6V Lithium Mac clock batteries, that's 14.4 volts into the LED, and it shows no signs of popping, been using it off and on for the past week, the battery specs per battery are;

Battery, Lithium, 3.6 V, without Leads, 850 mAh

could the 850 mAh amperage rating be the reason, i'd imagine these are low current batteries....

and there's no way i'm paying Radio Shack $15 per battery for a replacement set, that's insane, i'll just order them from work and pay cost....

(roughly half the price Radio Shack sells 'em for )

850mAh is the capacity, meaning it could give 1 hr of 850mA or 850hrs at 1mA

I'm still dumbfounded as to how that single LED is taking 14.4 volts... I smoked an amber LED with a Vf for 2.2V on just 2.4V.

cratz2 said:

I'm still dumbfounded as to how that single LED is taking 14.4 volts... I smoked an amber LED with a Vf for 2.2V on just 2.4V.

Click to expand...

I did the same thing with an amber a week or so ago! They were some that WildRice sent me.

I put a bunch of reds up to 18V though and it didn't seem to have an effect on them. But yea, just a bit over 2V and the amber was toast without a resistor.

The internal resistance of those cells is likely quite high, which is why you haven't let the magic smoke out of the LED yet.

I have a few hi voltage neon sign transformers

my 20kv 30 ma transfomer lights 1 nichia white led just fine

the led does not even get warm.

no resistors or any thing are used.

now if you let one lead arc to the led it smokes quickly