"Ted Swirsky" schreef in bericht
newsp.s76g2bukrwebfy@oemcomputer...
I can't believe it's so hard to find simple parts any more. Radio Shack
seems to have become worthless in the past few years.

I installed a 120V neon indicator (pilot) lamp in some of my wall switches
to tell me when an outside or otherwise unseen light is on. Seems like
these little neon lights get dimmer over time until they are worthless.

I've heard of 120V LED pilot lights. Are they much better than the neon
ones?

I'm looking for a known mail order supplier who will sell me only two or
three at a reasonable price and not kill me on shipping. I'm surprised I
didn't see them on the Hosfelt Electronics site. I've found them on some
other sites but the prices seemed kind of high to me. I thought someone
here would know of some good suppliers.

I'd just buy a switch with a pilot light, but some of the places I
installed them are double wall switches (two in a group) and are of the
fancy rectangle switch kind instead of the older toggle switch. I just
drilled a hole in the switch place between the two switches for the lamp.

Any help or comments or alternate ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Ted

Ted,

IMHO the simple neon bulbs are still the easiest indicators. They will last
long, most of the times longer then the equipment they are build in. That's
where I get most of them from. Neon bulbs are made for various currents.
They will give more light and live shorter when you feed them more then the
nominal current. Less current gives less light but a longer lasting
indicator. Neon bulbs are for sale by Farnell for instance. But, of course,
you'll have to pay much more for handling and shipping then the price of the
bulbs.

If you can get the right LEDs cheaper they are a good alternative. But LEDs
require verry low voltage and relative high currents. So a "standard" 20mA
LED will consume almost 2,5W to be dissipated in the serial resistor. I ever
made a circuit to use such a LED even at 230V but it takes quite some space
(and money). So to keep things simple, you'll have to use high efficiency
LEDs that require 2mA or even less. To make it really efficient you'll have
to add a bridge rectifier but four small general purpose diodes will do.
Sometimes someone advises to use one antiparallel diode but then you throw
away half of the light you can have for the same money.

petrus bitbyter