"G. Morgan" wrote in message
...
Nate Nagel wrote:

sure they are, I had a LED dash light kit in my old 944. It didn't dim
linearly like the incandescents though, so a slightly different dimmer
would be required. I thin kthe difficulty is with dimming with AC.

Diodes have two states, off and on. I couldn't see a practical
way to dim them, without fooling the brain by frequency of the
light. That won't work well either, I may be able to see 3000
fps with my eyes, but you would need a high-speed camera and light
to control constantly changing lighting environments.

You probably had an adjustable current device potentiometer that
would limit DC current... That would explain the non-linear
aspect side of the theory. Perhaps there were more LED's that you
knew about. I could easily see Porsche make a multi-diode lamp.


You need to do more research on diodes, especially the LED types. They do
not have two states like you mentioned. They are non linear devices. Also
LED are not dropping .7 volts as you mentioned. The .7 volts is a nominal
voltage for most silicon diodes only. Most LEDs drop differant voltages.
They range from about 1.5 to 4.5 volts. LEDs are current dependant and
not so much voltage. The more current through them, the brighter they are.
The current must be limiated to prevent burn out.

If a resistor is placed in series with a led, the voltage can be raised and
lowered to change the brightness. This is because the resistor is in part
controlling the current.

They can be pulse controled also. The human eye is not fast enough to
respond to fast changing lights. It will tend to average the brightness.
That is the way the moving pictuers work.