Andy wrote:
Andy writes:
I recently bought some blue LED nite lights from our local
Dollar Store ( for $1 USD each ) and find that , while they don't
give out as much light as the 5 or 7 watt nitelights I have been
using, they are perfectly adequate for keeping me from
stumping my toe on the dresser on the way to the
bathroom at 2 am......

They are advertised to draw only 0.4 watts ... That would
mean if plugged in 24 hours a day, they would cost me only
35 cents a year ( 10 cents per kwh ) . I kind of like that...

So I took one apart and made a schematic. The
limiting is done by a series capacitor.... I then fed the
network into a PSPICE simulator and checked out the
claim..... Truly, it uses only 0.4 watts of real power.....

I went back and bought a sackfull..... If anyone else has
experience with these items, please post your experience....

Sure, the light is weird ( kind of cool, actually ) and it is
only useful if you have been in a dark room for a few minutes,
but that is nomally the case for our household.....

Andy in Eureka, P.E.


PS If anyone is interested, I can Email you
the schematic.....
Hi,
Limiting by series capacitor?
Prices of those will come down further with time for sure.