# LED DIY reading



## niko (Jan 28, 2004)

Some months ago I discovered that learning things you don't want to learn makes a very big difference in many areas of your life, literally. But the effort needs to be intentional and at the end you must be able to give an overview of what you learned. Doesn't matter how long it takes you if at the end you can give the review you did your brain good.

Here, try to understand LEDs just because you don't want to:

http://www.playsofrays.photos/#_Toc422904365

--Nikolay


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## sumer (Jul 19, 2010)

And don't hesitate to holler if you have any questions. Everything is fresh in my brain right now.


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## niko (Jan 28, 2004)

Hm, after reading the whole thing I can say it is not that great. Leaves too many things unclear. That's no way to learn anything (although it is the style in most schools, haha).


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## sumer (Jul 19, 2010)

niko said:


> Hm, after reading the whole thing I can say it is not that great. Leaves too many things unclear. That's no way to learn anything (although it is the style in most schools, haha).


Thanks much for your feedback. 
Which areas did you think were left unclear? Did you see the two other articles that were referenced in this one?


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## niko (Jan 28, 2004)

The format of the text makes it hard to follow. It is basically a long text without outlined sections. Sections could be Why LEDs? How does an LED work? Varieties of LEDs. Numbers you must know. And so on. Basically idiot questions that a random person can ask you. Your current layout answers a lot of these questions but in a very disorderly format.

You have quite a few statements in the text that come out of the blue. This is one of the main problems with bad teaching practices. No history, no perspective, no logic, you are presented with a claim that has no explanation and connection to anything you know. That claim is then used as a starting point to establish la logical structure that actually makes sense. But since the basic claim is not explained lack of clarity is inevitable. That may seem ok because you can explain things at a good level. But in the long run you remember better and are capable of making associations and solving problems better only if you feel and are indeed as competent as possible. Good education provides not only all the facts, but it does so in a seamless and seemingly easy way to grasp. It gives you long term knowledge and skills and habits that are applicable over and over again.

For example it makes sense to mix different colors of LEDst, of course it does, but you give no explanation why. It is because of the way the photosynthetic structures in the plant leaf absorb light. You give no diagram of that. So the reader can discuss LED color choices without really knowing why this or that one is better. If there was a diagram you would see clearly that plants love the red part of the light spectrum. Meaning that you actually need a lot of red LEDs. But not just any wavelength, they need to be certain wavelengths. Which may seem logical if you look at the diagram of absorption of the light by the leaves, but in reality does not work well because of weird overall light colors with all these special red LEDs and becauseof problems with penetration of red light in water deeper than about 10 inches. If I knew nothing about LEDs and read and read only your first article I would only know that I had to mix LED colors. No concept why and nothing about the practicalities of using red LEDs and why we choose to not use them (ugly light color).

You have a lot of good information but it is overwhelming. I need to know certain electrical terms and rules to understand what LEDs are and how to calculate their number on a certain driver. But if I knew these terms and rules I would already know what I am reading in your articles. You need to place yourself in the shoes of someone that doesn't even know what the "D" in "LED" stands for and make him understand from that level up. Otherwise it is all cool hip terms and geeky jargon.

If anything I would suggest you improve the formatting of the existing text.


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## sumer (Jul 19, 2010)

Hey,

Thanks for taking time and typing the long reply. I really appreciate that.
I somewhat agree to what you said. There are parts that I missed out on. Some other parts I deliberately missed because I did not want to go into things too deep. I can see where it backfired on me though.
The other thing was the amount of information that I had to put into this article. If you want to work with LEDs, you will have to know some electrical/electronics terms. You just cannot make an LED unit without knowing those things. And I just could not add extra things because otherwise it would have become a physics textbook of high school. For example, when explaining the V and I relationship in the LED, I could not start from explaining ohm's law. I was assuming that if someone, who doesn't know much about LED's would either simply believe what I was saying or go back and read more on what I was talking about. 
Another issue was that I wrote it over a period of several weeks. Every time I sat down to write, I edited, added, removed things. That I think was the main reason for the discrepancies you mentioned.
Now when you have pointed these things, I sure will work on them. One by one, I will edit the parts and would try to make it as easy to understand as possible. 

Again, thanks very much for your time and suggestions.


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## mannheim (Aug 9, 2015)

Hard to read, too dark background ;-) But it's real nice that it's filled with proper images!


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## Maryland Guppy (Mar 5, 2015)

I thought the article was really great.
Figured I'd add my two cents in.

LED's are the wave of the future.
I have been playing with electronics for almost 5 decades.
I get it, for a beginner it is a lot to encompass.

Many websites that sell products also offer assistance if they are any good.
Call them or email them answers can be found.

If unsure keep researching.
I myself researched LED's for months trying to decide and discover my options.
LED's are young and technology is constantly changing.

Ask specific questions, experienced forum members should be able to help.


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## digital_gods (Apr 23, 2010)

That is a nice setup. I've been playing with cheap China made leds for couple of years. Needless to say I got what I paid for, crap. But the knowledge I've gained is priceless.


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