[sdiy] Re: Other LED's

[Scott Juskiw]

>I made a little board with three pots feeding an RGB LED, to 
>experiment with mixing the colours. What I really wanted to do was 
>make a purple LED :-)
>Results were a bit disappointing. Did get a purple-ish light, but 
>despite the diffused package the three colours didn't mix very 
>convincingly and the overall shade varied a lot as you viewed it 
>from different angles.
>Having said that, I was only briefly messing about with one 
>particular type - perhaps other types/better technique would give 
>better results.
>Cheers,
>Steve L.

I've had a similar experience with RGB LEDs. To me the they look like 
4 tiny LEDs (1 red, 1 green, 2 blues) in close proximity rather than 
one 5mm LED with a single mixed colour. I remain underwhelmed. The 
one I tried was by Lumex, Digikey #:

67-1829-ND LED T-5MM RED/GRN/BLUE WATER CLR

I've had better luck with purple LEDs. I tried these Lumex ones, Digikey #:

67-1830-ND LED T-5MM 410NM VIOLET WATER CLR
67-1831-ND LED T-5MM 380NM VIOLET WATER CLR

The 380 nm variety is much more expensive than the 410 nm. I couldn't 
see much difference between them. I used a bunch of the 410 nm in my 
synth. Looks great.