LED's Plus a whole lot more for only $1 (Not a Sale)

It probably limits the voltage going to the LED. Question, is the square piece on the green strip the LED that you are using? That looks like the types I am using to light my passenger cars and cabooses.

Ray

It limits the CURRENT going to the LED, not the voltage.

You cannot connect an LED directly to a power source. You must have a current limiting resistor in series with the LED, too.

What's the nomenclature on the TO-92 component on that little board.

You cannot connect an LED directly to a power source. You must have a current limiting resistor in series with the LED, too.

Hmmm... I am using this application on a PS3 board.  I assume the PS3 board performs that function of this component?  The PS3 board I had came with a front headlight and a connector for a rear headlight.  I just soldered the LED into the rear headlight connector and it appears to be working well.

I'm not going to fry anything am I? 

John, The black item (Is that the TO-92?) has printing 0118 on it.  The green board has a 3.12 printed on it.  Those are the only things identified.

Question, is the square piece on the green strip the LED that you are using?

 Ray,

Yes... It was a V shaped strip with 3 lights.  I could not fit the entire V into the engine so I cut it.  I was unsure if it would still work, so I figured I'd take a chance since it was only a buck.  It still worked fine after I cut it.

Ron

The PS/3 board has LED drive for all the lighting, so it's already current limited.

I don't know what that number means.  With only two 1.5V batteries, I'm having trouble with that being a regulator, it would need some input/output voltage differential to function.

You assume correctly!  

Another source for cheap LEDs is the dollar store flashlights. The cheap plastic ones are best as they will fall apart in your hands.

For pennies, you can have new LEDs in your choice of colors and styles, no need to salvage them from equipment.

Warm white 3mm LEDs, 100 for $3.42

That's one of zillions of listings if you need LED's.

Thanks John and Rich,

I will consider those in the future.  My problem is I'm impatient.  When I want an item like this I want to go to the store ad buy one and not wait 3-5 days for shipping.  However if I bought 100 or so I'd have a nice stash.

I appreciate the thoughts and comments.

Ron

I plan ahead for common components, I know I'll be using lots of LEDs, resistors, diodes, etc. 

Since they saw fit to specify LED color temperature on package (5000K or "cool" white), do you recall if they sold a warm-white version?

In any case, that's quite a discovery.  The surface-mount LED style used in your light are ideal for for interior lighting (building and passenger car ceilings) because of its low-height and wide-angle illumination.  Working with the rounded lens LED packages as found in cheap flashlights can be a bother as they are taller and have narrow-beams (great for headlights but not so much for general interior lighting).

If you plan to do more projects like this, I think it's a good idea to follow the links posted by some of the forum members here that are very knowledgeable in electronics and purchase some of the items they link to. Sometimes the links will lead you to other items you might find very interesting as well. Gunrunnerjohn and stan2004 immediately come to mind, but there are others as well.

You can build up a small supply of parts over time so you don't have to go shopping every time you want to do something. The parts they list are usually pretty inexpensive and a lot of them even include free shipping. I started trying to build up a small electronic parts supply a few years ago purchasing from Radio Shack, but as you say their selection is not the best and costs are high. I still like to go to Radio Shack sometimes just to look around, old habit I guess, but now I follow and use the links posted here a lot for stocking up on things.