Chinese LED’s are not working as they should
These days almost every project needs a led or two, projects based mostly on led’s may need more. So what can I do? I go to my local store, or I order from an online store, the parts that I need for the project. The bad thing is that most of the parts are made in China. I don’t have any problem with China. Is the parts that don’t work as they should that worries me. For example the LED’s I used in the earlier project “Changing the Ceiling 5w lamp from a car with 5 white LED’s gave me some trouble. I mounted all led’s correctly on the board but surprise, only 2 of them were working when I tested the circuit. The other 3 led’s were working backwards, so I had to take the project apart and mount them incorrectly so they can function properly. This is not too pleasant when it happens. So be careful if you’re using made in China parts and your circuits don’t work, you might want to check them.
June 24th, 2008 at 5:05 am
Even the Chinese have some standards. (But not many.)
The easiest way to determine pos & neg on your LEDs is to look at the lead length – before you cut them.
The positive lead will always be longer.
This also holds true for radial electrolytic capacitors.
June 24th, 2008 at 2:11 pm
thx Ian, but in my case both the edge and the longer terminal were inverted