Monthly Archives: January 2010

West Florida Components is Social!

Are you doing the whole Facebook thing? How about Twitter?

Well, we are….and we’re also on StumbleUpon, Digg, Delicious and a whole bunch more.

Why should you care? Because we give away a lot of discounts to our Facebook Fans and Twitter Followers! And our Facebook Fans and Twitter Followers are the first to know about newly discounted electronic components, parts and supplies.

We never overload our customers with too much communication but we like to keep in touch. The social media sites have given us a wonderful platform to connect with our customers.

Facebook

Facebook

So the next time your on Facebook, don’t forget to add our Fan Page to your list….we’re the same name over there as we are here: WestFloridaComponents (no spaces):
West Florida Components on Facebook

And here’s our Twitter user ID: westfloridacomp (had to be shortened because of their site):
West Florida Components on Twitter

So next time you feel like socializing, come on over and introduce yourself! We’d be thrilled to meet you.

Deal Alert! 50W Solar Panels Prices Slashed!

Don’t you wish you could save some money heating your house? Here’s a super deal you won’t want to pass up.

If you’ve been waiting to start building a solar energy system, you’re in luck. We are offering our 50W Mono-Crystalline Solar Panels at a outrageously low price of $299.99. We only have 6 4 left, so don’t delay! We expect the 50W solar panels to sell out quickly at this price. We’re trying to get more, but we can not be sure we will be able to.

Multiple 50W Solar panels can be connected in series for more voltage, or in parallel for more current. Use these to in part to build complete on grid and off grid solar power generating systems. Excellent for use with deep cycle battery banks and solar charge controller regulator.

Added benefit: Our solar panels are made of Monocrystalline silicon. Mono-crystalline has been proven to be the best and most efficient raw material used in PV cells. Use Mono-Crystalline panels to capture the most energy from solar power.

Solar energy is a small investment that delivers big benefits. Once you are harnessing the power of the sun’s rays, you’ll wonder why you waited so long!

LED Basics: How to tell which lead is positive or negative

Here are more questions we get asked a lot:
What is the positive (or negative) lead on an LED? How do you determine the polarity of an LED?

If you are talking about through hole LEDS, in most cases it’s pretty easy to determine the polarity.

Through Hole LED

Through Hole LED

If the LED has two leads, one longer than the other,the longer lead is the postive (also known as the anode) lead.

If the LED has two leads with leads that are equal in length, you can look at the metal plate inside the LED. The smaller plate indicates the positive (anode) lead; the larger plate belongs to the negative (cathode) lead. Unfortunately, some jumbo LEDS have the plates reversed so this is not a fool-proof method.

If the LED has a flat area (on the plastic housing), the lead adjacent to the flat area is the negative (cathode) lead.

It’s a little bit harder to determine the polarity with Surface Mount LEDS. Some are marked with a (-) to indicate the negative lead, but often, they are not. The single best way to determine the polarity is through the use a multimeter.

Surface Mount LED

Surface Mount LED

Set the multimeter to the diode/continuity setting. Usually,the multimeter will supply enough current into the LED which will just barely light it up. The black (common) lead on the multimeter indicates the negative (cathode) lead, and the red indicates the positive or anode side.

Of course, if you can find the datasheet for your LED, the pinout, along with all the other specs will be readily available on the datasheet.