Category Archives: LEDS

IKEA completes solar installation in Tempe; 8 more planned

Yesterday, IKEA announced it had flipped the switch on newly installed dual rooftop solar units at its Tempe, Arizona store. The new system is one of the largest solar systems in the Phoenix area and the third such solar energy system for the Swedish home furnishings retailer; they have similar units already in place in Brooklyn, NY and Pittsburgh, PA.

The 300 kW solar energy system will generate 960,000 kWh of electricity annually from 2600 solar panels. It is the equivalent of reducing at least 760 tons of (C02) – which equals the emissions of 133 cars or powering 84 homes annually.

IKEA has other renewable energy initiatives in place. Already operating is solar water heating in stores in Charlotte, N.C.; Draper, Utah; Orlando, Florida; and Tampa, Florida. In addition, a geothermal system is being installed in a store under construction in Centennial, Colorado.

It was also announced that eight California locations are on deck for solar systems. In all, IKEA will be installing nearly 20,000 solar panels at eight of its California locations. IKEA expects the panels to generate 6.65 million kilowatt hours of electricity annually which is enough to power 580 homes for a year. Pending governmental approval, it will begin installing the renewable energy systems later this fall at existing stores in East Palo Alto, Emeryville, West Sacramento, Burbank, Costa Mesa, Covina and San Diego along with its large distribution center in Tejon.

Combining online and offline: the future of cash registers

Hate going shopping in person but don’t want to buy everything online? Consider the future of shopping where cash registers will not just be able to ring up your purchases, but be able to tell you what other items would match the sweater you’re buying that day….including a review of your past purchases.

Love the idea or hate it, that is the future of brick and mortar checkout. Combining the online catalog with a streamlined checkout process, the goal is to help you shop smarter, better and of course, more often.

Intel has a future generation register in development right now that does all of this, plus more. In fact, it is predicted that in the future you won’t even need to bring your credit card – your cell phone will be the method of payment and receipts will be sent right to your phone. Added bonus – no more lost receipts for returns and exchanges.

Take a look at this video that shows what Intel is working on right now:

http://www.smartplanet.com/business/video/the-future-of-cash-registers/462022/

Android smartphone sales up a whopping 886%

Research firm, Canalys, reports that Android platform smartphone sales increased an amazing 886% in the 2nd quarter.

An even bigger accomplishment is the fact that Android based phones now account for 34% of the market – topping all other platforms including Apple’s popular iPhone platform.

The press release from Canalys also reports that Android devices combined reached almost 475,000 units in Q2 2010 from no presence in the country a year ago. The Google-backed Android is available in phones from HTC, Motorola, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and LG, among others.

In total, the US market for smartphones is the largest established market in the world, and it still continues to show rapid growth. In the 2nd quarter of 2010, there were 14.7 million smart phone units shipped.

Make an inexpensive & simple UV LED Torch

UV LEDFrom our friends at instructables comes an easy project for use with UV LEDS.

To make this simple project, here’s what you’ll need:
2 Ultra Violet LEDS
1 1/4W resistors (the value of the resistor needs to be calculated based on the forward voltage of the LED you use)
1 non-working 9V battery (or a 9V battery clip)
1 new 9V battery
Pliers
Solder
Soldering equipment

The full instructions on the Instructables site will show you how to put everything together. Once assembled, the light snaps on to a working 9V battery to function.

Keep in mind, you don’t have to use UV LEDS for this project – you can use any color. Just adjust the resistor required based on the forward voltage and forward current of the LEDS you choose.

Buying LEDS without specs or you don’t remember the specs of the ones you have sitting around? Assume a max of 2.8V – 3V and 20mA. I would think high intensity white LEDS would work really well for this project.

I haven’t put this one together myself yet, but I think a few of these are coming with me on my next camping trip. Nice way to light up the tent and the ‘facilities’ late at night. Fun project – and you probably already have everything you need right on hand.

More Allen Bradley carbon comp resistors now available!

We’ve updated our resistor inventory and added many more NOS Allen Bradley carbon comp resistors. Between the 1W values and 2W values, we now have over 150 different 1W and 2W carbon comp resistors on hand!

Included in the selection are many Military (MIL-SPEC) Allen Bradley carbon comp resistors. The military resistors typically have a tighter tolerance than the standard resistors.

Allen Bradley carbon comp resistors are valued for their consistency and uniformity. The Allen Bradley corporation reference materials have this to say about their hot molded resistors:

Years of accumulated experience have shown that Allen Bradley hot molded resistors are unequaled for uniformity, predictable for performance, appearance, and freedom from catastrophic failure. Allen Bradley resistors are made by an exclusive hot molding process on automatic machines developed, built, and used only by Allen Bradley. There is such complete uniformity from one resistor to the next, million after million, and long term in-circuit performance can be predicted with usable accuracy. When used according to published ratings and recommendations, Allen Bradley hot molded fixed resistors will not open circuit nor exhibit erratic changes of resistance value. They are probably the most reliable of all electronic components.

We get frequent requests for other values so we were thrilled to get more for our stock! Quantities are limited – especially on the MIL-SPEC resistors.

Turn your old PC fans into mini wind generators

pc fanHere’s a great project that you can do either to experiment with wind turbines or to generate some energy! While the amount of energy produced is not overwhelming, this project can sure get your brain moving in the right direction.

The best thing about this project is that you probably already have everything you need lying around:

  • Thick plastic bottle
  • Old PC fan, bigger the better!
  • A few feet of small wire
  • A piece of wood about 1.5″ square and around 20cm long
  • Two lengths of steel tubing that slide inside of each other, about 1/2″
  • 6 Schottkey diodes
  • Epoxy
  • Super Glue
  • Zip ties
  • An old CD

You can find the full instructions including video here: http://www.instructables.com/id/Upcycle-your-old-PC-fans-into-mini-wind-generators/

If you want to have a kid-friendly wind turbine kit that already has all the pieces you need, we sell one of those. Our kits come with full instructions and all the materials needed to try your hand at creating a source of renewable energy – a wind turbine. The kit also comes with different experiments you can try with your wind turbine once it’s assembled. Great project for summer for the kids!

How to Make Your Own LEDS? Whooooooooa

I found this how-to today on the great Popular Science web site.

Now that I’ve read through the article – I am amazed that I’ve never seen these instructions written up before.

Theodore Gray, who authors their popular “Gray Matter” column, gives the full scoop on the basic materials used to construct LEDS and provides the basic instructions needed to see just how LEDS work.

OK, it is not so easy to find some synthetic silicon carbide (carborundum) laying around, but surely everyone could get their hands on some sandpaper, needles, a 9V battery and a snap. Follow his instructions, and VOILA…you’ve recreated the basic principles behind the creation of LEDS.

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.

RGB Tricolor Flashing LEDS – Exciting New Product!

West Florida Components has just started to carry an exciting new product – RGB Tricolor Flashing LEDS!

At first glance you might think “Why are they calling them both RGB AND Tricolor?” The reason is that each LED is actually 3 separate LEDS housed in one case.

They operated in a sequence: first one color is lit at a time, then two light up, then all three. The cycle is completed when all three LEDS have been lit slowly, then begin to flash. Max voltage is around 3V.

We were trying to think of some interesting uses for these LEDS. Certainly they’ll be fun to use around the holidays – in garland or in wreaths or other holiday projects. How about as a centerpiece? They would also be great for costumes and for jewelry making.

Here’s a challenge for our customers:

Use your imagination and find a great project to use these in. We’ll feature the best suggestions/projects in a video on our home page!

7 Segment Displays

7 Segment LEDs or 7 segment displays are a type of electronic display devices used for displaying decimal numbers, in place of the more complicated dot matrix displays. 7 segment LEDs are used in a number of applications such as electronic meters, digital clocks and other such electronic devices.

7 Segment Display

7 Segment Display

As the name suggests, these electronic components are made up from 7 segments that are used for displaying each of the numerals from 0 to 9. The segments are arranged in a rectangle pattern with two vertical segments placed on each side, and a horizontal segment placed on top and bottom. In addition, another segment is placed bisecting the rectangle horizontally. This way, the figure obtained is of the number ‘8’. The segments are identified by lower case letters “a” to “g”, that begin with “a” on the top and going clockwise, with the center segment being “g”.

In some 7 segment LEDs, an additional segment is used to denote a decimal point and is referred to as DP. In some LEDs an extra triangle is also included to turn this decimal point in to a comma, which improves the readability of larger numbers.

Most of the 7 segment displays are slanted to make the numbers look like they were written in italics. This allows for one digit to be placed upside down along with another digit, such that the two decimal points appear like a colon between the digits. This arrangement of these electronic components is widely used in digital clock displays.