A few general questions, if I may

Submitted by lars_the_bear on Tue, 02/23/2016 - 09:23

Forums:

Hi folks

Any answers to any of the following appreciated:

1. If I just want full output, is it simply a case of toggling the appropriate GPI pins hi or low?

2. The documentation briefly mentions cooling. Are there considerations related to ventilation or the use of a heatsink that might be relevant if I'm likely to be having the LEDs on full output a lot of the time?

3. I understand from the datasheet that full output on all three LEDs is about 300mW. However, I have difficulty translating that into real-world brightness. Would it be bright enough, for example, for a webcam to produce images in a dark room? I appreciate that this depends on the size of the room, etc., but I'm just trying to get an idea.

Thanks.

Best wishes
Kevin

piborg's picture

piborg

Tue, 02/23/2016 - 10:59

No problem, all are fairly simple :)

  1. Yes you can simply toggle the GPIO pins if you only want each colour to be fully on or off.
    The GPIO pin for each channel should be high for constant on, low for constant off.
  2. You should be fine to enclose the LedBorg as long as there is some space around it.
    The LedBorg has copper planes in the PCB to drag the heat away from the LEDs to prevent them getting too warm.
    If your are sharing a box with the Raspberry Pi we would recommend some ventilation for the pair.
  3. I can understand the confusion here, the truth is that wattage is a bad indicator of the amount of actual light produced.
    The power of light produced is: Red - 450 mcd, Green - 560 mcd, Blue - 180 mcd, Total - 1,190 mcd.
    They work over 120° viewing angle, this gives us 3.7 lumens of light total.
    For reference an old fashioned 25 W bulb produces about 200 lumens.

lars_the_bear

Tue, 02/23/2016 - 12:05

Thanks; that's very helpful.

Subscribe to Comments for "A few general questions, if I may"