LED Mod resistor.

[Kurt_]

Well I took out the resistor from my LED's, and the brightness greatly improved. I like it a LOT better. However, Tim says it will lower my battery life because the current is un-restrited.

Two Questions:

1) By how much will it lower my battery life (mAh)
2) If it does lower it a LOT, what is the LOWEST ohm resistor that you would use?

[marshallh]

1. I'd guess the difference in battery life is negligable.
2. You're overdriving the LEDs. As you run them at this higher voltage, they'll start dimming as they deteriorate.

I wouldn't recommend it. Ben put the resistor in there for a reason.

[CJWJ]

what marshall said

If you wire the LED's without a resistor, the LED's theoretically act as a short-circuit (no current-limit). Depending on used bateries, this can be anywhere from 1 Amp to a dozen. They'll fry for sure sometime in the near future.

If you really wan't to increase brightness, and still want to use use less resistance, wire a trim-pot instead of a (static) resistor. This way you can adjust brightness as needed instead of swapping out resistors all the time. (more soldering deteriorates the wire contact)

When you find yourself turning the trimpot all the way back to 0 ohms, then smack yourself and get over it. No way to increase brightness. OR get some more led's and place them accordingly between existing leds. (SMD LED's do the trick nicely.) The increased spread of light behing the LCD screen will lead to a faked increase in visibility (this is just optical illusion, but it works nicely).

Greets, Jaco Sloof

[Kurt_]

I was testing it with a pot, and that's when I realised it looked best when it was off. I was contemplating buying more LED's, but I don't want to risk any damage to my LCD (I almost dropped it on the ground while doing the LED mod, catching it with my side and the counter from its freefall of doom. Luckily on the corner was cracked, and it still works fine.

I figure I'll go with a minimum 7 ohm resistor. What's the minimum you guys suggest out there?