Something I've been noticing from our Japanese brethren

Grumpy Popeye · Post by **Grumpy Popeye** » Wed Mar 19, 2014 2:06 pm

I was looking at a fellow's lighting setup for his 2199 Yamato and he has diodes in line with his LEDs. Why is that? LEDs themselves are diodes and will work in only one "direction" so why bother with an extra diode?

I've noticed this same thing from a few different builders in Japan too but I can't say I've really seen anyone else do it.

Thoughs?

Kylwell · Post by **Kylwell** » Wed Mar 19, 2014 2:20 pm

Are you sure they're not tiny glass resistors?

Grumpy Popeye · Post by **Grumpy Popeye** » Wed Mar 19, 2014 2:28 pm

Hm, that's entirely possible, I've only ever seen ceramic or wire wound resistors

Kylwell · Post by **Kylwell** » Wed Mar 19, 2014 2:56 pm

Otherwise I have no idea why you'd run a diode inline with LEDs.

Kylwell · Post by **Kylwell** » Wed Mar 19, 2014 3:02 pm

But with a little quick reading there are few reason why you might want a diode inline depending on your power source. You can use them to protect against surges, death to LEDs, or to help regulate voltage.

cajunwolfman · Post by **cajunwolfman** » Wed Aug 05, 2015 7:40 pm

Voltage drop.

RossW · Post by **RossW** » Wed Aug 19, 2015 3:11 pm

A diode will typically drop about 1V so the modeller might be using it to make the LEDs not so bright. Not sure about surge protection, though.

Madman Lighting · Post by **Madman Lighting** » Thu Aug 20, 2015 9:06 pm

Might be for reverse hookup protection, or possible surge protection.

I dunno, I'm just and engineer with a business doing LED lighting.

Kylwell · Post by **Kylwell** » Sat Aug 22, 2015 10:29 pm

Ah, in that case they're there to keep the smoke in and regulate the flux capacitor in conjunction with the oscillation overthruster?

Madman Lighting · Post by **Madman Lighting** » Mon Aug 24, 2015 6:50 pm

Yup. Over in Dimension 8 that is.

Now get back in your Thermalpod and build something.