Alt-BEAM Archive

Message #13051



To: beam@sgiblab.sgi.com
From: "Thomas Pilgaard" ascii@hum.auc.dk
Date: Thu, 6 Apr 2000 21:40:30 +0200
Subject: RE: A FRED popper has come to life


Hi Ben,

thanks for the reply.

> You said that your FLEDs were flashing. I haven't been able to see any of
> my FRED's blinking before a pop but maybe that's because I'm using
> red-lensed FLEDs. Are yours clear-lensed?

No, I use red-lensed too. The blinks are ... actually now that I look at it
very regular, but it seems that when the FLED turns on the light intensity
peaks and the drops down.

> Anyway, try reducing the
> coupling capacitor down to 0.22 uF. Is the blinking a short pulse, or a
> flash with 50% duty-cycle? If its a short pulse, reduce the 4.7 uF cap to
> 0.22 uF. If it's a longer flash then check that you are using 33k
> resistors instead of 10k to supply the FLEDs with.

I'll give that a go. I'm afraid that the component layout I've used doesn't
leave much room for modifications as I've used epoxy to strengthen the
structure. But undeniably I will have to build another one, so I'll try the
configuration you suggest.

How about using a Blue FLED? Won't that give harder kicks + look immensely
cool?

Thanks again,

Thomas

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