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Old 22nd Sep 2019, 7:54 am   #9
Sideband
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Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Croydon, Surrey, UK.
Posts: 7,548
Default Re: Your first experience with LEDs?

The first time I saw an LED was when I was working in the Philips workshop in Waddon (Philips Service). They used one as a sensor in a cassette player. It was a red LED and part of the end-of-tape motor stop circuit. It was mounted below a rotating vane which interrupted the light to a photocell causing pulses as the vane rotated. It was the first thing to check if the auto-stop didn't work......

It wasn't long before they appeared as indicator lights and backlights but of course they were early generations and not very bright. We never thought they would be developed as they are now for general lighting.

My first encounter with a blue LED was as a main beam indicator in one of the Philips Citroen fleet cars in the 1990's.

To me it seems that once blue LED's had been perfected, they seemed to appear everywhere!
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