There are more and more hobbyists taking advantage of surface mount technology these days. With affordable tools like hot air and hotplate reflow ovens, electronics enthusiasts are shrinking their projects down to new levels of portability. Unfortunately, It's not always easy to get your hands on small amounts of SMD parts so here's a part that every project could use more of: tiny little LEDs.
That's right, each pack includes 25 tiny blue 1206 SMD LEDs in cut-tape packaging. These are great for status lights or for building really small LED matrices. Don't expect them to be super bright, they're basically the standard blue LED that shows up on our LilyPad Micro LED boards, and are slightly larger than a 0603 SMD LED.
This skill defines how difficult the soldering is on a particular product. It might be a couple simple solder joints, or require special reflow tools.
Skill Level: Competent - You will encounter surface mount components and basic SMD soldering techniques are required.
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If it requires power, you need to know how much, what all the pins do, and how to hook it up. You may need to reference datasheets, schematics, and know the ins and outs of electronics.
Skill Level: Rookie - You may be required to know a bit more about the component, such as orientation, or how to hook it up, in addition to power requirements. You will need to understand polarized components.
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I got these to illuminate some vacuum tubes from below expecting them to be just bright enough for a little effect. Apparantly Sparkfuns definition of "Not super bright" is rather misleading. these little guys are very bright to the point i had to use PWM to bring their brightness to a fraction of their rating just so they won't flood my room with blue!
Don't underestimate these little leds. they are far better then i expected from a few cheap smd leds!
Great little leds, very bright
Yep, 25 really tiny, blue, very bright LEDs, in the tractor-feed packaging: that's exactly what you see, and what you get. All have worked so far, as expected. If this is what you're looking for, you've found it, at the best price I was currently able to find.
We love SMD LEDs. We use them in the classroom and Maker Space because they're inexpensive and impressive. Kids go crazy! These are tiny but bright. They work great. We have some LED card tutorials that they follow to learn the basics and then we let them loose to explore circuits and LEDS in their own inventions. We have a tutorial to show how we use them with students as young as kindergarten (if you have one-on-one time, 3rd grade and up can do on the own)...check it out: http://brainbrigade.org/how-to-light-up-your-classroom-with-bright-leds/
I expected them to not be super bright, yet when i turned them on I started to see a couple of dots in my vision for a little while.
They may not be "super bright", but they get very close to it.