LED
Unless the circuit board/connection was failing, LED's don't flicker, they just go to "silicon heaven".
Graham
Do failing LEDs flicker?
Jul 12, 2006
25 Replies
Some LEDs of recent years have come from manufacturers shoddy enough to make some of their clunkers manage to flicker! (I have seen millions of LEDs, hundreds of different part numbers, with as far as I can tell all with semiconductor material excluding silicon for that matter!)
Meanwhile, I would still investigate other explanations, such as intermittent contact in a bad solder joint or the flickering lamp being an aged neon lamp! Illuminmated power switches to this day continue to mostly use neon lamps, and those often flicker when they have accumulated
10,000-30,000 operating hours where the AC line voltage is 120 or so (as opposed to 230 or so, where neon lamps with appropriate resistors can run much longer with merely fading before they start flickering).- Don Klipstein ( snipped-for-privacy@misty.com)
Yes, they can flicker if the bond wire to the die is defective. When the LED heats up, the bond separates. It then cools down and makes contact again. Then it heats up and the bond separates. It then.....
Al
at one time some company made LED's with a built-in timer that turned the LED off and on again. Forgot the details. Was meant as a power ON indicator I guess. Is that one of those? rw
what you are describing is generally a neon tube
-- Art
In the future Fred if you need onsie twosies on resistors in the 1/8 to 1/2 watt range just holler - I have tens of thousands (dont ask) and can stick a few in an envelope for you no charge
-- Art
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