"Roy J. Tellason" bravely wrote to "MIKE ROSS" (25 Aug
03  20:01:27)
 --- on the heady topic of "WATTS UP? KILOWATT-HOUR M"

 RJT> I've also noticed that more and more vehicles,  particularly on
 RJT> trucks,  are using LED taillights.  I guess when a bulb burns out they
 RJT> just replace it with an LED unit and don't have to worry about it for
 RJT> quite some time after that.  I'm a bit surprised at how far it's gone,
 RJT> though.

I might not count on that just yet. Some time back as you say I started
seeing them on tailights of trucks and city busses, but recently I saw a
truck where a good 1/3 of the led's were out. I don't know if these had
internal breaks or external circuit solder cracking due to the usual
road shaking.

I haven't seen them going out on street lights or busses so unless they
are being promptly replaced in these then there may be a problem with
vibration in heavy load vehicles.

I've read that the brightness of white leds is getting to the point that
headlights will be next. I'll believe it when I see it but I was
thinking of bundling up a few and try them out on my bicycle light. It
uses about 3 Watts right now (6Vac 0.5A) but if I can reduce this by a
factor of 10 (6 leds at 50mW each) my legs will definitely thank me!

 Mike
 ****

... A fail-safe circuit will destroy others.
--- Blue Wave/DOS v2.30