4 ms·
Couldn't comment on the blog, but yes, you should have one resistor per LED. The I-V curve for LEDs (which is looks like a cliff and has a flat region we simpli
by sjburt 11y ago
Couldn't comment on the blog, but yes, you should have one resistor per LED. The I-V curve for LEDs (which is looks like a cliff and has a flat region we simplify as the "forward voltage drop") varies from component-to-component and also with the temperature. Attaching them directly in parallel means that an uneven amount of current will flow through each LED. Not only that, but the LED with the most current will heat up, and its forward voltage will decrease, causing even more current to flow through it. Depending on what equilibrium is reached, this could result in that LED burning out (and the effect continuing on other LEDs), although the more typical result is just one LED that is much brighter than the others (since ultimately some steady-state will be achieved).
With multiple resistors, the ID curve for each resistor-LED pair doesn't have a flat region, but instead a sloped region, and the resulting currents will be more or less equal.