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> LEDs were available at the time the shuttles were built Assembly of Endeavour, the final STS to be built, was completed in 1990. Blue LEDs appeared in 1993 a
by andyjohnson0 5y ago
> LEDs were available at the time the shuttles were built
Assembly of Endeavour, the final STS to be built, was completed in 1990. Blue LEDs appeared in 1993 and white ones several years alter. During the shuttle era, LEDS were invariably red, green and yellow. I'd be surprised if those colours were considered suitable for general illumination of flight instrumentation.
- Maursault 5y ago> Blue LEDs appeared in 1993 Then it is interesting that my father's 1989 Wolfsburg Edition Jetta has a blue LED in the dash "The first blue-violet LED using magnesium-doped gallium nitride was made at Stanford University in 1972 by Herb Maruska and Wally Rhines, doctoral students in materials science and engineering." [1] "In August 1989, Cree introduced the first commercially available blue LED based on the indirect bandgap semiconductor, silicon carbide (SiC)." [2] What you must be thinking of: "Two years later, in 1993, high-brightness blue LEDs were demonstrated by Shuji Nakamura of Nichia Corporation using a gallium nitride growth process." [3] [1,2,3] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light-emitting_diode#blue_LED https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light-emitting_diode#blue_LE...
- TedDoesntTalk 5y agoBlue LEDs were not in commercial products in the 1980s, even if the technology existed. Perhaps due to cost, I don’t really know, but I was there and remember it well. In the 90s, companies went nuts with blue LEDs using them as power indicators in everything.
- Maursault 5y agoYou are simply mistaken. Volkswagen used blue LED in their 1989 model year dash, models presumably available in 1988. [1] [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snld2cT83qg&t=1m56s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snld2cT83qg&t=1m56s
- kube-system 5y agoI think you might be mistaken. Those are lenses that are shaped like LEDs but there are bulbs behind them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oqpyc8huRLE&t=20s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oqpyc8huRLE&t=20s
- jazzyjackson 5y agogod bless youtube, what a specific piece of history to have a reference for
- kingcharles 5y agoWe've reached peak YouTube. But that does answer the poster's claim. The lens is perfectly shaped to emulate an LED.
- madengr 5y agoI remember buying one in high school (1989 or 1990) for $15 from Digikey. It was in a clear package and put off barely any light, but it was a BLUE LED!
- andyjohnson0 5y agoClearly I was referring to commercial off-the-shelf products rated for aerospace use, not experimental lab prototypes. Regarding your father's car, I'd suggest the indicator in question is either an after-market addition, or an original incandescent mini-bulb behind a blue plastic filter. The latter was a common way to implement coloured dashboard lights back then.
- Maursault 5y ago> Clearly I was referring to commercial off-the-shelf products rated for aerospace use, not experimental lab prototypes. Except for "clearly," then sure. I should have known because when most people talk about LED they mean "hardened for aerospace LED." Right? Come on. > Regarding your father's car Nope. Volkswagen used what anyone would recognize as an ordinary blue LED in their 1989 model year dash, along with ordinary red, green & yellow LEDs.
- sokoloff 5y agoIn my 1984 (A1) Rabbit GTI the indicator that looks like a blue LED is a piece of blue plastic backlit with a white lamp. The A2 cars (including the 1989 Jetta) used the same setup. Similar to this one: http://gtcarlot.com/interiors/Volkswagen/Rabbit+Pickup/1981/58969203/58922639.html http://gtcarlot.com/interiors/Volkswagen/Rabbit+Pickup/1981/...
- TedDoesntTalk 5y agoNo. Those are blue lenses only. They did not use blue LEDS in 1989: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oqpyc8huRLE&t=20s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oqpyc8huRLE&t=20s