4 ms·
All diodes are also light SENSING is you try hard enough.
by sitkack 2y ago
All diodes are also light SENSING is you try hard enough.
- immibis 2y agoYou don't have to try hard. Just use it as a photodiode and it magically works. However, if it's inside a plastic case that blocks light, it doesn't. Due to some law about entropy, efficient processes are necessarily reversible. That's why electric motors - some of the most efficient machines ever invented - are also generators.
- biot 2y ago> However, if it's inside a plastic case that blocks light, it doesn't. You want an ordinary diode to allow current to flow easily when it senses light? Simple: shine a powerful laser at the plastic-encased diode and it will melt the plastic and liquify the metal, fusing it together and allowing current to flow again. See? You just needed to try harder.
- Moru 2y agoOr if the hammer don't work, the sledgehammer is over there.
- sitkack 2y agoAll diodes are photodiodes, one has to be esp careful of glass encapsulated diodes. I have had that bite me before.
- slow_typist 2y agoEspecially true for LEDs, tried that in the lab once with a flood light, got a few μA out of the LED shortened with the multimeter. Did that with 8th graders, we did other experiments mainly with pv, LEDs and bipolar transistors as well. The logical question came up more than once: “can we use photovoltaic cells as a light?“. Pretty sure that‘ll work, too, but didn’t try because stuff was expensive then and we didn’t have any broken parts of cells at the time. They probably learned a few things on that day.
- hawski 2y agoSteve Mould of Youtube fame did this: Why all solar panels are secretly LEDs (and all LEDs are secretly solar panels) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WGKz2sUa0w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WGKz2sUa0w
- sudosysgen 2y agoI did try to do that in 8th grade, it worked for a bit but it was quite dim and uneven.