The LED will handle the current at 100mA according to it's duty cycle, but
I would'nt rely on the pic to sink it. A small fet will remove all those
problems.
Mostly, I'm wondering on the application, because if it's for a person to
see, you might want to consider the time response of the human eye. A very
short, bright pulse may not even be seen, but a slightly dimmer, longer
pulse will 'appear' brighter. Also, day/night will be a factor too.


At 04:03 AM 29/07/04 -0700, you wrote:
>I'm working on a project that involves strobing a white or RGB LED in
short bursts at a fairly low duty cycle.  At the moment, I'm thinking it
will be on for 10us, off for 100us-10ms.
>
>Maximum brightness is important in this application, so how much power can
I push through the LED under these conditions without damaging it?  It's
rated for 30mA max, and 100mA max peak.  Is 100mA a good guideline then?
>
>Of course, I will be driving it off of a PIC, and the PIC's IO is rated
for a lot less.  Will it be able to handle a lot more than it's rated
current limit for these short pulses?
>
>Thanks,
>   Jason
>
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Regards
Roland Jollivet

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