On 8/27/2012 1:55 PM, alan smith wrote: > Friend has me thinking about this...if you take 110VAC and half wave re= ctify it, your going to end up with around 150VDC peak, so with the correct= resistor(7k-8K) it should drive a standard LED OK? Guess I've never reall= y thought about driving it directly from AC. Yes..I know, its non-isolated= so its at the AC potential and a shock hazard. Without a capacitor, you w= ill see flicker on it as well of course. > > This is one of those things that can be done but shouldn't be done.=20 Really to do it right the cost is pretty high compared to just using DC.=20 Capacitors at the rated voltages are not cheap, at least for the good ones. A .47uf , 250V cap and a 1K, 1W resistor in parallel with each other and=20 the LED connected in series across that connection will work for=20 powering LED. I have seen bridge rectifiers built out of LED for low=20 voltage demonstrations. Mark --=20 http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist .