Where to find LED lights... (Not In Shops)

This is my first instructible so please go easy on the comments, thanks.
In this instructible i will show you where to find LED Lights...
(not in shops)

Please Rate And Comment this Instructible...

Step 1 Finding LED's...

Dunno Wat To write, by the way just to say, throughout the steps i will just put pictures on, just to show u where u can get leds....

keyboards Have LED Lights !!!

Comments

[fjr_scoot]

An excellent Instructable; THANK YOU. You have helped remove mystery from LED's, the light of our immediate future.

On another note, it's a shame that we have to say things like "go easy on the comments", but I know what you're saying. INSTRUCTABLES should be more stringent on the "be nice" comment policy.

There are clods that seem to prowl the internet, looking for opportunities to make somebody feel badly. For the most part, they appear to be folks who don't feel good about themselves and who get some satisfaction from being an a**hole to someone who is only trying to share knowledge.

A smaller number are clods who rely on what they think is a command of the English language (there's one example in the comments below) to feel superior. What they don't seem to get is that some of the most brilliant people on the planet either don't have English as a first language or, are way more intelligent them in other ways.

To all those people, I say, "STFU and let the people who have both knowledge, and have the decency to share their knowledge, to do it without your little adolescent need to make other people feel badly.

Again - thank you for sharing - and please go through life ignoring the small-minded snipes like the ones who take potshots at people who post on INSTRUCTABLES...

[mountainman123]

so much for "go easy on the comments"

[nerj]

Infrared LED does not gives off VISIBLE lights, to human naked eye.

[pj63]

The only LED's I recycle are the Xmas Lights and then use them to make my Grow lights...Mainly the RED and BLUE ones as these are the colours that plants require for GROWTH and FLOWERING.. I also use the White Light but not as many..................

[abcmax]

I probably wouldn't personally put that much time or effort to gleen a few leds. BUT SO WHAT! If some of these folks have the time or inclination to do so, GOOD FOR THEM. Less in the land fill, Etc. Why is everyone so critical????????

[avenger09123]

Wow, who here thinks if you can remove LED's from a PCB, your probably smart enough not to touch much else? just a thought, and besides, if they want to be a live test subject for a taser, I'd love to see that one on the news....

[wsni]

When I was 9 (mid '80s) I used to dismantle my my 19" B/W TV and pull the capacitor and shock my older brother when he was sleeping after a long day of sibling abuse.

He'd leave me alone for a while, at least until he forgot how much it hurt.

[ginger20037]

I'll admit I laughed! xD
You are the Payback Master! :D

[avenger09123]

I bow down to your ingenuity in sibling torture, wish I had thought about that hahahahahahaha.....would have done good with all them swirlies and atomic wedgies....

[guitarpicker7]

My main source of LEDs is Christmas lights. Very tuff, very bright, some have pretty lenses, and CHEAP! I just picked up a box of 120 (2 strands of 60 each, 15 feet long, multi-color) for $8.95 at BigLots.

That's less than 8 cents each!

You also get a couple of free spare bulbs and free holder/sockets, with connecting leads.

[jimvandamme]

Those flash units are handy in themselves. They take a battery or 2 and turn it into high voltage and fire the flash tube.

[Moofish]

Hey author, just a few tips for you. 1: try to speak with correct grammar and spelling, otherwise people wil turn away from your instructable straight away, thinking you're not legitimate. 2: if you're going to do an instructable on "How To Find Whatevers" then try to do something that doesn't cost like 5 cents. Good try though! Keep it up!

[aroyston]

They have laser diodes (perhaps you could mount them on sharks!)

[Treknology]

Are you referring to the laser diodes inside CD drives?

[stinger0410]

they are high powered red LED's

[diy_bloke]

Maybe I am kinda dumb but with Led's costing next to nothing, why wld I wanna go through the trouble of prying open stuff to get out an LED?
Or am i missing something here?

[sirpipthegreat]

Might i add that taking apart a monitor is VERY dangerous. especially CRT's. some of them store massive amounts of energy for quite a long time. even months after unplugging. Energy stored in most CRT monitors is at a high-risk / deadly level.

[Hycro]

And hurts like hell when you get shocked by it...thought the pliers were well insulated, come to find out they had cracks in the handle covers...the hard way...after that I took an old screw driver, taped wire to the shaft, covered the handle in electrical tape, and run the wire to the house ground, worked like a dream for me.

[zapper067]

This is a monitor ,not a computer.However the big box thinggy also have at least 2 LEDs!

[imajem]

So big deal! You can't get it out....I tried.

[pteranosaur]

???

[Treknology]

Regretfully, unless you are living on $5 a month, I don't think harvesting LEDs from the items you have cited is worth the time involved. You also have the issue that most of the LEDs you would gain from this equipment are only intended as indicator lights not illumination.

PS: If you really did mangle a DAS keyboard, can I have rest of it? Seriously.

[arduinoe]

tvs have a TINY very dim and almost usless red led in them . considering the very high risk of a 40 KV electric shock its not worth it . oh and tvs cathode ray tubes store charge for up to 18 months since they where last powered on (so dont go telling me you turned it off.

[qwerty156]

thank you!

[Lhtrf]

wouldnt discharging the caps with a screwdriver or something cause it to be safe enough for handling though?

[chaydgb]

The actual CRT itself is one large capacitor, there is a coating of graphite on the inside of the tube neck, and one on the outside, with the glass in between forming the dielectric layer, so make sure you also discharge this too. See: http://www.wikihow.com/Discharge-a-CRT-Monitor

Better still, find a less dangerous source of components!

[chaydgb]

Unless you're *really* short of money, it may just be cheaper buying LEDs in bulk from one of the many Chinese component suppliers that are springing up on eBay. Still useful to know for environmentally friendly recycling.

[instructablesmier]

I like this forum!

[Electro Tone]

the best thing about old crt's is the heat sinks and the screws and micra washers,ive got all mine for the last year out a few crt's that were going to the tip anyway. It's often in one big section you can just cut it up.

[zoakley]

The best place i have found is a string of LED christmas lights. I bought a string of 100 for 5 bucks at home depot

[alphawolf64]

old telephone generators work very well on siblings,and chickens, but dont try it on your grandmother.I wove two wires in the bottom of her cane chair and gave it a crank. I learned that at 9 years old,  she had a tough left hand

[jona991]

I just have the lights that you buy in a regular store for a euro... or a dollar (Yes I'm european, I'm from the Netherlands(and we have L.E.D. traffic lights too :D)) you get three and there are three L.E.D.s in one light.

[ARJOON]

i found hundreds in only one matsushita photocopier google it.

[dad45]

I was wondering where the big array of white LEDs (first picture) came from.

[thinkdunson]

i’ve seen arrays like that in cheap flashlights

[agis68]

My best market to find leds and other electronics for free are the recycling boxes in most of the stores here in Greece. You can take any electronic from vacuum to a hifi and take appart all the electronics. I visit them twice a week and i got many interesting things

[gemtree]

And I have one of these that won't work right!!!! Thanks! It has something to do with the connection to the switch.

[gemtree]

Kewl! I have LOTS of old phones! :D

[Treknology]

Unfortunately, most of the LEDs you have demonstrated are only meant to be seen, not illuminate something else, and the number yielded for the effort expended probably does not justify the activity, unless you are also recovering significant numbers of other components that you can re-use.

[Turnip123]

Those are actually halogens.