Life on the led flash

[moot]

I'm wondering if using the led flash as a flash light for an extended period of time will case it to burn out faster?

Is there an estimated life on these led? Will using them as a light source case it to burn faster?

Thanks.

 

[dezymond]

LEDs lasts longer than your standard halogen bulb.

However, the LED on the droid wasn't meant for extended periods of use, but for flashes. If you have a "flashlight" app that uses it, i advise you just use it in emergency situations.

 

[Technoman]

I'm wondering if using the led flash as a flash light for an extended period of time will case it to burn out faster?

Is there an estimated life on these led? Will using them as a light source case it to burn faster?

Thanks.

LED's don't actually burn out, they will just fail. They will last quite a while unless exposed to high heat, extreme cold, or anything like that.

Using it as a flash light will put more strain on the chip, and will increase the heat. That would reduce it's life expectancy.

 

[iPirate]

Don't worry about it, use it as much as you want.

 

[aminaked]

I think that the most popular flashlight app in the market is made by motorola. In a way, motorola is saying "use it as a flashlight!" On the other hand, maybe they want the thing to burn out so we'll buy a new phone.

I don't know if I've ever had an LED go bad on anything I've owned. They're amazing. Now, I'm not going to rely heavily on the Droid for light, but I'm not going to shy away from it either. Hey, it's under warranty.

 

[Tillers_Rule]

The only time I've seen LEDs go bad was due to vibration, like the ones in motorcycle tail lights. Though, if you drop your phone hard enough to break the LED, I'm guessing the entire phone will be bad as well

 

[ShowTime]

Don't worry about it, use it as much as you want.

+1
Yes, of course the more you use it, the shorter it will last. And yes, using it as a flashlight in addition to a camera flash will reduce its lifespan when compared to just using it as a camera flash... that said, unless you're using it instead of paying your electric bill in your house, it should outlast your 2 year agreement with even higher than "average" usage. Go nuts.

 

[antyoo]

i extensively used the LED falshes on my old phones(xv6800 and xv6850) as flashlights to the point were that whole area of the phone would get pretty hot and neither one failed.

LED's are very resiliant, i would not hesitate to use the Droid's LED falsh as a flashlight for those time when you say to yourself that you should keep a flashlight in the car, or by the bed...

 

[XterraJohn]

Don't worry about it, use it as much as you want.

+1
Yes, of course the more you use it, the shorter it will last. And yes, using it as a flashlight in addition to a camera flash will reduce its lifespan when compared to just using it as a camera flash... that said, unless you're using it instead of paying your electric bill in your house, it should outlast your 2 year agreement with even higher than "average" usage. Go nuts.

Among other things, the life expectancy of LEDs is dictated by the amount of current that is allowed to pass through them, this being dictated by resistance that is placed in series with the LED on the circuit board. By varying the value of this resistance, circuit designers can increase or decrease the brightness of the LED. However, they need to take into account the duty-cycle of the LED when determining it's lifespan. While a particular LED may last 2000 hours while being able to mass 50ma of current when using a 1% duty cycle, such as might be the case for an LED used as a camera flash, that same LED may fail within minutes if passing 50ma of current at a 100% duty-cycle, such as could be the case when using it as a flashlight.

However, as I understand it, Motorola has released software to allow the LED to function as a flashlight, so it seems reasonable to me that using that particular application with the phone that it was designed for probably wouldn't cause a too much of a problem.

 

[qoncept]

Bedside's "flashlight" turns the screen bright white. I can't imagine why other apps are using the LED flash.

 

[aminaked]

Bedside's "flashlight" turns the screen bright white. I can't imagine why other apps are using the LED flash.

Uh, cuz it's waaay better than just the screen

 

[rage151]

I just installed Kangerade with a 1200mhz kernel and my phone got hot at the top. Used Moto Torch and my led 'popped', blew out. I thought it would last forever because I never use it for more than one minute at a time. Happened right when I turned it on. Warranty, here I come...