As an electrical engineer, it's not often you can watch a youtube video about electronics without being misinformed - but this one isn't one of those, it's very well explained and accurate. Well done.

Fun fact: all diodes of all sizes and types emit infrared light when current passes through them. LEDs are just specifically designed for emitting light. The process also works in the other direction. If you expose a diode to enough light radiation, the photons knock some of the lower energy electrons to a higher energy state, which induces a current in the diode. Solar panels are diodes, and if you apply a current to them, they will actually emit infrared light as well. And yes, this means that all types of LEDs do also produce a voltage when you shine a light on them. It's a very small voltage, but it's there. Edit: I should add that LEDs are the only type of diode that can emit other wavelengths of light in addition to infrared. "Regular" diodes and those used to make solar panels produce infrared light. Infrared is not used to produce other colors in LEDs.

I am an electrician but never saw such a clear and thorough explanation of how LED works. Awesome video, thank you!

I was searching instructions for a project I wanted to build and lost about 3 days in time searching worthless DIY youtubers. Sir, someone mentioned you in a forum as a great instructor for DIY. The project has already ended with some more additions to the initial plan. I finished my daughters UFO treehouse Thanks to you. We even hang out with my wife when our daughter is at camp for the summer. With your instructions we created a replica of the part of the galaxy we have above our house. And its solar powered. Again Sir, you are the real deal and thank you :) Cheers. P.S. Sorry for any mistakes in syntax or grammar. English isn't my native language.

Imagine this being your teacher, that would be perfect.

Matt, I suggest you include your " item search titles " for the listed items to purchase. Occasionally they go out of stock and finding replacement from other online sources become challenging at best. Excellent work as usual this is and thank you for sharing.

If my physics teacher cared even 30% as much you do, i'd be a damn scientist by now.

As an artist I find it really hard to learn new knowledge or processes without understanding them first, so when I was trying to learn to replace the lightbulb in my drawing light box with LEDs I found it hard to follow along with the tutorials. Thankyou for this! You have helped me understand much more :)

"A big long standing project i have planned is mimicking the sun" Say no more *few weeks later* New Video: How to harness the power of your DIY sun

This was absurdly amazing. Seriously, this is one of the very best channels on YT

I love how you take a more instructional approach in this video actually showing the electrical principle behind and how to solder... and is explained so well... wow

Thank you! This video is the first one that straight on explains why there is a need for current limiting. Its the led itself that draws the current in amounts that could be way beyond its handling capabilities. Nothing really to do with the device powering it up. Rarely people say more that it just needs current limiting so it doesnt burn out, not the reason behind it.

Awesome videos you have! I might point out however, that using a voltage regulator circuit with a current limit mode is kind of topsy turvy, it's better to have a circuit configured as an adjustable current regulator which can put out enough voltage at the LED's rated current, because these are current-sensitive devices, and therefore you will not need two modes of operation, nor will it "run away".

the only thing more vibrant than high powered LEDs is Matt's personality :D really it's at least half the reason I watch these videos for

I began working with LEDs in 2009. I was the most knowledgeable guy for many miles around but life took me in a different direction. I still do some art with them but there's been so many improvements, new designs and people getting involved with them-like yourself and I'm sort o fin the dark (pun intended) these days. However you have shined some new light (yep-another pun) on the subject. Bravo. Good job and Thanks

I wish you were a professor at my school. The best cut to point explanation, with progressive well-organized narration. Thank you so much for you work!

It is remarkable to see how the LED has evolved from replacements for incandescent and neon indicator lamps, to serious lighting. I never expected to see LED used as replacements of strobes and incandescent beacons on emergency vehicles.

Perkz: Just look at all that light (points light to me) Me: 😵😵😵

I have been wanting for a video like this from Matt Perks and now I must say I'm impressed by the quality of what he's produced. Matt kept it quite simple yet he was able to correctly relay all the fundamental principles of LED lighting. I'm a picky electronic engineer who's been designing LED-based light sources and I couldn't fault anything in this video. Yes, I would have been even more explicit in the proportionality between current an light emitted (and how one's priority should be controlling the current rather than the voltage) but the concept was clearly mentioned. Now I'm eager to see a few examples of affordable controlled current sources. It seems that there are far fewer of this kind of modules available for DIY. One last thing: how can I get hold of decent lenses from up-cycle stuff?

I've often wondered how you can test the brightness of powerful LED's at home without expensive equipment. Thank you for demonstrating the simplicity of this complex vexation by simply blasting the light into your ocular receptors.

You've inspired most of my LED projects, thank you so much for these types of videos!!!

Matt's such a decent bloke, out of respect I leave my mouse alone and sit through his Blinkist ad. It seems the honourable thing to do.

Without a doubt, this is the best, most perfectly concise explanation of how to work with LEDs that I've ever seen. Thanks so much!

Thanks Matt, clear and easy to understand. I'd love to see your take on electroluminescent lighting and the possibilities. They look really cool

The subject (lumens per watt) made me research how WWII air raid spotlights of 70 years ago worked and how they compared in brightness/cost to our modern LEDs. Not on-topic for your channel, but worth a google for anyone who would like to know how 'they' achieved long throw light beams (miles), and at what $ cost, so long ago, and how it still leaves our modern LEDs standing !

bro at this rate this man is going to teach us how to make a nuclear warhead in just 3 months

Please keep creating more projects if you are free. Your projects inspire many people like us and keeps entertained during these times. Thank you!❤️

This is weird, I came to the channel because I was looking at making my own floodlight setup yesterday. Didn't find what I was looking for then you release this the next day. Magic.

So I was just watching his video whole day and he just uploaded a new video 🤣

TIL that "warm white" is lower on the temperature scale than "cold white".

The background story to Kelvin values was fascinating. I can't believe how I haven't heard it before even while being very conscious of the different values the last 25 years!

I'm an RV contractor and this vid has inspired a new line of service for me; making 12V light fixtures. 1000 Thx!

Hey Mat, nice deep dive on the electro-chemistry of LEDs! -Ken

I love it when he says 'we'll look at X later' when the video is only 15 mins long 😁

Bardzo dobrze wyjaśniony proces pracy LED. Super lampka.

I plan to make great use of LED’s on a model railroad I a building. This is great video. You should consider putting the information in a printed format, spiral bound for desk use.

Your shirt is doing crazy Moire Patterns on my screen lol.

This dude has carried my DT gcse bro

We got a little indoor herb garden for a gift. I figured it would have one of those big incandescent grow bulbs inside, but it's just tiny little LED bulbs. I was unaware such a thing was even possible. Thanks for the informative video.

Since I saw the fake window lights I've been considering to make some myself. It's a brilliant thing for basements. But it's quite a scary project to start on. Without any knowledge about LED and currents. This helped allot with the understanding around LED's and made the idea I have for my basement not that scary to set to life. Thanks allot for these informative videos.

Every single video here ,not even one fail to remind me this channel is totally worth the subscribe and notification.

Great video, and thanks for making this @DIYperks. However and although a bright LED is a lot a fun for cyclists, because of the powerful directional nature of the LED semiconductor, LED headlights for cyclists are a complete menace to both motorists as well as pedestrians, especially when they flash. I've noticed that when driving (I also cycle, and think it is important always to have some form of lighting on a bike after dark for reasons of safety), there is very much a tendency to keep focussing on the bright light of a cyclist rather than paying attention to the actual road, or what may be in it. I really wish more cyclists would consider this more when choosing lights for their bikes, as we all hate drivers who have the same power on their headlights. So why should cyclists be an exception to this rule?

Please do a video explaining different methods of controlling addressable RGB LED strips. You always explain things so well!

As a kid I remember spending £5 ordering in a blue LED when they first came out. I was amazed!

Would you be able to continue your led adventures? Circuitry is quite far removed from my skillset, but I would love to be able to make custom grow lights for my plant wall. Makes retrofitting a much easier task

I won't mind a Netflix series of this guy where he is a detective/superhero/person who uses surrounding parts to make a tool for fighting evil.

I did a deep dive on diy led walls made from led tape! I was surprised to see the limited options, 1 get a decoder and use dmx or use Arduino to control one strip. Thought of your channel and that you might find it interesting! I have a feeling you would have a much more creative way to accomplish an led wall with a wide variety of functionality! Anyway thanks for the inspiration!

There are also COB modules that include driver chips that enables the module to be powered directly from mains AC power.

Elon: "Gonna plant some chips in peoples heads..." Matt: "Hold my beer, we're gonna mimic the sun."

14:00 you mention wanting to make an LED mimic the "distance" of the sun (the fancy pants way of saying that is collimated as I'm sure you know but didn't want to explain for time). While I'm sure you've found a way to do this part already, a really cheap and simple way I would imagine doing this is getting a bunch of those coffee straws together and putting those in front of the LED. This technically just blocks the unparallel beams and is less efficient than lenses or whatever you are doing. But I think this would be a good quick-change filter for a light source and would be good for maybe 40% of use cases.

This is an incredible modular type tutorial, more please!

Hi Matt, I like the way you are presenting your projects - not too complex but also not boring, keep doing it please! Subscribed. Speaking of powering the LED I'm missing some information about using PWM for lowering the current consumption and thus heat flux reduction. Would you maybe extend your topic therewith? Cheers

DIY Perks: "You can figure it out with this simple equation..." Me: Pikachu face

as someone from the Netherlands, do NOT mount these on your bicycle. You'll blind any oncomming traffic and risk car drivers crashing into you.

Mr. DIY perks no matter how hard the project is and never doing anything i absolutely love your video not only entertaining but has actual good information. For that thank and may your channel become ever more stronger. 💐🙏

Great video as always! The explanatory content about LEDs is just fantastic.

i like how i can learn more in the internet than in my actual classes XD

That is the most beautifully pronounced "custom" I've ever heard.

Fabulous, really easily understood explanations. I now understand about 'constant current' for the first time!! Keep these coming please. Good work.

I like the use of a constant current power supply, or in your case a buck-boost in constant current mode to run the LED's, I'll be doing that in some projects I've got now. Also, I find it hilarious that the British guy wants to mimic the sun.

This guy is Mumbo Jumbo in real life!

as the date of this post: "You did it, you crazy sun of LEDS, you did it."

The video from GreatScott! about USB Type C you refer to is awsome!

Fascinating video - I have been an Electronics engineer for years, and I have learnt something.

Maths fact: With a ~26000mAh power bank and a 10W led, You can get between 7 and 8 hours of light.

12:31 While this is a cool tutorial, PLEASE don't recommend using such high power LEDs with quite a lot of stray light to be used as bike lights. If such a thing comes into your sight at night, while you are using maybe a good ol' 10W bulb or a small LED light yourself, you're pretty much screwed as you can't see anything. Please only use lights with a sharp stray pattern at the top, so it doesn't blind anyone more than 20m away or so. Otherwhise, well done, always enjoying your videos :)

Watching your videos encourages me to do diy projects of my own. Thank you

I just love your videos. They are quite professional and you explain things really well and accurately. Thanks for sharing! 😀

This led man !!!! Look at his room full of led

Why did the name change from "An introductory Guide to LEDs" to "Building DIY LED lights"?

You can work an excellent SAD lamp with the very affordable LED panels around now. A heat sink comes in handy though. Great video!

I will watch anything that this guy uploads. Such a calming and intruiging vibe this man creates. Great video as usual!

I have made a 60W LED but its flickering how come i fix it?

upload time 20 secs... 10 likes already

Hi! all your videos are awesome and we learn a lot from them! I made some projects with LED, getting inspired from some of your videos and one think that I think that's very important, specialy for making lights for video it's about flicker. I had to try with diferent kinds of regulators to find one without flicker.

Excellent video! This covered all of the information I was looking for and some that I didn’t even know I needed. Thank you!

For the first time got notification this quick

His shirt breaks my eyes.

Hey, your videos are amazing. You really provide detailed information and it helps in understanding the underlying concepts of the DIY things you make/device/invent. I have one request if you can do a video on how to make DIY freshwater aquarium LED light with a full-spectrum of light for freshwater plant growth. thank you!!

Thank you for making this video. So easy to understand the leds. Can't wait to make my own with your instructions.

I've never been this early 🤣

youtube :2 likes also youtbe :1 view

Thanks for all the useful information. I’m trying to put together a solar powered LED to mount into my old gas lamp post, and would love to hear your take on how to make this work with a solar panel and rechargeable battery.

I thought he's gonna make a diy LED from scratch materials. dissappointed.

Dude, u didn't make a single LED.........

Explaining what you work with in detail like this is a great idea considering that your other videos seem more like "preffesional production behind the scnenes" than DIY, cool Video.

Hi! Really helpful tips! Loved it! I'm trying to do a studio LED light of 50w using a COB led... I'm using a proper driver and heatsink and everything is working fine (thanks to your tips) but I really would love to have a way of dimmering it without introducing flickering... I really could use your help haha

I didn’t understand much of it, yet was certain it was being explained perfectly. This isn’t even an area of interest for me yet I loved the video, just goes to show how fantastic this guy is.

Thanks for the simplification, that was the absolute best 'For Dummies' video I've ever seen!

Thank you so much man. Always learning something new from you and be able to work on something new. Been working on laptop to home pc setup lately. Love to get inspirations from you

LED's are the best invention in the 21's😂 Love your videos! They're so informative and nice to watch. The quality is on such a high level❤ Greetings from Germany

Thank you for this video Matt!! I start to understand the LED lighting better. I want more videos like this! Thanks!

Your videos are amazing, the first one I watched was the invisible pc desk and I immediately subbed because it blew my mind, keep up the amazing work I’m excited to see future projects.

Thanks for showing us all on KZfaq the ins and outs of LEDs.

Superb, I'm starting to set up a KZfaq studio on a very tight budget. Have the camera and software. This helped me to work out what I am going to do about lighting.

So much information about LED in one single video. I have wondered about and searched online for a lot of this info about LED. Thank you so much.

Mimicking the sun and blue sky?? Yes please! At the start of lockdown I converted a broken TV into an "artificial daylight" panel, per your instructions from an old project, and mounted it in my basement home office. It's honestly been the most important factor in maintaining my mental health while working from home, so thank you.

You can also use a Dim-To-Warm COB instead of a single CCT COB. Those can go from 2700K to 6500K by changing the current (and thus the intensity). If you don't want to lose intensity, but want to regulate the colour temperature (=CCT), you can use a Tuneable White COB and 2 regulators. One for the warm LED's, the other for the cold LED's on the COB. Also, there are Bluetooth compatible drivers out there, allowing you to regulate the intensity from your phone

Wao this guy has it all.Talent,the perfect type of voice for his videos,creativity and great personality.

Excellent video with a lot of good info crammed in and as you say, just an intro to the intriguing subject. Helpful to now understand how they achieve the various white balances. I've been buying a few torches recently, been years since I bought one so I was well out of date with the tech and there is so much choice so it's a whole subject area that I had to spend a lot of time looking at before even deciding just what to pick to try out. Anyhow I ended up buying 6 different torches in a week and they are all very good in their own way. I guess I thought just get the collection out of the way and have it done and hopefully no more for a long while. I had initially just wanted a simple wind up LED torch for around the house with no batteries to worry about but was ensnared once I started looking. I believe there are a lot of people with rather larger collections but in my bunch I found one I like and think is most suitable for me and it uses a usb rechargeable 14500 (AA size) lithium battery (battery has inbuilt charging circuitry so just plugs via a lead into usb directly) which was something else new to me and works very well with no need for a separate lithium battery charger. Means the torch can also use standard AA but at lower voltage than the lithium. Still nice as I remember torches of long ago and they were lets just say. not nearly as good as now. That's a nice lamp you made btw.