Need Some Answers

[audioguru]

Hey guys, just curious, what is the maximum ON current a jumbo white LED can take safely if I use a 555 IC on it at a frequency of 15 Hz and duty cycle of 10% ? I'm going to experiment with it as a strobe.

The ON time will be only 6.7ms. Your vision sees the brightness of a flash duration of about 50ms and longer as the same as continuous, so a flash duration of only 6.7ms will appear dimmer than if it was continuous.
Look on the datasheet of the LED for its max pulsed current rating.

 

[berniedd]

Hey guys, just curious, what is the maximum ON current a jumbo white LED can take safely if I use a 555 IC on it at a frequency of 15 Hz and duty cycle of 10% ? I'm going to experiment with it as a strobe.

The ON time will be only 6.7ms. Your vision sees the brightness of a flash duration of about 50ms and longer as the same as continuous, so a flash duration of only 6.7ms will appear dimmer than if it was continuous.
Look on the datasheet of the LED for its max pulsed current rating.

Yes, that's right. I will have to operate the LED at a higher pulsed current that its normal continuous current rating to make it look bright enough. As a matter of fact, I'm going to string a number of LEDs in series and bunch them up physically to make for a brighter light. A condenser lens would also help.