source for bulk LED's / Photocells

[Superfly]

Hi, Can anyone recommend a good source for bulk LED's and/or photocells? We are doing an art project and need to buy upwards of 500-1000 LED's and photocells to control them, but we are on a tight budget. I've seen small photocells online for ~50c each and LED's for ~8c - anyone know if they available more cheaply somewhere?<p>Thanks!<p>Tim<p>[ June 01, 2003: Message edited by: Superfly ]<p>[ June 01, 2003: Message edited by: Superfly ]</p>

[Chris Smith]

Try "Goldmine" they are in N&V also try "Digi Key", when purchasing a 1000 they have a reduced price for that qty.

[Chris Foley]

All Electronics is a good source for surplus photocells. They have several parts available with different on/off resistances and sizes. They quote a price of $0.75 ea. in unit quantities, 0.60 in 10 qty. I'm sure if you call 'em up and talk with them, they'll be willing to go below your max price (if they have 1000 of any of them in stock). Check out<p>All Electronics Photocells<p>for their selection. One of them, their P/N PRE-18, shows $0.50 in 100 qty. By the way, considering some of these things have a minimum resistance of about 5 ohms, you might want to give some consideration to a series resistor. Also, these are not "snap-action" -- their resistance changes incrementally with changes in light intensity. Let us know if you need a hand. Happy hunting.<p>[ June 01, 2003: Message edited by: Chris Foley ]</p>

[Superfly]

I checked out Digikey - now that I think of it I used have one of their catalogs but I haven't played with electronics in 5 years or so it has long since disappeared. They have photocells for 25c each, I ordered a bunch to check 'em out. Good point on the resistance. Thanks for the help.<p>A few notes on the project in case anyone has some ideas -- we are intending to build a dome with multiple layers of LED's, with the whole thing behind white muslin cloth to give a cool effect of 3-d pools of light and pattern. <p>We wanted to control the LED's from a computer and it seemed like the easiest thing rather than messing with a COM-port interface would be to have an array of photosensors that could be put up against the computer screen and then the program to control the lights would turn them off and on by making circles of light light up on the screen to toggle the photosensor for a given LED or group of LED's. Seems like it should work anyway Any thoughts or insights would be appreciated.<p>Cheers,<p>Tim<p>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"The moment one gives close attention to
anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes
a mysterious, awesome, indescribably
magnificent world in itself."
- Henry Miller
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
www.infiniteworld.org
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[yodar]

try skycraftsurplus.com or some variation I got a mess of brilliat green ones 6 for a dollar each at 3 volts sufficient to fully illuminate the "terlet" at 5 feet ;&gt <p>(wife VERY happpy)<p>Yodar