rollerce:
The thing I'm having trouble coping with at the moment is why everyone is freaking out at me for experimenting... It's a spare LED out of a bag of 10 that I got for 5$.
A paperclip is even cheaper, so I don't know why people freak out about kids sticking them into wall outlets.
And you know what's even cheaper than a $0.50 LED? A $0.03 resistor.
rollerce:
The other thing I'm having trouble with is why everyone is spazzing out about a current limiting resistor when there's no extra voltage to drop with said resistor.
It's in the name. "Current limiting".
rollerce:
Instead of being a bunch of condescending assholes, you could instead fill the gaps in my knowledge.
Condescending assholery would've been more like "Wow what an idiot, why would you even make a thread asking about such a simple project my dog could do in his sleep. Get lost and come back when you actually have a problem"
What I've been reading is "hey, here are some ways for you to learn safely, please don't hurt yourself". Quite different.
rollerce:
To the best of my knowledge, you only get runaway current on an LED when you apply a higher voltage than what the led is rated at.
The best of your knowledge, as you acknowledged, is a gap.
rollerce:
If I'd been putting 5V on the LED, I would have put a 1.5ohm resistor in series to limit the current. (1.2V/800mA=1.5ohm).
The math is correct but the numbers are wrong.
http://led.linear1.org/1led.wiz
See how wrong you are.
rollerce:
I'm confused how applying a series resistor that will drop voltage needed to make the LED run will benefit me in any way.
Learning how to do things the right way is a pretty good benefit. Bad habits in new situations are dangerous. What doesn't kill you, just might in a new environment.