LED turns 50

[K6JEK]

The LED was invented 50 years ago at GE. I didn't know they were that old.  I could have sworn the displays we were putting in planes at Boeing in the 70's were incandescent segment displays. I remember LED watches from the '70s. But no, 1962.

Get a load of the picture. When I first started at Boeing there were white shirts. There were narrow ties. There were pocket protectors. But there were no bow ties, no suspenders. Lot of class on display at GE. Lot of class.

http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/happy-birthday-the-led-enters-middle-age

[W3GMS]

Jon,
I remember Poly Pak's which was a surplus house up in Lynn Mass selling them in the late 60's when I was buying clock kits based around some clock IC's that National Semi was offering. 

The avionics field sometimes was slow coming around to using more contemporary circuits and components.  A friend of mine had an electronics avionics repair shop and I saw "Royer circuit" for DC to DC conversion for a long time after PWM chips were available.  The Royer was basically a two transistor chopper with a feedback winding to maintain oscillation.  Then they discovered the good old 555 chip and used that and I am sure today more contemporary PWM switching converters are used.  When one does an MTBF analysis on various circuits, low stress and minimum component count wins!     

Joe, W3GMS

[N4zed]

Oh heck...they got the LED's off the ship that crashed back in '47 at Roswell...  

[W3RSW]

Power went off for two hours or so, no apparent reason last night, whole area, and no storm yet.  Used the LED flashlight to find and fill the kerosene lanterns.  Very nice and no dimming with use.
Those ultra-brights are cool.