1

Does anybody know what that "f" looking sign is next to the 5, left-hand bottom corner of the LED labeling?:

It Indicates the diameter of the LED package.

Summary of Conclusion: Don't seek precision unless you have the means to obtain it.

...I'm a young electronics hobbyist, who has the passion to become a robotics engineer at later stages of my maturity.

Lately I have been tinkering with my first circuit designs, simple stuff really. My first circuits were "plug-and-play", based off of rough, highly in-precise calculations, but it would get things lit like the image below:

Simple circuit

Later, I decided to revise my scketch, adding in LED's and using a more scientific method to make more precise calculations about the circuits functionality...

Long story, but I got my circuit working. Thanks.

Iam Pyre
  • 161
  • 6
  • See if they are 5mm diameter. – Eric S Sep 19 '17 at 01:34
  • @EricShain They are. I can't get my circuit to work with KVL. If I add resistors, it just won't light up. – Iam Pyre Sep 19 '17 at 01:36
  • I think the symbol refers to the LEDs diameter. As for the circuit, maybe a EE can help. – Eric S Sep 19 '17 at 01:38
  • Have you fixed your multimeter problems in your earlier question? If not, treat your measurements as random numbers until you do! It could be anything - flat battery in the meter, defective power supply, worn-out contacts on the breadboard, etc, etc - or just "user errors". – alephzero Sep 19 '17 at 02:21
  • @alephzero A lot to say, but I believe the multimeter problem was more error on my side. First, I didn't understand KVL and it's relationship to voltage drops, I get that now and the readings make sense. I applied KVL to a simple circuit, 9v battery and three resistors. I got the appropriate readings at each point in the circuit. But now, I can't get KVL to work with a series circuit of resistor and led, I can only get my leds to light with resistor if I put the LED's in parallel. A lot to talk about here, will post it with pictures later if I don't solve the problem. – Iam Pyre Sep 19 '17 at 02:27
  • @alephzero never mind, multimeter isn't even detecting voltage drops across resistors. Things trash. Getting new stuff tomorrow. – Iam Pyre Sep 19 '17 at 05:21
  • well now the question doesn't even show the symbol you were confused about. You should revert this question to the original and ask new question. – agentp Sep 22 '17 at 01:30
  • @agentp working on that, I have pretty much solved the problem, just going to take some time to edit post. A lot going on right now. – Iam Pyre Sep 22 '17 at 02:10

1 Answers1

1

Note the circle thru the middle of the symbol. That symbol is telling you that the following number is the diameter. Somewhere else it probably says that millimeters is the default unit of length.

So, these LEDs are 5 mm in diameter. That size is also known as "T1 ¾".

Olin Lathrop
  • 11,401
  • 1
  • 22
  • 36
  • Is that a standard CAD symbol ? Sadly (or amusingly), us mathematicians see a line integral :-) – Carl Witthoft Sep 19 '17 at 13:25
  • I checked, the ISO symbol is a $\phi$ ... – Carl Witthoft Sep 19 '17 at 13:26
  • @CarlWitthoft are you sure the symbol is not Ø (diameter) instead of ϕ (small phi) like n your example. Yes it is a standard cad symbol to allow you to draw side projections of rotationally symmetrical items without needing the end projections. – joojaa Sep 21 '17 at 05:06
  • @joojaa you are correct -- I just grabbed the first LaTeX symbol that came close. And thanks for the info about the original symbol – Carl Witthoft Sep 21 '17 at 11:17
  • whoever made that package label probably also grabbed a handy symbol in whatever font they had to work with. – agentp Sep 22 '17 at 01:32
  • @agentp: Yes, they were too busy translating from Chinese into Chinglish to worry about whether exactly the right symbol for diameter was being used. – Olin Lathrop Sep 22 '17 at 11:58