I’ve posted a couple times about the dangers or blue and UV LEDs, and the benefits of red or green, and why including some military references… It’s definitely the way to go.
Strd and Wilba are right. I did an 8x8 display panel with some surplus blue LED’s. Looks good as kinetic art, but staring at one, even on dim is not good.
Green or red - the military spent a fortune testing this for us…
Using a panel in low light on stage, blue is just going to impair your ability to read your other stuff. If you really want to get fancy, then save the cash for an inverse LCD.
I bought some supposedly diffused 3mm flat tops from Rapid - they still looked like a tiny bright spark in a block of red plastic. My advice with Flat-tops is definitely try before you buy. The good ones seem to have some kind of fresnel lens in the plastic to give a good even light effect, which is why they are more expensive.
I’ll get more samples and post some pics.
BTW I have batch of retro style chrome bezel 10mm reds if anybody wants some. The LED’s can be swapped out for other colours.
If anyone is interseted I’ll post a pic in the fleamarket.
Hmnn, I got some diffused flat tops from rapid and I thought they seemed OK.. As mentioned before, the only problem was that he amber and red ones looked the same when lit. I quite like them anyway, maybe you have a keener eye than me.
g
Hmnn, I got some diffused flat tops from rapid and I thought they seemed OK.. As mentioned before, the only problem was that he amber and red ones looked the same when lit. I quite like them anyway, maybe you have a keener eye than me.
Which Rapid part number did you get?
I think we might haver different ones, by the sound of it. If the otehr flat topped ones are good, I’ll fit them to my Wilbabeast.
Best wishes
Did you get the normal or the through panel LEDS?
The ones I’m talking about are the normal ones,
L-424HDT RED CYLINDRICAL 3MM LED (RC)
L-424IDT HI/RED CYLINDRICAL 3MM LED (RC)
L-424EDT AMBER CYLINDRICAL 3MM LED (RC)
I have some green and yellow ones that I need to test too. I can send you a couple of the amber ones that I’m replacing if you want to check out the diffusion.
G
I’ve used blue LEDs on one of my SIDs, just so I have a streamlined-modern looking one, too 
Blue LEDs *are* annoyingly bright, but when used with 10k resistors they actually reach a level of brightness that’s okay for an indicator.
It’s not just the annoyingly bright thing, it’s that they also emit invisible wavelengths which are unhealthy for your eyes.