On Tue, 10 May 2005 09:43:01 -0700, "John Smith"
wrote:

Without the FET, the leds would not last long, when I said "bright"--that
was an understatement...

Hi Brett,

If by bright you mean those dim Orange LEDs you first specified, I am
inclined to believe that you have not seen "bright" at all (all
advertising claims aside). The eye is a very, very poor measurement
instrument of absolutes. All of this goes hand-in-hand with the total
lack of quantitative information of:
1. How much forward power;
2. How much reverse power;
3. How bright forward LED;
4. How bright reverse LED;
5. How much current through either LED;
6. How much voltage across anything;
7. ALL (or any) of the above for any given load.

It is one thing to "want" to build a relative indicator - but relative
to what? A Zen tune-up?

One LED gets brighter and the other dimmer? By how much? and just
what is this an indication of? I posed the acid test of describing
this in end-user documentation and I note its glaring absence.

It stands to reason that the circuit topologies that you offer the
most are biased to shut down the weaker LED (and the reverse power, by
nature of cable loss) which is guaranteed to be the weaker power.

Hence, it follows that the forward power is extinguishing the reverse
indicator. It may make an interesting display, but it is decoupled
from any purpose of revealing a mismatch.

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC