# Is a LED sign directly showing the light source?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-led-sign-directly-showing-the-light-source/344343
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [February 13, 2006, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-led-sign-directly-showing-the-light-source/344343 "2006-02-13T21:52:59Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2006, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-led-sign-directly-showing-the-light-source/344343/21 "2006-02-14T12:45:23Z")
> [@Cartooniverse](#):
>
> Dude. You’re asking us to buy traffic lights from rodents. C’mon. 😃
Ferrets are not rodents…
… they are insects.
OK, they’re Mustelids.
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2006, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-led-sign-directly-showing-the-light-source/344343/22 "2006-02-14T12:49:01Z")
> [@TJdude825](#):
>
> Whatever it was that caused one single neuron to fire three whole words early, I want some.
Oddly, when I’m thinking ahead of myself, I do sometimes type a word beginning with the first letter of the next word, but in this particular case, I think I must have just re-worded the sentence and placed the caret in the wrong position.
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### Author:  [@js\_africanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/js_africanus)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2006, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-led-sign-directly-showing-the-light-source/344343/23 "2006-02-14T15:10:18Z")
> [@Sunspace](#):
>
> **js\_africanus** , if you are rewriting the regulation, what is its goal?
We’re actually looking into revising the ordinance for completely unrelated reasons. The sign ordinance doesn’t take into account anything like road speeds, development size, topography, &c. in the standards set out. Since we’re going to go into it and tinker, I’d like to clear up a few things, if possible. The language in the ordinance is a train wreck, to boot, so I’d _really_ like for it to be more readable. We’ve recently had a number of inquiries about LED signs and I was quite unsure whether we really needed to accomodate them somehow.
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### Author:  [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2006, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-led-sign-directly-showing-the-light-source/344343/24 "2006-02-14T15:31:11Z")
> [@Mangetout](#):
>
> Ferrets are not rodents…
>
> … they are insects.
> OK, they’re Mustelids.
You’re joking ?
( apologies for compressing open lines from quote )
Damn. [You’re not joking.](http://www.ferretcentral.org/faq/part1.html#what_are)
> [@](#):
>
> Ferrets are domestic animals, cousins of weasels, skunks and otters. (Other relatives include minks, ermines, stoats, badgers, black-footed ferrets, polecats, and fishers.) They are _not_ rodents; taxonomically they’re in between cats and dogs, a little closer to dogs. They are friendly and make excellent pets. If you’ve never met one before, the easiest way to think of them is somewhere between cats and dogs in personality, but rather smaller. They can only see reasonably well, but they have excellent senses of hearing and smell. Some are cuddly, others more independent; they vary a lot, just like other pets.
( their italics )
I sit corrected. I should have said, they LOOK like rodents. However, they are clearly not insects. You evil man, you. 😃 You wanted to frighten us with mental images of immense FLYING ferrets?? Hah !
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### Author:  [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2006, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-led-sign-directly-showing-the-light-source/344343/25 "2006-02-14T17:26:47Z")
> [@js\_africanus](#):
>
> We’re actually looking into revising the ordinance for completely unrelated reasons. The sign ordinance doesn’t take into account anything like road speeds, development size, topography, &c. in the standards set out. Since we’re going to go into it and tinker, I’d like to clear up a few things, if possible. The language in the ordinance is a train wreck, to boot, so I’d _really_ like for it to be more readable. We’ve recently had a number of inquiries about LED signs and I was quite unsure whether we really needed to accomodate them somehow.
But what is the regulation trying to accomplish? Is it just to control glare and avoid distracting motorists?
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### Author:  [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2006, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-led-sign-directly-showing-the-light-source/344343/26 "2006-02-14T19:06:36Z")
For the OP…
I work in the airline industry, with signs and general illumination specifically, where LEDs are really taking off _bada ching_
There is no practical difference in lightsource from LED versus any “pointsource” light such as filament-based lights as far as you ability to control the appearance or dispersion of the light is concerned. I’d argue that LEDs have vastly more flexibility for a sign application such as yours. Using gels, filters, lenses, or reflectors, the can be made as arbitrarily diffuse, bright, focused, as you desire.
It seems a really trivial problem and solution, that is getting derailed by obsolete regulation and beauracracy (sadly an all too common hurdle in the engineering world).
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### Author:  [@js\_africanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/js_africanus)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2006, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-led-sign-directly-showing-the-light-source/344343/27 "2006-02-14T19:43:10Z")
> [@GargoyleWB](#):
>
> It seems a really trivial problem and solution, that is getting derailed by obsolete regulation and beauracracy (sadly an all too common hurdle in the engineering world).
That’s why I’m asking the question. 😃
> [@](#):
>
> I work in the airline industry, with signs and general illumination specifically, where LEDs are really taking off _bada ching_
:smack:
> [@Sunspace](#):
>
> But what is the regulation trying to accomplish?
You mean no visible bare light source or immediately adjacent reflective surfaces? I assume it’s a light-pollution issue rather than aesthetic.
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