The simplest way to use an LED is shown above. This is a standard white LED (rated at 20 milliamps) directly connected to a power source: in this case a 3Volt Lithum cell. It's not superbright, but a lot of small flashlights work this way and it puts out enough light to see your way in the dark. It's called direct drive because there are no electronics between the LED and the power source and if you choose the LED and battery/cell carefully, it's a great way to do smaller lighting projects.
This method also works with high power LEDs; you just have to be careful not to use too large a battery or you can overheat the LED which will destroy it.
In the next post, we'll look at more common ways of connecting LEDs to power sources.
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