Re:FBI director: Cover up your webcam
by abraae on Wednesday September 14, 2016 @11:47PM
(#12503259)
Perhaps you mean in parallel. An LED is driven by 20 mA, whereas a camera requires more like 200 mA, so it's not feasible to wire them in series - either the LED will burn out or the camera won't power up.
[ Parent
| on HN ]
Re:FBI director: Cover up your webcam
by Steuard on Thursday September 15, 2016 @07:29AM
(#12505091)
Yeah, I was pretty sure I was being a little sloppy by using the term "series" (for shame, physics prof, for shame!), but I was hoping to evoke the general sense of "if current doesn't flow through the LED for any reason, the camera can't turn on." Honestly, I'm not 100% certain offhand of a way to wire that (which is why I didn't want to be specific earlier, despite using a specific term: shoulda added some weasel words :) ). Do the LED and the camera run off of the same voltage? (If not, then parallel wiring won't work, either.)