Why do LED rear lights flicker?

[dalin80]

its something some people see and other just dont, i dont notice the flicker but my sister does on many new cars.

'why do they have those horrid broken lights for?'

she thinks the flicker is intentional to bring attention to the lights in the same way as indicators flash.

 

[Jonny69]

Well it turns out it is for constant brightness and only one drive circuit. Been chatting to an engineering buddy about it. It's also due to the cost of the smoothing capacitor that stops the flicker, apparently there's a threshold of people who simply can't see the flickering and over a certain number and the flashing is deemed acceptable. It doesn't matter about everyone else who notices ot it irritates. Ergo they save their 0.01p per unit and save the company thousands over the production run.

 

[Simon]

I see dead people

 

[lordrobs]

I see what you did there.

 

[ShakenNstirred]

i dont see the flicker, but i do hear a high pitched noise from my led lit dash in my rover 75, girlfriend cant hear it when she is in the car