Patent ID: 7425798

Claim:
A method of controlling a LED signal comprising the steps of: receiving LED data for one or more LEDs; generating a control signal in response to the LED data, wherein the LED data are, a light output, an average ambient temperature, and hours of operation of the LED array, and the control signal is an End of Life signal, wherein the End of Life signal is utilized to indicate end of life for at least one of the one or more LEDs; and calculating a maximum number of hours wherein said maximum number of hours is proportional to the average ambient temperature, comparing the hours of operation to the maximum number of hours, comparing the light output to a light output minimum, wherein if the light output is below the light output minimum and/or hours of operation is greater than the maximum number of hours generating the End of Life signal and if the light output is not below the light output minimum and/or the hours of operation are not greater than the maximum number of hours, incrementing a counter to continue sampling the light output and the hours of operation at a predefined interval.