my new diy
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From: Homo Capital!
my new diy
hey guys! i'm working on something new but i need your help. as you can see the pictures below. the led's need to be brighter. how can i get them to be brighter? i don't know crap about led's. any help would be greatly appreciated.
Last edited by Weiboy718; Nov 30, 2008 at 09:46 PM.
Well first off, what are you using currently to drive the LEDs? A 1.5V battery or a 9V battery? LED takes approximately 1.5V to turn on and depending on it's rating and type, it can vary on brightness based on the voltage supplied across it.
I think most of the LED mods on this forum are driven by 12V, which you can easily create by connecting 2 standard 1.5V AA batteries and a 9V battery together in series... just don't leave them on for too long... they aren't designed to be "stackable"
Another factor is the number of LEDs you are trying to power on, a single battery might not provide enough current to drive all the LEDs... this can be fixed safely by connecting two identical battery/battery networks together in parallel...which provides the same voltage output but with increased current drive capability.
One word of note, do not supply more voltage than what the LEDs are rated for, you WILL damage it!
.....and what's with the Hello Kitty thing in the first picture hahaha j/k j/k
I think most of the LED mods on this forum are driven by 12V, which you can easily create by connecting 2 standard 1.5V AA batteries and a 9V battery together in series... just don't leave them on for too long... they aren't designed to be "stackable"
Another factor is the number of LEDs you are trying to power on, a single battery might not provide enough current to drive all the LEDs... this can be fixed safely by connecting two identical battery/battery networks together in parallel...which provides the same voltage output but with increased current drive capability.
One word of note, do not supply more voltage than what the LEDs are rated for, you WILL damage it!
.....and what's with the Hello Kitty thing in the first picture hahaha j/k j/k
Last edited by G37_6MT; Nov 30, 2008 at 09:51 PM.
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I see hello kitty and cigarette butts. haha.
Looks good man, nice mold, I like it.
Did you get the LEDs+resistor you told me in the PM? If so, don't drive it too hard, I don't know what the resistor is, you don't want to pop them or burn out the LEDs. Know all there is to know about LEDs and circuits before you connect them onto your car or someone else's car!
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Looks good man, nice mold, I like it.
Did you get the LEDs+resistor you told me in the PM? If so, don't drive it too hard, I don't know what the resistor is, you don't want to pop them or burn out the LEDs. Know all there is to know about LEDs and circuits before you connect them onto your car or someone else's car!
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Thread Starter
Registered User
iTrader: (10)
Joined: May 2007
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From: Homo Capital!
Well first off, what are you using currently to drive the LEDs? A 1.5V battery or a 9V battery? LED takes approximately 0.7V to turn on and depending on it's rating and type, it can vary on brightness based on the voltage supplied across it.
I think most of the LED mods on this forum are driven by 12V, which you can easily create by connecting 2 standard 1.5V AA batteries and a 9V battery together in series... just don't leave them on for too long... they aren't designed to be "stackable"
Another factor is the number of LEDs you are trying to power on, a single battery might not provide enough current to drive all the LEDs... this can be fixed safely by connecting two identical battery/battery networks together in parallel...which provides the same voltage output but with increased current drive capability.
One word of note, do not supply more voltage than what the LEDs are rated for, you WILL damage it!
.....and what's with the Hello Kitty thing in the first picture hahaha j/k j/k
I think most of the LED mods on this forum are driven by 12V, which you can easily create by connecting 2 standard 1.5V AA batteries and a 9V battery together in series... just don't leave them on for too long... they aren't designed to be "stackable"
Another factor is the number of LEDs you are trying to power on, a single battery might not provide enough current to drive all the LEDs... this can be fixed safely by connecting two identical battery/battery networks together in parallel...which provides the same voltage output but with increased current drive capability.
One word of note, do not supply more voltage than what the LEDs are rated for, you WILL damage it!
.....and what's with the Hello Kitty thing in the first picture hahaha j/k j/k
is 55000 mcd something i should get? that's what i found so far the brightest. thanks for your help!
ucla is not giving me any advice.
I answered all your PMs, man. It'd also help if you ask me specific questions too. You can post here too, since I've subscribed to this.
55000mcd is reaaaally bright. In general, LEDs are 3.3V, 20-30mA. If the ones you bought came with the resistors built in, you don't need to worry about any of that.
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55000mcd is reaaaally bright. In general, LEDs are 3.3V, 20-30mA. If the ones you bought came with the resistors built in, you don't need to worry about any of that.
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these led's are 3v each. i got six of them and wired them two pair in series with seperate resistors. i'm running the power off of a 12v home adapter. i left the led's on for over 8 hours already and still no problems yet?
is 55000 mcd something i should get? that's what i found so far the brightest. thanks for your help!
ucla is not giving me any advice.
is 55000 mcd something i should get? that's what i found so far the brightest. thanks for your help!
ucla is not giving me any advice.
Well looks like you only have one spec - "3V" - that can either be the turn-on voltage or the maximum rated voltage. I am guessing it is the turn-on voltage in this case... you can try powering the LEDs with less than 3V and see if they turn on to test it out. Since you mentioned current limiting resistors, I am guessing you are using ones with too high of a resistance... what's the Ohmic value of those resistors?
So you have 2x single strip of 6 LEDs in parallel and you connected the 2 strips together to form a 12 LED array in parallel correct? I have to look at the design of the strips to see how they are connected (might not be what I am thinking)... but it sounds like you only need one current limiting resistor at the input... you will need a multimeter to accurately determine the proper ohmic value of that resistor though...unless you know the current draw of those LEDs
I answered all your PMs, man. It'd also help if you ask me specific questions too. You can post here too, since I've subscribed to this.
55000mcd is reaaaally bright. In general, LEDs are 3.3V, 20-30mA. If the ones you bought came with the resistors built in, you don't need to worry about any of that.
55000mcd is reaaaally bright. In general, LEDs are 3.3V, 20-30mA. If the ones you bought came with the resistors built in, you don't need to worry about any of that.
This guy spent countless hours playing with LEDs
an array of 12 LEDs each drawing say....25mA on average... so 12x25mA = 300mA must be provided to the LED array on average, not taking into account the power dissipated by the resistor.
Assuming there is a constant 3.3V across the LED array and the input is 12V.......the resistor must have 8.7V across it...since 300mA must pass through it.... you are looking at 8.7V/300mA=29 Ohm max for the single current limiting resistor with a power handling rating of 8.7V x 300mA = 2.6 Watts.... you would of course lower the resistance slightly to say 25 Ohms and at least a 3.0W resistor... which can be hard to find.....
Another approach is having one current limiting resistor per LED. This approach is more practical and you can figure out the proper ohmic value of that resistor using the same calculation methods above... but this time you only need to account for 25mA of current.
300~320 Ohm resistor with 0.25W power rating is a good fit and they are pretty common...just make sure you wire them right
Good Luck!
Last edited by G37_6MT; Nov 30, 2008 at 09:51 PM.
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From: Homo Capital!
I answered all your PMs, man. It'd also help if you ask me specific questions too. You can post here too, since I've subscribed to this.
55000mcd is reaaaally bright. In general, LEDs are 3.3V, 20-30mA. If the ones you bought came with the resistors built in, you don't need to worry about any of that.
55000mcd is reaaaally bright. In general, LEDs are 3.3V, 20-30mA. If the ones you bought came with the resistors built in, you don't need to worry about any of that.