LEDs and everything about them help?
02-01-2006, 05:05 PM
#1
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LEDs and everything about them help?
Okay so i want to start exploring with LED's anyone know how i can start learning about them? ive seen some wire diagrams but that doesnt help because i dont know what half the words mean..
if im using a LED how do i power it up? i know one goes to the batter and one is ground... but do the mean directly to the battery? also what exactly is "ground"
any tips suggestions or help in the right direction would be greatly appriciated.
if im using a LED how do i power it up? i know one goes to the batter and one is ground... but do the mean directly to the battery? also what exactly is "ground"
any tips suggestions or help in the right direction would be greatly appriciated.
02-01-2006, 06:00 PM
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Not quite ... A LED is a electrical short , so supplying power to the LED like you would a regular bulb wont work . You have to put a resister in line with it for it to draw power and light .....Ok that's the limit of my knowage
Originally Posted by Rotary Rasp
LED stands for Light Emitting Diode.
They are wired the same way as an incandescent light bulb is.
They are wired the same way as an incandescent light bulb is.
02-01-2006, 06:22 PM
#4
Extraordinary Engineering
A typical LED.
Being a diode current only flows one way under operating conditions. You must have the positive voltage on the anode and the negative on the cathode (usually the flat side) and you must use a resistor to limit the current to about 20 mA. Forward voltage drop is probably between 2 volts and 4 volts. So if you run on 12 volts then you would need (12-4)/0.020A = 400 ohms to (12-2)/0.020A = 500 ohm resistor. (Ohms law)
Look for high intensity LEDs. They come in many colours and vary from thin beams to area lights.
Being a diode current only flows one way under operating conditions. You must have the positive voltage on the anode and the negative on the cathode (usually the flat side) and you must use a resistor to limit the current to about 20 mA. Forward voltage drop is probably between 2 volts and 4 volts. So if you run on 12 volts then you would need (12-4)/0.020A = 400 ohms to (12-2)/0.020A = 500 ohm resistor. (Ohms law)
Look for high intensity LEDs. They come in many colours and vary from thin beams to area lights.
Last edited by DarkBrew; 02-01-2006 at 06:26 PM.
02-01-2006, 06:28 PM
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Originally Posted by LiL BenNy
Okay so i want to start exploring with LED's anyone know how i can start learning about them? ive seen some wire diagrams but that doesnt help because i dont know what half the words mean..
if im using a LED how do i power it up? i know one goes to the batter and one is ground... but do the mean directly to the battery? also what exactly is "ground"
any tips suggestions or help in the right direction would be greatly appriciated.
if im using a LED how do i power it up? i know one goes to the batter and one is ground... but do the mean directly to the battery? also what exactly is "ground"
any tips suggestions or help in the right direction would be greatly appriciated.
What's your back-ground Lil BenNy? I'm an electrical engineer so I could tell you all kinds of things about LEDs, but you don't need to know much at all to use them. If you've soldered or wired anything previously then an LED is about as hard to install and use as a AAA battery.
02-01-2006, 06:51 PM
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cool blue.. i basically want to learn to change out my lights that come with my m20 blinder. it comes withe a led turns green when powered on and red when hit. basically i want to make two of these and mount them in my gauge cluster so they are symetrical. now instead of green i want it to be white when powered on and red when im hit, that way it has a more stealthy appearence... kinda like this picture...
02-01-2006, 06:59 PM
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Originally Posted by RotorWheeee
Not quite ... A LED is a electrical short , so supplying power to the LED like you would a regular bulb wont work . You have to put a resister in line with it for it to draw power and light .....Ok that's the limit of my knowage
02-02-2006, 07:57 AM
#8
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Originally Posted by LiL BenNy
cool blue.. i basically want to learn to change out my lights that come with my m20 blinder. it comes withe a led turns green when powered on and red when hit. basically i want to make two of these and mount them in my gauge cluster so they are symetrical. now instead of green i want it to be white when powered on and red when im hit, that way it has a more stealthy appearence... kinda like this picture...
First thing to check - do you have one LED or two? Most LEDs are single color. You run electricity through them and they light up. Simple. However, there are some parts packages that have multiple LEDs in a single package. Is the original indicator a single, tiny LED bulb or is it some sort of plastic housing that has one or more LEDs inside?
02-03-2006, 04:57 PM
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You won't want to tap straight off the battery. You want to find a wire that is 'live' when the ignition is on and doesn't drain the battery when you take the key out.
If you are duplicating an existing indicator I would say tap directly into the same wires used on the original indicators. Put the 2nd indicator in parallel.
If you are duplicating an existing indicator I would say tap directly into the same wires used on the original indicators. Put the 2nd indicator in parallel.
02-08-2006, 05:47 PM
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Sorry - was offline for a few days. What's your location? Close enough to drop by on a weekend? If you could drop by my office I'm sure we could solder the stuff up in a few minutes in my lab. Doing it by mail would have a long cycle time - if you're far it's probably better that you do it there with some coaching.
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