Minimum Voltage for Master Replicas Anakin ROTS Soundboard?

[Rhyen Skytracker]

That will affect your runtime because in parallel instead of splitting the voltage like you do in series you are splitting the current. I normally wire my RGBA LEDs in parallel or in a series parallel configuration.

[Zip_Kicker]

Okay thanks.

Would you mind elaborating a little more on what you mean by running the Leds in series parallel.. I understand both concepts but how exactly are you suggesting combining them. Sorry if it's a dense question.

[Skottsaber]

Well it really depends what color you want. Or do you have all one color?

[Rhyen Skytracker]

In paralle you run the + from the power source or sound card to the + of all the LEDs and the - from the power source to the - of all the LEDs and that will split the current from the power source. If the voltage of all the LEDs is 3Volts each then you will only need a 3 volt power source, but the current draw will be the total of all 3 LEDs combined. If all 3 LEDs are 1000 mA then you will 3000mA which will decrease your runtime.

For series you run the + from the power source or sound card to the + of the 1st LED and the - of the 1st LED to the + of the 2nd LED, the - of the 2nd LED to the + of the 3rd LED and the - of the 3rd LED to the - of the power source. If each LED needs 3 volts then you would need a 9 volt to power source to feed all the LEDs and the curren draw will be the current of the highest power LED. Usually around 700 - 1000 mA.

A combination circuit will be running 2 LEDs in series and then parallel with the other LED.

[Arkhan]

It is helpful thank you.

So if what you say is true I can run the Tri-Rebel Leds in parallel and would only need for example 3.2 volts overall to power all three Leds? That would be perfect. Will the Leds brightness suffer when wired parallel and does the battery life suffer much?

I'm pretty sure you're going to get the rebel's full 700ma x 3 = 2100ma out of any AAA battery. As a rule of thumb I usually figure a discharge rate around 1x, so you'd only be getting <350ma per LED, minus the sound board.

so yes, not as bright if you use a 3xAAA setup and wire LEDs in parallel.

However, in the same space you were going to do 6xAAA in series, you could wire TWO 3xAAA packs in parallel.

You'd get enough current to run all three stars at full power, and the same runtime as the 9V solution. This would require a slightly different resistor most likely.

I run a tri-rebel red-orange off a single 3xAAA battery pack and resistor in my daughter's saber, getting about 300ma per LED, and it is pretty well as bright as my LUXIII running at 1000ma.

AAA batteries just don't put out the current that a AA can, but....they are smaller, which is why I end up using them.

So many possibilities, makes the head spin

[Rhyen Skytracker]

I normally just use 4 AA NiMH battery pack. It has a mAh of 2300, so if you wired the LEDs in parallel you would get about 1 hour of runtime.

[DarthPawley]

Okay, thanks for the input guys.

I also had another question, I don't know if this is dumb but could I use a Buckpuck to regulate the current going into the soundboard and speaker? That way I can use just 1 battery pack (8 x AAA) to power the Tri-rebel and the soundboard, while not overloading it. I don't even know if thats possible.

I know this is a bit of threadomancy, but I thought it could be a useful datapoint:
What you suggest is perfectly feasible IF the soundboard will run on 20 mA.
The six wire buckpucks have a regulated 5V reference line for the dimming pot which can be used to drive microprocessors etc. So you can put the puck in between the battery pack and the board and led, use the led+ and - to run the led and the 5V ref and the led- to run the soundboard.
I haven't been able to find the min current required for an MR board though...