question about accent LED's

[morpheus1977]

Series would be going from the Batt + to 1 LED +, from that LED - to the next LED +, from this LED - to the batt -. If the LEDs are 3 Volts and 20 mA, that will use 6 Volts and 20 mA. If you wire them in parallel it would be the batt + to ALL the LED + and the batt - to ALL the LED -. If you are using 2 LEDs like in the series example you would only use 3 Volts and 40 mA. So, a series voltage will require a lot more voltage but only use a little current and a parallel circuit will use the Forward voltage of the LED and the current use would be the sum of all the LED currents.

ok see that makes a little since to me I can picture the way you said that LOL.
so for my purpose I would want them Parallel. Because in series I would lose voltage? as I go down the LED's and they would get dimmer. But in Parallel they all get the same amount of voltage. I just have to resistor the voltage so they dont get to much and burn out.


Well I have a rudimentary (sp?) understanding I know what the difference is Parallel is allowing each LED to get an equal amout of voltage so they are all the same brightness. Series is chaining them together in one "straight" circuit losing voltage as you go along So I am going to use the one suggestion and put all of the resistors onto a circuit board That will help a little I can see why people get confused there is alot of conflicting information out there LOL. Now I saw somebody say you resistor the pos pin and the chart I saw said you resistor the neg Pin.

[Rhyen Skytracker]

If you wire them all in parallel you can get by with just using 1 resistor, but that resistor would have to be rated for a high enough wattage to equal or be greater than all the LEDs added up. So, if you use 6 LEDs at 3V and 20 mA that would be .02A * 6 = .12 A * 3 V = .36 Watts. You would need to use a 1/2 watt resistor if you only wanted to use 1 resistor to go to all the LEDs.

[morpheus1977]

If you wire them all in parallel you can get by with just using 1 resistor, but that resistor would have to be rated for a high enough wattage to equal or be greater than all the LEDs added up. So, if you use 6 LEDs at 3V and 20 mA that would be .02A * 6 = .12 A * 3 V = .36 Watts. You would need to use a 1/2 watt resistor if you only wanted to use 1 resistor to go to all the LEDs.

the Leds I have will have a max forward voltage of 4 volts thats what I want to shoot for. I want these things as bright as I can get it. Since I will be defusing the light.

ONE resistor would be awsome.

[Arkhan]

The resistor can be wired on either + or -

Whichever is easier.

Typically, I put mine on the + lead. Probably old habits from working around car audio and situations where you have a common chassis ground.



If you have a single resistor big enough, it can go on the board in place of the "individual" or "one resistor per two or three leds"

[alreadyRogue]

here you go

thats got them all in parallel, in, from what ive gathered, the proper arrangement in the lancer

[morpheus1977]

Thanks I have alot of information to sir through now lol. But now I have a monkey wrench to throw in. It looks like I won't be able to use two of my LEDs so I am going to have to use a different type. That just means I will have to use a different resistor on that one if I remember correctly?