Wiring ?

[FettTheHunter]

Hi

Hopefully one of you clever electronics people can tell me if I have the wiring right.. or correct it ?
I am not very good with things involving wires and such

Thanks

 

[Boba Swede]

Well.. right now you've got them connected in serial.. and if i'm not misstaken LEDs shoudl be placed parallel. If not then it's still better incase one LED burns out the whole circuit doesn't collapse.

This is a 5min sketch of how it should be connected. hope it helps.

**edit**
How come you have a resistor after every LED? Why not one "big" one?

 

[FettTheHunter]

Thanks ... but good lord that diagram confuses the heck out of me

The guy in the shop said I needed three.. and a different one for the green because it has a higher value or something ( quite frankly I have no idea )

 

[Boba Swede]

Oh.. sorry.. its the electritian in me..

Here's what to do.
The circles with triangles are LEDs. The "fat legs" and "thin legs" are the short and long legs of the LED's.
The fat bar with a thin bar under is the battery.
The only real important thing is to connect the fatleg to the following fat leg and the thin leg to the follwing thin leg.
The gate looking thing is the swtich.
the box with the R is a resistor.
Do you know the resistance of the three resistor that you are useing?

LED's often require 1,5 V and you have 3 of them 3x1,5 = 4,5 V and you've got a 9V battery which means that the three resitors have to take care of the remaining 4,5 so that the LED's don't burn out prematurely.

 

[FettTheHunter]

I cant remember what resistance They are ... they are very bright though
So I only need one resistor ?...also the legs look the same thickness although one LED leg is longer than the other

 

[Boba Swede]

If the guy said you needed three then i'd take his word for it. The legs are the same thinkness.. i just made one leg thicker to distinguish the two.

when soldering connect the long leg to the following LED's long leg and so on till you get to the battery.
The whole set up on your pict is fine.. just re-arrange the LED's

 

[Boba Swede]

Revised...

 

[FettTheHunter]

Thanks so very much ... thanks for for sharing your knowledge, really do apreciate it

 

[Boba Swede]

No prob.. what goes around comes around..
what is it for anyway?

 

[RBF]

im bettin gauntlets... want to do soemthing liek that aswell...

 

[FettTheHunter]

Its for my helmet .. for the three holes just under the range finder ear cap
I'm only having one light on my left gauntlet near the end on the right hand side.

My attempt at wiring went a bit wrong ( and the LEDs were not the flashing type ) so I got some that are all the same power/value/thing, apparently I wont need a fiddly resister with this set up and can wire the them in series :confused ..is this this correct ?





Thanks...

Randy
:jet pack

 

[wizardofflight]

With out the resistors you run the risk of burning out the LEDs.

Here is a site that has a lot of LED circuits.

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Bill_Bowden/
Alan

 

[Boba Swede]

LED's don't blink... you'll need some sort of chip or a bi-metal circuit... like the ones used in christmas lights...

And technically yes.. you can put the LEDs in a series... BUT if one burns out... all of em go out. If they are placed in parrallel the circuit is still complete and only the LED that has burned out doesn't shine.. the rest do..

If you want them to blink alternatly place the LEDs in parrallel with a bi-metal circuit on each (instead of resistors in the original schematic)

 

[FettTheHunter]

The LEDs I brought today blink.. approx twice every second ... I'll wire them in series and replace as needed... I'm not going anywhere near anything as complicated sounding as bi-metal circiuts and such ..

 

[Boba Swede]

hmm.. i guess those LEDs got bi-metal circuits built in then.. kinda lika the christmas lights.
A bi-metal circuit is a two strips of metal peices that bend when heated. It then breaks the circuit. LED goes out.. When the strip cools the circuit is whole again and the LED goes on again. Thus.. blinking..

But again.. if you place them in serial and one LED stops working ALL of them stop working and you'll gonna have a hard time finding which one it broken..

If they are placed parrallel you imediatley se which one is broken since that one is the only on not lightning up..

 

[FettTheHunter]

So Parrallel would look like this ?... how important is the resister as they are all the same value/power/thing ?

This electrics thing is complicated.. I knew I should have stuck to ancient texts

 

[wizardofflight]

The resistor has to be matched to the LEDs' current rating.

Alan

 

[OPPI]

Check this out too. Good documentation for a lot of electronic applications

dan

 

[Boba Swede]

pretty much.. yeah..

 

[FettTheHunter]

Thanks .. I'll give that a go.. I'll go and buy a resister for 9 volt rated LEDs .. and if that does not work I'll befriend a electrical genius