12V LED Question
 

So I found these Tiny Prewired Super Bright Surface Mount LEDs - 12V DIY Plug and Play SMT LED but the issue is they are 12V and I planned on powering them off the RX.

The idea is to run them flush mounted on the inside of the body so that I don't have to cut out the headlights and tail lights.

Since the Rx only puts out about 5-6v, can I use a 6v cap to get the extra voltage needed to the lights? (I don't know if the RX is AC or DC. I assume AC since there must be some sort of modulation being carried on the signals.) And if not, are there any negative effects to running the LEDs undervoltage? (I don't think there are, but it never hurts to check.)

Re: 12V LED Question
 

All LEDs have a minimum voltage that they need to light up, you would need to know what that voltage is in order to know if they would run off of 6V.

Re: 12V LED Question
 

All of the rc electronics we normally run are DC not AC...you wont hurt the led's by plugging them in and finding out if they will light up...if they wont then a Castle 10amp BEC can be programmed for whatever voltage so that you can bypass the Rx and power the led's straight from the main battery...or run a smaller 3S lipo for the lights only...you would need more than just a 6v cap to make up the difference too...also dont forget the current draw of the lights on the Rx when they are plugged in...too high of a drain can cause the Rx to glitch. In my scaler I run a small 350mah 2S lipo to run my lights but they are compatible with the 3S main battery too.

Re: 12V LED Question
 

The BEC is already in use for the hi torque servo. Plus, capacitors block DC current, so even if I did do the math to calc what value cap I'd need, it wouldn't work anyways. Blast! Looks like it will be back to light buckets.

Re: 12V LED Question
 

why can't you just wire them straight to your battery and throw a switch in?

i have LEDs all over my SCX10 and i have them wired straight to my 3s with the correct resistors and a switch to turn them on and off then i have a little connector for the lights that are connected to the body so i unplug the lights connected to the body and remove the body no problem

Re: 12V LED Question
 

I'm only using a 2s lipo, which is 8.4v. That may not be enough power to get the LEDs to activate. I will find another method.