How to wire LEDs

[TMONEY$]

can I make 3 separate circuits and use y connectors or splice all 3 into one channel on the receiver. I want my light bar, trail/rock lights and body lights to be all separate with switches for each circuit. also the body lights consist of 2 white head lights 4 amber marker/park lights and 2 tail lights.
the led array wizard only lets you pick 1 forward V for 1 color of led

[heyok]

Just take each LED and resistor as a unit. put as many units in parallel as you need. Put a switch in series with any of these parallel units.
Use Y connectors if you like, but since you are stripping wires and soldering anyway, why not just do that?

Hope that helps!

[TMONEY$]

That's perfect if I have all units in parallel how do I put a switch in series I don't remember how to make a series parallel circuit. Sorry Noob moment

[heyok]

Lets say you have one circuit with head lights and tail lights. That's four units all wired together. Now take the wire that goes to positive of all the units and put it on one terminal of a switch. The other terminal now goes to the battery positive. Connect the negative wire from the units to battery negative. That switch is considered to be in series with the units (LEDs that make up the head and tail lights).

[TMONEY$]

Thank you so much.

[Zombi]

Great thread! I've used your tips, and one of your light switches to do the lighting on my Dingo

[heyok]

Beautiful work!

[JokersWild]

Where did you find the jst splitter?

[lil' bear 4wd]

where did you get the warm white leds? link please! i need some for my scx10 and have had a rediculously hard time finding "warm white" leds

[BigSki]

Al,

what's your opinion on using a buss bar to supply current and just tapping each LED into that? I've been slowly working on a scaler project and I need to keep things clean on the light wiring aspect because of so much open space. I'm thinking some small gauge solid copper for the BUSS bars would work since the overall current load isn't that great.

[heyok]

Originally Posted by BigSki

Al,

what's your opinion on using a buss bar to supply current and just tapping each LED into that? I've been slowly working on a scaler project and I need to keep things clean on the light wiring aspect because of so much open space. I'm thinking some small gauge solid copper for the BUSS bars would work since the overall current load isn't that great.

Sounds like it would be worth a try. Just be cautious of any unexpected contact with anything that might cause a short.

[lil' bear 4wd]

which of these two are brighter help please i like the warm white because they look more like halogen lights on a real truck but if the pure white ones are brighter i will probably go with those
100pcs 5mm Warm White Diffused Bright Round LED LEDs Light Resistor for 12V | eBay
10pcs 5mm White 5V 6V 7V DC Pre Wired Water Clear High Bright LED LEDs 18cm New | eBay

[heyok]

Originally Posted by lil' bear 4wd

which of these two are brighter help please i like the warm white because they look more like halogen lights on a real truck but if the pure white ones are brighter i will probably go with those
100pcs 5mm Warm White Diffused Bright Round LED LEDs Light Resistor for 12V | eBay

Luminous Intensity Typ Iv (mcd) : 3000(Typical) ~ 5000(Max)

10pcs 5mm White 5V 6V 7V DC Pre Wired Water Clear High Bright LED LEDs 18cm New | eBay

MINIMUM MCD: 12000 - 14000 MCD

According to the specs that they post, the second one is brighter.

[lil' bear 4wd]

Originally Posted by heyok

Luminous Intensity Typ Iv (mcd) : 3000(Typical) ~ 5000(Max)



MINIMUM MCD: 12000 - 14000 MCD

According to the specs that they post, the second one is brighter.

ok thanks the mcd rating cornfused me im used to lumens

[FourDogs]

Is there a way to minimize the bulk of wires to get all the LEDs wired up? My light layout will 5 3mm red, 5 3mm blue, 4 5mm white and 2 3mm yellow. I've been burning up LEDs because I guess I just don't get the calculator or how to solder them up. Here's the pic of the lights I need to wire.

Would anyone be able to draw out a diagram of how to wire these all together?


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[heyok]

Originally Posted by FourDogs

Is there a way to minimize the bulk of wires to get all the LEDs wired up?
.. snip ..
Would anyone be able to draw out a diagram of how to wire these all together?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I think most of what you want is in the first post.

Are you running these from a receiver plug? If so, just use 470 ohm on each LED if it is too hard to keep track of all the resistor values. They will all light up with acceptable brightness.

Good luck!

[PSH72]

Originally Posted by Zombi

Great thread! I've used your tips, and one of your light switches to do the lighting on my Dingo

That is a great clear work done there.

[josh6575]

Someone make this thread a sticky. Nice one!

[PileDriver]

If u have 6 volts at the receiver then what voltage of LEDs are u using and with what resistors?

Would a BEC set to 7.4 volts make a difference?


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[heyok]

Originally Posted by PileDriver

If u have 6 volts at the receiver then what voltage of LEDs are u using and with what resistors?

Would a BEC set to 7.4 volts make a difference?


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This thread is getting kind of long, so I can understand a hesitation to read it...
Your answer is in post number 8 of this thread.

To answer you directly:
The voltage of the LEDs depends on the specifications of the LEDs. Generally bright white LEDs have a forward voltage of 3 volts and want 20 mA of current. Bright red LEDs are similar. For these you can use 150 ohm.

For other colours, you can assume that they are a lower voltage (around 1.5 to 2.5 volts) and need less current. You can use 220 ohms.

Really, you can just plug them into 6 volts or 7.4 volts (yes, their life will be shortened, but probably not enough to notice).
To be more correct about it, use 220 ohm for the white/red and 270 ohm for the other colours.

These higher resistor values would also work pretty well if you only fed them 6 volts - they wouldn't be quite as bright, but probably bright enough.

Hope that helps.

By the way, have you ever wondered why guys always talk about 7.4 volts?
It's because someone somewhere wrote that is what a 2S Lipo would measure with a volt meter. The truth is that it is more like 8.4 volts when it is fully charged. Also because it is about the voltage of a six cell NiCd / NiMh pack. But 7.4 volts is the voltage of a partially discharged pack.