FS: Blue LED's (DIY moonlights)

If anybody out there OWNS a commercial LED setup for their tank, please let us see what inside!!! (the guts!!)

How can the cheapest technology be the most expensive?

Dakar id thank the new LED fixtures or made with the 24 vote LED that
run of the direct led ballast or transformers. Don't no if you no much about
them but Thea or whit we use on the new sonics and other fast foods
Thea or made so you no longer need or have to use the resisters.
ALL most all neon is being replaced with them. I don't no much about the tek
part but Thea work good.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dakar

Nope the resistors will remain the same if you ran 1 or 12, I just calculated for a reasonable max for your power source, 400mA +/- 10% gave me 360mA to work with. The circuit will only draw as much current from the supply as it can use, so even with a 10A supply you can safely run 1 LED and one resistor.




Joe, afraid to say no... your math is correct, just not being applied correctly. You need both Ohms law E=IR and a little of Kirchov's law P=IE (think they may teach it where V is now in place of E for applied voltage).

The supply voltage is 6V, however these LED's require roughly 3.3V to operate, resistors actually drop the voltage seen by the device (get a meter and measure the voltages between the resistor and power source and between the LED and source.

Reducing the resistance will increase the voltage and the LED will glow brighter, but for a significantly shortened lifetime, 3.6V and up and you'd get about 20 seconds of life, 9V would yeild about 2milliseconds before the smoke flies. They are rated for a max forward voltage of 3.4V, but 3.3V is a safer bet to ensure a longer life, and they will still produce roughly 90% of their rated luminosity.

The only way to get by with smaller resistors would be to run a pair of LEDs in series on each leg, but you would need a power supply of 6.6V or greater.

Hope this makes sense... if not I can start a new thread to draw out the some of the basic electrical laws and how to apply them.

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OK, I hate to go on about the LED's again and the Volts vs Resistance, so I have an easy way to get the voltage down to the 3.3V using a 110/12V power supply by using in line straight from your power before your connection to the LEDs by using an Adjustable-Voltage Regulator. In this case I would use a heat sink with the regulator. For those that do not work with electronics make sure that you use a silicone-base heat sink compound between the regulator and heat sink so they will make a good connection plus helps dispersing the heat evenly. You can get the Adjustable-Voltage Regulator from Radio Shack they have them online and in the store, to read about the voltage regulator I have also posted the link:

http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...or&tab=summary


Bob

Quote:

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Originally Posted by w7afm

OK, I hate to go on about the LED's again and the Volts vs Resistance, so I have an easy way to get the voltage down to the 3.3V using a 110/12V power supply by using in line straight from your power before your connection to the LEDs by using an Adjustable-Voltage Regulator. In this case I would use a heat sink with the regulator. For those that do not work with electronics make sure that you use a silicone-base heat sink compound between the regulator and heat sink so they will make a good connection plus helps dispersing the heat evenly. You can get the Adjustable-Voltage Regulator from Radio Shack they have them online and in the store, to read about the voltage regulator I have also posted the link:

http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...or&tab=summary


Bob

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If anyone wants me to make up a new drawing I can do so for you, I'll just have to find my circuit making program and I will do it up also using a Adjustable-Voltage Regulator you will not have to use any resistors, for the ones that do know electronics if I have this wrong please correct me, I have been known to be wrong before and I can take to feedback good or bad so please feel free to throw it my way if I have something wrong.

Bob

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jerryc

Dakar id thank the new LED fixtures or made with the 24 vote LED that
run of the direct led ballast or transformers. Don't no if you no much about
them but Thea or whit we use on the new sonics and other fast foods
Thea or made so you no longer need or have to use the resisters.
ALL most all neon is being replaced with them. I don't no much about the tek part but Thea work good.

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Don't do much 'fast food', so I may have fallen out of the loop on some of the new commercial applications, but armed with a screw driver and a good multimeter and just an hour (maybe less) is all I'd need. :p

Quote:

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Originally Posted by w7afm

If anyone wants me to make up a new drawing I can do so for you, I'll just have to find my circuit making program and I will do it up also using a Adjustable-Voltage Regulator you will not have to use any resistors, for the ones that do know electronics if I have this wrong please correct me, I have been known to be wrong before and I can take to feedback good or bad so please feel free to throw it my way if I have something wrong.

Bob

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Bob, when you get some time please do draw it up and post it, start it in a new thread, I'd enjoy going over it in more detail, especially with using an LM317, haven't had the need to design anything using one yet.

FWIW, the only reason I recommend the the use of resistors for voltage limiters is for most folks they just need a simple way to fire 4-6 LEDs reliably and easily enough to whip together in an hour or so without any real electronics knowledge. AND not have to pay commercial companies big bucks for a silly LED.

[QUOTE=dakar;38832]Don't do much 'fast food', so I may have fallen out of the loop on some of the new commercial applications, but armed with a screw driver and a good multimeter and just an hour (maybe less) is all I'd need. :p[/QUOTE


YEA I'm just waiting for one to go out so that i can get a look at the inside
of them.
Thea or total enclosed so ill have to Waite' But Thea seam to last for ever LOL

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jerryc

Dakar id thank the new LED fixtures or made with the 24 vote LED that
run of the direct led ballast or transformers. Don't no if you no much about
them but Thea or whit we use on the new sonics and other fast foods
Thea or made so you no longer need or have to use the resisters.
ALL most all neon is being replaced with them. I don't no much about the tek
part but Thea work good.

---

OK, even if these LED's are now the 24V and not the 3.3V the Adjustable-Voltage Regulator that I am talking about has a voltage range I believe 1.2V to 37V, please don't quote me on that I have to go back to Radio Shack and look up the regulator again. One of the easiest ways to find out the voltage on the LED's that Dave is selling, I will just just one on my breadboard and raise the voltage until "I GET SMOKE", I just had to through that in for Dave's mind, just have to let him know I do know how to get smoke out of different electronic parts, caps or the best, they pop like a small fire cracker, LOL

Bob

Quote:

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Originally Posted by w7afm

OK, even if these LED's are now the 24V and not the 3.3V the Adjustable-Voltage Regulator that I am talking about has a voltage range I believe 1.2V to 37V, please don't quote me on that I have to go back to Radio Shack and look up the regulator again. One of the easiest ways to find out the voltage on the LED's that Dave is selling, I will just just one on my breadboard and raise the voltage until "I GET SMOKE", I just had to through that in for Dave's mind, just have to let him know I do know how to get smoke out of different electronic parts, caps or the best, they pop like a small fire cracker, LOL

Bob

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"Want options for your output voltage? This regulator has an adjustable range from +1.2 to 37VDC. May require heat sink in some applications".

The above information is from the Radio Shack Adjustable-Voltage Regulator page itself so that is what the voltage range that this regulator has. I will have to look for my circuit program and lot it on to my PC, I just got a new PC not to long ago and not all of the programs that I use are on it yet.

Bob