Anyone work with LED lights

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grassy

grassy

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I am using a group of LED lights to light the interior of the car ...the all came with pig tails.

Can I wire them in series ?

Thanks
Ian.
 
Depends on the voltage required. In series, they divide the volts. In parallel each sees the full voltage. Doesn't matter what type of bulb.
 
It depends what you have. A pig tail is not a usable description. LEDs come in many different varieties. Forward voltage varies with color. Some have components built in to limit current, others not. Perhaps what you need is found by reading the part specifications for operating voltage and current, or asking the supplier.
 
you'll have to find the working voltage first Ian, most LED's won't work off of 12v it will burn them out

you may have to wire in series or put a resistor in, have too check it out
 
I don't know if this will help you with your specific question, but it's still nice to have.
It tells you how to wire and resist LED's depending on how many you use and what thier power rating is.

http://led.linear1.org/led.wiz


If by "pigtail" you mean each one has a positive and negative wire to a set of LED's you will have to wire them that way.
(A power and ground for each set)
Otherwise the second set will be running off of an a already resisted power supply, and each set after the first will have less and less power.
In fact, I'd bet the second set wouldn't even light.
 
Did a quick check to confirm:

All are 1) Suitable for Vehicles - Yes
2) 12VDC operation
The power consumption is minimal.

It also says "LED light can be used to replace license plate and other bolts for exterior and interior accent lighting. LEDS are sunlight visible."

Looked at your table. Thanks . manufacture doesn't give me the necessary info to chart.

I have a loup of 4 of them on my console..thought I would try to save a bit of wire and simply the harness.

Ian.
 
I have LEDs in my C-pillar lamps in my fastback. They really light up the interior !
And dont get hot.
 
Thanks.

I was a bit concerned wit my daughter driving at night and the weak interior lamp...not sure what bulb would fit that. When she opens up the car at night she should be able to see all of the inside..and you can match the colour with the interior :)
 
The basics of LEDs

An LED is exactly what the name "says" .........."Light Emitting DIODE"

It's a diode.

When you hook a diode to DC voltage, one direction it does not conduct current.

When you hook the diode up in the opposite direction, it becomes a "dead short" in basic terms. To prevent this "dead short," LEDS must have a current limiting resistor.

"12 volt" LEDs are in reality an LED with a limiting resistor "inside" to limit current.

You can buy LEDS "bare" that is with no limiting resistor, or with resistors configured for different voltages, in your case 12V

So the answer is, if you were to buy diodes WITHOUT resistors, you could wire them in series. You would then have to provide a resistor to handle the current and to limit the current properly
 
Last time I checked an LED drops about .7 volts per device if it had no current limiting resistor built in.
 
I have LED's on all exterior lights except the headlights and indicators on the fenders right now, and looking for decent replacements for the fender lights that don't require modding the light fixture.

Most of my interior lights are LED except for the aftermarket guages.

They sure do cut down the amperage needed to run double the brake and turn lights.
My 73 is a four lense in the bumper.
I changed my backup lights to brake and turn lights, so that all four lenses light with brakes. (Two on each side for signals, and one on each side for tail lights)
The original backups used the same lense type, but with a clear center so I used regular lenses and wired them into the existing brake and turns.

At an idle I can touch the brakes and it will light the driveway up all the way to the street at night, but the headlights don't even flicker when they come on.
 
Thanks all.

Trailbeast, I intend to go the same way but i have to get the car on the road first.

For the headlights, I am going old school with a set of Bosch lights that run h4s...and getting the headlight kit being sold on FABO.
 
grassy said:
Thanks all.

Trailbeast, I intend to go the same way but i have to get the car on the road first.

For the headlights, I am going old school with a set of Bosch lights that run h4s...and getting the headlight kit being sold on FABO.
Click to expand...

At first I was going to use the two inner tail light section from a 2013 Mustang for my four lights, but HOLY CRAP they are pricey.
I would need four of them, and the average cost even used was hundreds each.
I used a modified bayonet bulb with magnifiers on the inside of the lense surfaces to spread the beam of the 9 LED bulb.
I would like something with more definition to the LED's like the Mustang lights but I'm not spending 800 bucks to do it.

That's why I had that calculator, to build my own.
LED's are cheap as hell, it's apparently the assy labor that gets ya and I can do that part myself.
 
The short answer to your question is yes. However if you do that and one of the devices fails, the entire string quits. wire them in parallel and there will be no such concern.
Andrew
 
cudajim said:
Last time I checked an LED drops about .7 volts per device if it had no current limiting resistor built in.
Click to expand...


I intended to mention this but the words "dead short" was intended for simplicity

blue missile said:
The short answer to your question is yes. However if you do that and one of the devices fails, the entire string quits. wire them in parallel and there will be no such concern.
Andrew
Click to expand...

This too...............
 
TrailBeast said:
At first I was going to use the two inner tail light section from a 2013 Mustang for my four lights, but HOLY CRAP they are pricey.
I would need four of them, and the average cost even used was hundreds each.
I used a modified bayonet bulb with magnifiers on the inside of the lense surfaces to spread the beam of the 9 LED bulb.
I would like something with more definition to the LED's like the Mustang lights but I'm not spending 800 bucks to do it.

That's why I had that calculator, to build my own.
LED's are cheap as hell, it's apparently the assy labor that gets ya and I can do that part myself.
Click to expand...

PM'ed ya..
 
I use 8 foot strings of LED's for shelf lighting in my tool truck. .8 amps per 8' string (8 tenths of a amp draw per string) . They are wired in parallel. tmm
 

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One other thing, I forgot to tell you to use an electronic flasher instead of those load devices on the individual lights.
The load devices just put the amp load back on the system so the OEM type flasher will still work.
If you use an electronic flasher it does not make any difference what the load is because they flash electronically.

Doing it this way drops the required amps to run the lights by about 3/4, so for example if the brake lights used 4 amps to light before, they will only need about 1 or so amps with LED's
 
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