A few LED light questions.

So i seen all of MustangP51 custom LED light installs and i want to do some of my own and i have a question. Im going to use the cigarette lighter on the side of the center console to power them but need to know how many i can run off one 12v power source.

 

[greyphox]

More that you would possibly ever wire in your truck. LEDs draw current in the milliamp range, and that auxiliary power has at least a 10Amp fuse, probably more like 15 or 20, you'll have to check your owners manual as I don't know off hand. In any case, worst case scenario would be a 10Amp fuse. Assuming the LEDs are running at a maximum constant current of 30mA (any more and they will start burning; usually run them around 20mA), you would need:
10A / 0.030A = 333 LEDs @ 30 mA.

Unless you want to have your truck glowing like a second star in the solar system, you wouldn't come even close to blowing that fuse.

If you are asking about running them in series, it depends on the color of the LED. Blue and white have a Voltage drop in the ballpark of 2.8-3.4 volts, whereas red and some other colors are around 1.8-2.2V, but you need to check the specs on the LEDs you have to be sure. You can wire 4 blue/white/other color LED with ~3V drop in series, or about 6 red/other color LED with ~2V drop in series.
It is not recommended to run LEDs in series (or any other type of light for that matter) because if one burns out you lose the whole strip.

Good luck w/the LED mods

 

[Blacksheep Josh]

i know right, led mods are so tempting, got to get the glue gun and practice soldering

 

[redneck21]

Hear is the LED lot of 50 on ebay i was thinking about getting.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Red-LED-Set-of-...66954QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp1713.m153.l1262
What i was thinking is making 6 40r 6 led light bars like this and then run the + and - to the 2nd cig. lighter outlet.

 

[greyphox]

Yea that would work. Are you gonna splice into it internally or get one of those adapters?

 

[Blacksheep Josh]

looks like a good setup. just make sure you throw resistors in there to extend the life and protect them. not sure what kind you'd need, but i'd still do it just so you never have to worry about them.

 

[greyphox]

http://www.quickar.com/noqbestledcalc.htm
That should help you figure out what resistor to use. Just plug in the values on the spec sheet and that will spit out a resistor value for you to use. They don't have to be exact, so whatever you can get that is close to that value is fine

 

[redneck21]

Yea that would work. Are you gonna splice into it internally or get one of those adapters?

Im going to splice in to the lighter adapter with a "tap" splicer so it can still be in the same spot and use it if i needed idk if that what its called but look like this.

looks like a good setup. just make sure you throw resistors in there to extend the life and protect them. not sure what kind you'd need, but i'd still do it just so you never have to worry about them.

yes im deff going to be using resistors to each led.

 

[redneck21]

So now i know that i can wire them up like that this is what im thinking.

2 4 led light bars under the dash 2 4 led bars under back seat, 4 leds under the each front seat at each corner, 1 led in each door handle in the inside and maybe 2 long 6 led bars down the side on the head liner. That mean i will use only 38 out of the 50 led lot i will get. What should i do with the other 12?

Is that to much I mean i got to use all 50 right

 

[greyphox]

since they come on with the dome lights, might as well put them IN the dome lights

Or you can put them in your vents.....

Or in your cup holder/glove box.....

Just about anywhere you can run wire

So get creative!

 

[redneck21]

vets would be 6 more and the cup holder would be 2 leaves me with 4 that i think i will light up my sups with. AWWWWWW now i got no more look like i need the 100 lot of LED and not 50. Man i LED are like crack man i just want more and more ill my X is just a bright light you can see form 4 miles away

 

[greyphox]

Unless you want to have your truck glowing like a second star in the solar system, you wouldn't come even close to blowing that fuse.

LOL it looks like you are trying to to reach that goal I set for you, huh?

 

[redneck21]

LOL it looks like you are trying to to reach that goal I set for you, huh?

YES YES I AM. I think i got a lil carried away with the ideas of the leds ever wear. Im just going to go the ones under the dash seats cup holder and a cupple in the back for now and then see wear to go from there don't want to rice out my X

 

[greyphox]

Haha I hear ya. But they do add a nice touch to it. Now if someone really had the time and money, you could do all sorts of crazy stuff with LEDs. Have like multiple color combinations, one color comes on with headlights, another when the doors open, etc, etc.

So many possibilities, ya know

 

[redneck21]

I know since i posted this i cam up with like 20 different way to wire them and only cost like $50 buck. I love them now that i know you don't have to buy them from radio shake

 

[greyphox]

Oh yea there are several ways to do this. I'm working on doing this myself in a similar fashion, except the dome lights can't be on with the LEDs, and vice versa. I'll be making some diagrams showing how I wired everything together and a write up most likely this weekend when my LEDs get here and I have time to work on it.
In case you're interested the thread is here:
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=217008

 

[redneck21]

ya that's on thing i had in mind since i dont have a gearge i was going to use that as the button for a cupple leds in the dome. I but in some i had on a old car i had and it it 2X bright as the old one. i just spliced into the wire for the old bulb. I got a better idea get one big ass LED and out a 5.0 in it save a lot of time.

 

[bigapple]

i recently did LED dome light conversions on mine and i have already done LED conversions on the reverse lights... if u get higher-powered hyper white LEDs, most of the ones made run at 100mA current... the ones i have draw between 3.6V-4.0V of power and i made a board of 9 for each of the reverse lights... havent had any issues and its much easier on the battery when i know i could leave my LED dome lights on all night if i wanted to and i could still start my car... LED conversions save u battery power and give a much cleaner glow... if u wanna know what resistors to buy and what array to assemble, check out this site

www.LEDcalc.com