Working With LED's

So A few months back I attempted to Wire up some Under dash LED's, Needless to say, I failed. I have the leds and resistors, But I dont know what I should be mounting it on. I checked all the Circuit Citys in my city and they only have these Rectangle half foot things. Im just wondering if there is alternatives for mounting the LED's onto boards, Say plastic? Or thin wood? Any suggestions?

 

[KPSquared]

Why do you need to mount them? You should be able to get various sockets for LED's at any electronics supply store...(not circuit city or anything like that) I go to a place called Active Electronics. They sell everything you could need... not sure that'll help you as I live no where near you. You can just build something to mount them in... drill holes in a piece of plastic, mount it where you want. Just heat shrink all your connections so nothing can short out...

 

[PedroDaGr8]

Any half foot material should work provided the leads stick out the other end. The thinner the better of course (you induce capacitance in the wires at longer lengths), but any non-conductive plastic should work just fine. In fact, I have used white plastic as a diffuser AND mount. I drilled a small hole in the plastic put the led in, hot glued it from the backside and wired it up.

 

[techieman33]

You should be able to get project board at any radio shack.

 

[dannyces]

hello would plexi/acrylic be a non-conductive plastic ??

 

[PedroDaGr8]

Any half foot material should work provided the leads stick out the other end. The thinner the better of course (you induce capacitance in the wires at longer lengths), but any non-conductive plastic should work just fine. In fact, I have used white plastic as a diffuser AND mount. I drilled a small hole in the plastic put the led in, hot glued it from the backside and wired it up.

Dunno what I was thinking when typing that first sentence. Ignore the words half foot.

It should just read: Any non-conductive material should work provided the leads stick out the other end.

 

[PedroDaGr8]

Yep, those are non-conductive. COnducive is usually chrome finished plastics, metals, etc.

 

[Toast]

Perfect, I just wanted to know if I could use hot glue and say a plastic board, I spent $30 on project board, but it is dumb, the lines go |||||| instead of ===== so it was a pain soldering all of them

So hot glue and plastic wont catch fire?

 

[Mbrooks420]

No problems with the plastic, LED's put out very little heat.

 

[Toast]

So the last time i tried this, I wired them to a 12V adapter to plug into my cigar lighter, and they, well, blew up, would this be because the cigar lighter has to much power? or was there something most likely wrong with my wiring?

 

[Gus Gorilla]

No, it's not because of the cigarette lighter socket. I've blown up a couple too. It's because of the resistor. Depending on the LEDs you have they are usually designed for 3-4 Volts. 12 makes them pop. The resistor in series drops 9-10 Volts and leaves 3-4 for the LEDs to use. They need to be wired up as; Power, Resistor, LED leg, LED, Other leg, Ground. Make sure you have the correct leg to power or they won't light. This is why one leg is longer than the other. Any plastic will work as long as it's not chromed like Pedro said, and hot glue would work fine. No melting. Once you get them in we are going to need some pictures. Many of us have some sick fascination with lights.

 

[Toast]

Haha, alright, So Im going to give this a go as we speak, and if all goes good, I'll be making a Instructables on how to do it. I ended up buying a hot glue gun and thing Balsa board that Im going to use for mounting them. So When I wire them into the car, Will I tap into the Red wire for the Cigar Lighter? or is that one to powerful?

 

[PedroDaGr8]

There is no such thing as too powerful of a wire. The only thing is too much voltage. All car voltages are roughly 12-14.5V fluctuating.

 

[Toast]

Alright, Now why would me attaching a cigar light adapter to plug into make the LEDs blow up? and not when I straight wire them into the power cord to it?

Also, I just wired my first one all up and glued it, And put it to a 6 volt battery, And the first light is super bright, and then they get noticeably dimmer down the line? Is this just cause the battery might be dying? or is the wiring loose? or is it a major problem?

Thanks for all the help (=

 

[Blacksheep Josh]

You probably have them wired one after the other instead of each one having an equal amount of power... Series vs. Parallel I think.

Look up Mustang P51, he's done a few different LED jobs nad written up how to do it.

 

[Toast]

Alright, I redid them just now, I have 5 lights on one board, For the Drivers Side, Now I want to get these wired in properly. The last 2 times Ive had a "Spark" and then no light. Could someone possibly take some pictures of where they ground them out and where I tap into the Power? Thanks Again =)

And thanks BSJ, It was cause I didnt realize I was putting them in order not all on their own =)