Battery powered led lights hooked in a line hooked up to a vex battery

[south_metro_fish]

I am still trying to figure out my lighting using led lights and a 12v battery. I went to radio shack and talked to the guy there about 12v led lights and he told me that you could run their single led lights in a line until you matched the number of lights with the voltage or add a resister if it was under 12v. So with that in mind could you potently hook battery powered led lights in a line and hook them up to a 12v battery. Most led puck lights or battery powered led lights need 3 AAA adding up to 4 1/2 volts so if you hooked 2 of them together in a line and added a resister to cancel out the remaining 3 volts wouldn't that work. Looking for a second opinion of someone more knowledgeable about electronics before I go about trying it. If this works you could hook up just about any battery powered lantern, flashlight, rope light, puck light, or strip light to a 12v vex battery.

[servocam]

The resistance of each strip should be the same. If you put 3 strips in series (In a line), then the voltage across each strip should be 4 volts. I'm sure each strip wants 5v, but 4v should power it. Otherwise, if you only have 2 strips, you have 6v across each strip (and may be ok, depending on ratings). If you want to do more strips, then we have to look at wiring in parallel. You just need to be careful not to put too many together and exceed the current capability of the conductors (wires).

Can you publish specs of the strip? Max Voltage rating, Resistance, link?

[walleyewild]

South_metro,

Don't bother with trying to trying to adapt UFO lighting to 12V.

There are many options that are 12V ready.

Check out the lighting threads here in the ice fishing forum, the outdoor pro store on the web site sells the same style of lights everyone is buying from BHK and is having good luck with the strings working.

Clam and Frabill both have some other lighting options as well.

But unless you're like me and have a degree in electronics I wouldn't waste my time and try and build a voltage regulator to reduce to 4.5V.

There are a ton of 12V options available, don't waste your time.

WW

[south_metro_fish]

I'm just looking for a cheaper option to getting the pre rigged stuff, most stuff already 12v is about $10 to $15 over priced, most battery powered lights are much cheaper and there is more options for your lighting needs. As far as rigging 4.5v lights it doesn't seem that complicated you just have to do the math and the guy at radio shack told me there is a calculator on the net to figure out what kind of resister you would need.

[hydro]

LED's are current driven devices that operate on a constant voltage drop, and vary in brightness proportional to the current through them. In your case the assembly needs about 4.5 volts supply and I would guess there is resistance built into your lights to limit the current and protect the LED assembly from burning up. If you know the current rating of the LED's, you can specify a resistor to use them on a 12V circuit. Once that is known just buy the resistor and hook em up!

If it were my project, I would hook up a Milli-ammeter in series with the three batteries (4.5V) and read the operating current. Then it is simple math to find the needed value of resistance for 12V supply. Value of R is calculated as voltage applied (12V) divided by the measured current and will likely be in the area of 500-1000 Ohms. I would use a wattage rating on the resistor of 1/2 Watt to be able to dissipate the power.

Confused enough now? The simple solution as stated above is just to buy a LED assembly designed for 12V and hook it up.

[south_metro_fish]

What I am thinking is that the second light would take some of the voltage making it need 9v needing a resister to cancel out 3 volts if that wouldn't work I would like to know.

[servocam]

I'm just looking for a cheaper option to getting the pre rigged stuff, most stuff already 12v is about $10 to $15 over priced, most battery powered lights are much cheaper and there is more options for your lighting needs. As far as rigging 4.5v lights it doesn't seem that complicated you just have to do the math and the guy at radio shack told me there is a calculator on the net to figure out what kind of resister you would need.

You just have to ask "What's it worth to yah?" I would go buy the $13 12V strip that is ~24" long vs. trying to rig something up and chance letting the smoke out.

[south_metro_fish]

I also am disappointed with the brightness of most led lights, some of the brightest led lights I have seen have been battery powered.

[servocam]

I also am disappointed with the brightness of most led lights, some of the brightest led lights I have seen have been battery powered.

The brightness of the LED does not have to do w/ the battery power but rather the LED itself or the circuit. Solid-state lighting is a big deal these days and there are many different techniques to get brighter LED's. Some are in the design of the LED and others are Optical methods (like polishing or optical reflectors...).

Say bye-bye incandescent!

[south_metro_fish]

I know what you are saying about how the led is set up determining how bright it is and there is far less options in 12v then there is in battery powered led. That is why I have come to looking at hooking up battery powered lights together. I have one puck light that has only 5 leds in it that is battery powered that is 10x brighter then any 12v led light that I have ever seen. I have a led lantern that takes 6v you could hook 2 of them together with no resister potentially. I guess the point of this post is to get some opinion on whether using more then one light in a series would work like resisters making it possible to hook them up to a 12v battery with out frying them.

[RJMOEN]

these are a few dollars and work awesome. i have them wired in to my fishtrap, no resistors just straight to vex battery

link wont take, go to e b a y search led strip lights .99 for two with 4.99 shipping, come on a slow boat from china so order soon

[hydro]

Here is the simple solution to your battery LED light problem. No resistor. Just wire two in series and hook up to the 12V battery. You will have 12V powering a 9V LED circuit and the lights will be nice and bright. Another option is three in series (13.5V load) on the 12V battery. Will still work but will not be quite as bright. Hook them up and see what happens!

[Eelpout08]

Hook them up and see what happens!

Exactly, even if you let the smoke out of a few pairs you will only be out a few bucks and then you will know what not to do. thats half the fun!

[south_metro_fish]

Still weighing in all my options. I have been looking at some of those rechargeable work lights. There are some that have 25 leds all the way up to 80 led bulbs. They charge from wall AC and car DC making it possible to hook it up to a vex battery if it goes low or just to keep it charged. Has anyone tried anything like it? They seem to run $20 to $40.

[south_metro_fish]

Well I finally have my lights ordered, I found some light bars that have 72 bright white LED bulbs in them and use 4 AA battery's, and have a couple of magnets on the back and a hook. I have 2 on order now and plan to hook them together and run them off the 12v battery, 8 AA = 12v. They are a "Grip On tools 37199 72 LED Light Bar", and you can find them for around $10 online. I will post pics when I get them and get them rigged up. They also have 25 LEDs in a puck light that runs off 3 AAA's that are only around $4.