LEDS series not working

im running 4 red leds in series.. they're working fine in the trunk.. but under the dash they're shutting off and not working.. its not my soldering i know, cuz this happend last week when i had them under my seat.. Why is it that they keep on 'blowing' or whatever? I've proubly went through 12-16 leds now.. i guess i should really learn from it, but i dont.. Someone help! Im tired of my glow being a no show.

First of all you cannot Install LED light with out any kind of resistor running through it. See LED's can only handle 1.5v to 4v period anyone who tells you diferrent is lying to you. Trust me I know. Now check out the LED's I have with built in resistors on buy/sell/trade forum.
Also remember that not any resistor can be put in you have to calculate the application and then calculate the value of the resistor you will need so that the LED does,nt burnout. Oh The anode and cathode make sure you connect them propertly otherwise burnout will accur Any question email me flystratus98@yahoo.com Good luck

FLYSTRATUS98 wrote:

First of all you cannot Install LED light with out any kind of resistor running through it. See LED's can only handle 1.5v to 4v period anyone who tells you diferrent is lying to you. Trust me I know. Now check out the LED's I have with built in resistors on buy/sell/trade forum. Also remember that not any resistor can be put in you have to calculate the application and then calculate the value of the resistor you will need so that the LED does,nt burnout. Oh The anode and cathode make sure you connect them propertly otherwise burnout will accur Any question email me flystratus98@yahoo.com Good luck

your wrong, he said he has them wired in series. Your problem is that the red ones take 2.6v each and your car put out 12-14.4v so you need to add more or add a resistor to a group of 4. to be save i would put in 6 but 5 might work.

click here and see what i mean
http://www.kfz-tech.de/Engl/LEDSchaltung.htm.
I should know I put them together here you'll get the idea I hope I was able to help Peace

ok the best way to do what u want to do is wire them all in parallel it may be alittle more work and more wiring but it works. just solder a resistor to each cathode of the LED, this will drop the voltage to the proper level. assuming u have bought them from phil. u wont have any problems if you do it that way. o and also remeber make sure wires dont touch that can cause short curcuits things like that, try and cover up all of the metal with electrical tape shrink wrap or sutmhing just to make sure your connections are proper

FLYSTRATUS98 wrote:

click here and see what i mean http://www.kfz-tech.de/Engl/LEDSchaltung.htm. I should know I put them together here you'll get the idea I hope I was able to help Peace

i think you're thinking im running 4 leds parallel to each other.. Im running them in a series, the voltage equals 12 volts with 4 leds.. well just shy of it atleast.. i still must be overpowering them by 1.4 votls or so.. i think i'll try the 5 in a series.. if thats not working, it looks like ill have to run them all parallel.. which im not looking forward too.. i guess its really not that much more soldering, just a whole lot of a mess of wires.. and im sure my connections were right.. each of the leads were shrink wrapped and electrical tapped.. thier was no error in that. Talking with Ryan i came to the conclusion that im just giving it a little too much juice.. either a smaller resitor or another led should solve things.. i hope it does.. im getting tired of taking my seats out to install these damn leds..

I thought it was the adjusting of the seats pulling my wiring apart or something, i didn't really think an extra volt to the serires would do anything bad.. guess wrong huh? i guess its a matter of time before my trunk leds go.. although they're on a MI so they're proubly not hitting 12 votls in the first place, which hopefully will last .

use calculations based on 14.8 volts... becuase spikes can always occur in your system from the starter. although only milliseconds, they will eventually damage your led's.

what about using one of the resistors that came with the leds in a series? i dont care if it takes down on the brightness.. i just want them to stay on and not go out like they have been doing.. infact, if they weren't as bright that would be better for the application im doing.. if this will work.. can i put the resistor in the wire? i dont want to untape my series to solder it on, it would be alot easier to cut an inch back from the series on the postive wire, and solder a resistor in there and shrink/tape it up.

Best for you is to add another LED in the series. I tried 4 blue in my car and they died out pretty quickly. 5 worked just fine.

You can add a small resistor to the main wire, but I wouldn't reccomend that. It will need a pretty high watt rating. The ones I send out (1/4 watt) are good for just one LED. If you put more than one LED in parallel on that one resistor, it will get too hot and blow.

Good luck... Most of what flystratus said was wrong.[/i]

okay well i did 5 in a series, and so far so good.. i havent had a problem, except for the series i made out of a bunch of old series that weren't working correctly.. but i figured that one would stop woroking anyhow.