having trouble. LEDs keep burning out

hey oznuim. im having loads of trouble with a pair of 3mm LEDS that ive been trying to install into my rear windows circuit board. as soon as i plug them back into the windows wiring harness they flicker on/off for a second and then burn out immediately after.
i have soldered the longer lead to the positve side and then ive soldered a resistor, to the LED, on opposite side of the circuit board.

have any ideas of what i can do???????

This is happening because you're giving them too much voltage. Make sure you're using the proper resistor. And usually best to use 1 resistor for each LED.

Is this something you could use prewired LEDs for? Oznium offers this convenient option which is all ready to go for your 12 volt system.

It sounds like you may be making a third brake light? It might be easier if you use an LED strip or tube product.

im using the 470 ohms resistors for the 3mm white LEDs that im trying 2 install. there's 1 LED and 1 resistor per circuit board.

can u recommend what would work best?? also does it matter what side of the resistor is attached to the positive lead??

.... and no i cant use the prewired LEDs. its going directly into the circuit board. wish i could

need specs on the leds ...to calculate resistor values , and are you using 2 leds on one resistor ???
Yes you can use it on negitive or positive lead thay are just for current limiting/voltage drop purposes

sure. what kind of specs?

no. 1 LED and 1 resistor per circuit board.

Voltage current ect on them ??? Were they purchased here ??? Link to page ???

they're all oznium products. white 3mm LEDs and the 470 ohms resistors

also, if it helps, im attaching the resistor to the positive lead then looping it in a U shape and connecting the ground lead. is this the correct way of doing this?

The resistor goes inline with the positive lead. It should not be connected to the negative lead at all.

ScubaSteve81 wrote:

they're all oznium products. white 3mm LEDs and the 470 ohms resistors also, if it helps, im attaching the resistor to the positive lead then looping it in a U shape and connecting the ground lead. is this the correct way of doing this?

Like TRogers said, don't connect it to the negative lead. One side of the resistor should be connected to the positive of the circuit board. The other side of the resistor should be connected to the positive lead of the LED. The negative lead of the LED should be connected to the ground on the circuit board.

as always thanks to evry1 on these forums for the advise!!

stay tuned to this post i may have more questions when i continue with my project. i had to order more LEDs to restart the job. waiting on the shipment to arrive

Just so you know what you did was wire the resistor in Parrallel with the LED this caused the resistance to lessen and instantly blow out the LEDs ... You need to wire the resistor in series to control the voltage/current to the LED's ... Sorry for the expensive lesson

For future reference, there's a diagram and clear instructions on the product page: http://www.oznium.com/led

There is a good picture of how wire the resistor near the bottom of this page...

http://www.oznium.com/led

From this page...

http://www.oznium.com/resistors

Use 470 Ohm resistors with Blue, Green, White, U.V., Aqua & Pink LEDs.
Use 560 Ohm resistors with Red, Yellow & Orange LEDs.