My light mod (pics)

[scottyboyfun]

damn wrong pic above! this below is my blue smd bit! sorry all!

[scottyboyfun]

Dont bother downloading the above pic, It is BELOW!!!

As the attachment was a big bmp, here is the jpeg! doh!

[t-squared]

but the same voltage and put 3 together, which gave me 9 volts so I could eliminate the resistors.

9 volts?! why don't you wire it in parallel and use 1 battery instead?

[dabigpig]

nice job keep up the good work

[mpbiv]

Originally posted by Leoslan
The only problem that I have is that I hooked 4 LED's to one 3 volt battery and they seem kinda dim even with the resistors. I could add a second 3 volt battery, but space in my car is at a premium. Do they make a 6 volt lithium battery?

I would think the resistors aren't really helping you much. I see that you have the resistors wired in series with the LED's so there is a voltage drop across the resistor and your LED's are not being supplied 3V. This might be why it looks dim. Try removing them.

I think the only real reason to use a resistor is to limit the current through the LED so that you don't burn it out. It does this by increasing the equivalent resistance seen by the circuit which decreases the current. However all LED's have a internal resistance, so with 4 LED's there might be enough equivalent resistance in the circuit to not use resistors.

If it still seems dim when you remove the resistors, it might be because the LED's are rated for a higher voltage.

[xatu]

9 volts..... Wow....

Ok, I took the resistors off and re-wired it as you can see in my second set of pics. I tried 3 volts of brand new alkaline watch batteries and left the lights on for like 15 minutes and they totally died. So, I tried 6 volts and then 9 volts and not much of an improvement. I think that I am finally going to end up using 6 volts of the lithium batteries and I am going to have to try to find room for 2 of them. Because I sodered directly on the battery, I want these lights to last a while without having to change the batteries too often.

I just did a dual-battery mod on the motor. What if I took out the lithium batteries and wired it directly to one of these? I could sacrifice the speed and the longer running time for the light addition. Would my controller charge it enough to power the lights only when it is running? If it did, I could eliminate the switch AND the additional lithium batteries.

Any suggestions? I don't know much about wiring so I don't know if this would work. I was just excited that I actually got it to work the first time. I might try it, but first do a controller mod to get maximum charge in the batts.

[t-squared]

if you wire the leds to the car's battery, the leds might go dim when you go forwards or backwards.......

[MicroManiac1]

What size LEDs did u use, i cant find them small enough at my RS

[scottyboyfun]

They are called SMD (surface mount) chip LEDs.

http://uk1.farnell.com/Search/search...archform.jhtml

they are on there

or alternatively try mobile phone shops, as some sell these leds so u can change the color of ur phones backlighting.

[scottyboyfun]

That link doesn't work , try http://www.farnell.co.uk

do a search on the site for smd led

or alternatively use

http://www.froogle.com and type in smd chip led.

[Spanky]

http://www.lc-led.com/View.jsp?idProduct=55

are these the led's your refering to? they look cool, im not sure if im patient enought to try to solder them... lol thats tiny.

[scottyboyfun]

Yep thems are d ones!

All you need is a 12W soldering iron or one that states suitable for smd work, a fine tip on it.

press theled upside down onto a bit of blue tack, then place the soldering iron on a terminal,touch the solder on this terminal at the same time, thats 1, then do the other terminal.

Then tin a wire (cover it slightly SLIGHtLY with solder), then put this wire against a led terminal, apply heat to the wire, there u go, a nice joint!!!!!!

Be patient and try it, it is worth it, in the future all components will b small, and smaller!

Dont heat the leds for more than 3 seconds id say,so u dont melt the lens! Look how tiny my set up is!

[scottyboyfun]

here is an smd chip led next to my tomy s2000!

[scottyboyfun]

Another shot!

Wonder if bit science would b interested in this?