I soldered up a simple circut.. just 3 LEds in a row soldered positive to negative to light up my minifridge... I had a 12v power adapter to plug into the wall... and the LEd's had a max v of 4 each so I figured I was Fine... after everything was all wired.. I plugged it in.... They seemed to be glowing pretty bright.. I went over to the light switch to see the effect in darkened room then I realized they were glowing like aqua instead of the normal dark blue!.. I quickly tried to unplug it but I wasn't fast enuff I blew one of the Led's.... Not a major disaster.. but still.. I checked the power suply and Its 12 V Dc running at 3000 Ma.. I guess the ampage did it!... anyways I put the voltage down to 4. and they seem to work fine... its not a huge disaster but its a waste of a 1 $ Led... and a bunch of time..
I wired it when i was super tired.. no resistor.. and I wired em in series.... but the strange thing is the middle one blew not the first one which i assumed would of since it got the full 12 volts
LED's have a very low internal resistance - they will have all got 12 volts or similar. This is why you NEED a current limiting resistor, to limit current in the circuit.
