I want to connect 10 red LED's to a molex to light up all and sundry in a case for a new project. Can someone please draw me a circuit diagram with Maplin part codes cos I'm cunfussed as to how many LEDs I can put in series and how many in parrallel and how many resisters I need and what resistance they should be. Thanks in advance..
If i were you i would connect all LEDs in paralell. They will need a resistor each this way but they are so cheap that it does not really matter. As for the resistance it would depend on the LED you choose and weather you use the 5V line or the 12V one. Take a look at the sticky posts at the top of this forum and you shall find all the answers you need. There is also a link to linear's resistor calculator (all the values that need to be entered are going to be on the specs page of whichever LED you choose) Code: +ve o-----|/\/\|-------|>|--------o -ve Each LED will be connected like this to the same wires that lead back to the molex connector Hope this helps
Sorry I was just being lazy I guess... so from the Linears calculater thing and maplin high brightness red leds (WL84F) if I put them all in parrellel I either need Supply voltage 5 V Diode forward voltage 2V Diode rated current 30 mA Calculated resistance value 100 Ohms Next standard 5% resistor * 100 Ohms Resistor color markings brown black brown Power dissipated in LED** 60 mW Power dissipated in resistor** 90 mW or Supply voltage 12 V Diode forward voltage 2V Diode rated current 30 mA Calculated resistance value 333 Ohms Next standard 5% resistor * 390 Ohms Resistor color markings orange white brown Power dissipated in LED** 51 mW Power dissipated in resistor** 256 mW Will one be brighter than the other... is it better to use 5 v or 12 v??? and what sort of thinkness wire should I use??
If you use the correct resistors, it will not alter the brightness if you use 12V instead of 5V. The wires can be quite thin, as not much current is going through them, I guess.
Well im not sure, but i would guess that the 5v option may be brighter because of the difference in power disipated and the value of resistor needed exactly equals the resistor avaliable, but i doubt you would notice any big difference. As for the types of cables, They dont need to be thick, as bard said. I would just go for something that will be easy to solder, i.e not too small and not too big.
330 ohm is a standard value and near enough not to overload your led. Then the led brightness would be the same as 5v (give or take a mcd)
