I installed a 12v outlet today so I can get power from the rear of my smart. It's just run to a constant slot on the fuse panel. As you can see, it's not that clean but it is functional... the drill bit wasn't sharp enough and ragged the plastic... I'll do another panel in the future.
Then I tackled the LED's in the ceiling of the boot area... again, I'm not an expert by any means and as it turned out I'm not happy with some aspects of the install... specifically the location of the switch...
My problem is this... the LED's were advertised as ultra bright... and there's not NEARLY ENOUGH LIGHT... The setup is 4 LED's daisy chained with a 15A fuse and a switch in the front... it's all run directly to a constant 12v slot on the fuse box at the front of the car. Is there anything I can do to increase the brightness????
Best I can do... my camera's not night friendly... The illumination is enough to make out the features of the boot area but not bright enought... maybe 10 percent of the dome light...
How much current are you pushing through the LEDs vs. their specifications? Typically, one puts a current limiting resistor in series with an LED. With four LEDs in series the current (and thus brightness) will depend on 4x junction Voltage vs. battery Voltage and will be very dependent on ambient temperature and charge of battery. If the current is too low I'd put pairs of LEDs in parallel and use a series resistor of correct ohm and wattage value.
How much current are you pushing through the LEDs vs. their specifications? Typically, one puts a current limiting resistor in series with an LED. With four LEDs in series the current (and thus brightness) will depend on 4x junction Voltage vs. battery Voltage and will be very dependent on ambient temperature and charge of battery. If the current is too low I'd put pairs of LEDs in parallel and use a series resistor of correct ohm and wattage value.
The current is 12v... Following the directions off Evilution I understood that optimum volts for LED's is 3 so you split it on 4 LED's... The LED's are regular 5mm LED's... I don't believe they were setup with a resistor but I can't tell you for sure.
12V means 12 Volts and does not say what current is going through the LEDs. You need a multimeter to measure this. This should be something like 20 milli-Amps or whatever the specs are. My guess is that you'll measure something like 5 milli-Amps. If you go to Digi-Key Corporation - USA Home Page and enter the part number of the LED you'll be able to find the spec sheet.
Current (I) is determined by the equation I = V/R. LEDs have a very low resistance but also have a junction Voltage. If each LED has a junction Voltage of 3 and the battery is producting 13 Volts you've got 1 Volt left over to produce light. The junction Voltage is temperature dependent. If you use a series resistor the current will be determined by the resistor and not the LEDs.
When I see LED Flashlights, I also notice they have a Magnifiying Lens, this helps to spread out the light and possible make the output appear brighter. Just a thought.
LED lights have a very small current draw...try installing a regular light bulb in the circuit and see if they become brighter...
..the 36 LED tail light set up for the 65 mustang has a light bulb (covered with black tape) for that reason....without it they're just dim...
LED lights have a very small current draw...try installing a regular light bulb in the circuit and see if they become brighter...
..the 36 LED tail light set up for the 65 mustang has a light bulb (covered with black tape) for that reason....without it they're just dim...
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