I am working on led light build and hopefully somebody can help my limited knowledge. We have a school bus that has been converted into an RV for the deer lease. Thids off season we are setting up for a solar system to provide the power we need. I am working on a outside light that will will use for general outside lighting and also for quartering and skinning of the animal. I have multiple 10 watt leds with a forward voltage of 12 and forward current of 1000ma. The problem i of my limited knowledge is while its a 12 volt source technically the batteries would have over 13 volts. I was planning on using a 1 ohm 2 watt resistor in series for 12 volts. But more thinking about it (over thinking maybe) if i wire it to the battery system thats over 13 would it decress the leds life? Should i calculate for 13.5v or just 12v?
Sorry if all my thoughts were jumbled up was typing on phone.
wish i could help but would love to see the finished product when your done
Interesting site. Never ran across that one before.
I've used another, very similar but for multiple LEDs, w/ serial and parallel options - I always just google led calculator so must be in the first page of results
Used that site alot. Just dont know if i should set it up for the higher voltage of 13v+ or lower the base 12v.
I guess that its kind of like when you charge your 18650 and pull off the charger and it is 4.12v but the led is only wanting 3.7v so that driver is outputting the correct voltage and current i assume it has a current and voltage limiting circuit.
I use a LM317 to regulate voltage in some applications, that component can also be used to regulate corrent also. I can use a 1ohm resistor to regulate the current so i would think that it would be ok for it to be at whatever voltage since current i limited with the resistor. Just dont want to make it more elaborate then i have to. Its just for skinnin and quartering some hogs.... lol
need to just build it and put it up and use it, if it burns out do something different if it lasts a good amount of time then i guess it was the correct way.
LOL
You didn't give all the specs required for a proper calculation.
Are you going to use multiple leds in parallel? Serial? Are you looking for a resistor per single LED? 12 forward voltage seems high for a single LED. If you are connecting a 12V 10W "LED light bulb" it probably already has current limiting.
There's too many undefined variables for a good answer.
Viktor
i was on lunch break this afternoon and tried to hammer out a good one but im sure it is confusing. it makes since in my head but unfortunately it dont hit paper the same way.
The pics are from my iphone so they are never good, especially the 3rd one. It lights up most all the yard and the alley.
pic one - this is the led being used, it is a Citizen CL-L230-C10N 10 watt LED - link to data sheet http://www.leds.co.uk/pdfs/citizen/CL-L230-C10N-A.pdf
pic 2 - this is how it is mounted - some thermal paste under the led and a piece of channel aluminum that is repurposed and 5 inches wide just temporarily wired up to test.
pic 3 - now a pic of it in use - wired into a led driver transformer - 12v 1000ma output - could this be called a beamshot/floodshot..... :)
it has been running outside for about 30 - 40 minutes and the whole piece of aluminum is warm
pic 4 - just an extra from outside
thanks and hopefully i will get better at explaining myself better, fast like!!!!
forward voltage is 11.8 and the forward current is 900ma luminous flux is 700
datasheet says max Vf 12.9
if you plan to use an alternator (running vehicle) to power them, I'd use 13.5 source and 12Vf - but I'm no expert...ymmv
Will be from a a two battery source that will be hooked in parallel.