Gerula

I'm turning a non S&STiger(red leds) into a S&S and wanted to replace the leds as well. Big surprise, the whites I purchased had a slightly higher diameter and the Rx 13 couldn't light them up (if you look into them you see a very verydim light).

Anyone knows what are the specifications for the white leds in the S&S models?

Two days ago I used the same Led model when converting a Panther and it worked just fine (since it has only one headlight, I presume the Rx 13 was able to take the voltage drop for just one of those leds)

(don't ask how I got into this conversion process, it's a crazy story )

yellowshaker

My Feedback: (1)

LED's require a very small amount of voltage to light. Are you sure that both LED's are hooked up correctly to the board? Meaning, perhaps one is reversed?

dyeager535

My Feedback: (1)

I asked the voltage question awhile back, and never got an answer. If your electronics are still up and running, just turn the tank on and measure the voltage with a volt meter.

Off the top of my head, isn't 3 volts pretty common for LED's? I've got some similar size LED's out of a solar garden light that use only TENTH's of a volt though, so who knows.

Gerula

Both LEDs are wired correctly. If I remove one from the circuit and link the wires in it's place the other will light up fine. (regardless which one I remove)

As far as I know LRD's are diodes, so if one of them was reversed the circuit would have simply been interrupted.

dyeager535

My Feedback: (1)

Typically reversing the polarity kills them. At least from my experience. That's one of the reasons they typically have some feature to identify the + leg.

yellowshaker

My Feedback: (1)

I haven't run ito damaging them by reversing polarity...I have, however killed a few by apllying too much voltage. That will do them in every time.

dyeager535

My Feedback: (1)

Apparently it takes a bit of time. Yes, too much voltage takes no time at all to kill them though. Luckily LED's are a dime a dozen on ebay.

swathdiver

I've shorted out plenty by reversing polarity and burned others out by not using the right ones, they couldn't take the voltage applied.

Years ago I purchase some Yeloglo LEDs from Miniatronics. These LEDs mimicked incandescent bulbs. I put one on Panther 129 and a pair on Tiger 142 and 4 years later they're still working. The other two in the 5-pack died when I learned the hard way which way electricity was supposed to flow through them!

I also put some infrared ones on our Walker Bulldog (just like the real thing) but have no idea if they're working or not!

As far as voltage is concerned, I've never hooked them up directly to the battery. Well, permanently!

I think they are on 3v and 4.5v circuits. On our Tiger 211 there are two really small Blue LEDs wired in series that get their power from the smoker's little PCB board. They work just fine.

The warning LED for the airsoft gun is on a circuit that gets full battery power but it is protected by a resistor.

danlrc

Gerula,
Sounds like the LEDs are hooked up in series (battery+ to LED1+, LED1- to LED2+, LED2- to battery-). Try hooking the LED's up in parallel. Battery + wire to both LED + wires, and battery - wire to both LED - wires. Should work fine.

Gerula

Yup, the LED's are mounted in series. Apparently they are using white leds under 2v voltage drop, while the commonly available white leds are 3.5V.

Question is, if I puttwo bigger onesin paralel, won't the board get fried due to higher wattage?

RodgerB

Parallel would be the better way. In series there is a boltage drop through each LED which is a Diode and the current can only flow one way. Think of a diode as a one way valve. It is not really the voltage as much as the amount of current that will burn out a LED. You may have to place a resistor in series to drop the voltage if the source is to high? Again, parallel would be the eay to go, not in series. Hope this helps? It has been a while but the LED should have a flat spot at the base and I think that is the positive leg? Take an analog ohm meter to check the poliarity, the metere will read in one direction and not the other. Also 3 VDC should be OK?
r

danlrc

If you ran one LED and the brightness was OK, that voltage will be the same across both LED's in parallel and should be just fine. You shouldn't need to add a resistor. As for the load, LED's use so little power that two LED's vs just one won't even come close to causing any overload problem on the board.

Green Amphibian

When I hooked up the LED's on my boats I always did it with a parallel circuit. Never had a bit of trouble out of them.

Gerula

Thank you guys.

I put them in parallel and indeed there seem to be no trouble.