First of all, im a second year Industrial Design student and this is a school project of mine down at Arizona State University.. I had absolutely no knowledge of how electricity works untill about 2 weeks ago when i decided to tackle this assignment.. and im aware that i still dont know a thing! haha
So, I got the bright idea to wire up some LED lights on my Dirtbike.. A little backround on my dirtbike.. there is no battery.. a stator generates the power when the motor is running.. a regulator/rectifier converts the AC to a DC... I spliced into the power wire coming off of the regulator/rectifier and my multimeter showed a steady 14.5 volts..
Knowing this info, i purchased (4) 5mm LED bulbs. These bulbs are rated at 18,000mcd, Continuous Forward Current of 30mA, Peak Forward Current of 70mA , Forward Voltage is 3.4V - 4.0v maximum...
so i wired these 4 bulbs in series ( Power wire was soldered to Anode on first bulb, and the cathode on the 4th bulb soldered to a ground)...
I figured that 14.5 volts would be soaked up my the 4 bulbs wired in series (3.625V x 4 bulbs = 14.5 Volts) so the bulbs are well within the voltage rating, Right Sgt? I didnt think i would need a resistor on this circuit... is this untrue?
So here are my questions (which im sure will seem ignorant to an electrical genius such as yourself haha) but anyhow, are the bulbs themselves supposed to get warm rather quickly..(within 2 minutes)? How do i fix this? or do i even need to fix this? i purchased a multimeter, but i think i blew a fuse in the multimeter when i was playing with it at first.. so it wont let me check the mA being pulled through the circuit...
Any help will be very much appreciated!!!
Best Regards,
Dave
PS: I saw in the other posts that you often asked for a visual diagram to help diagnose our failures more quickly! im including the electrical diagram from the shop manual for the dirtbike (ignore the drawings on there, those are from the previous owner of the manual, however i did splice into the same place for the 14.5v power supply if that helps at all) my circuit is different though, im including a photo of my circuit drawing.
<snip> Moderator's note: Posts to the forums can have photos attached. Choose the "Go Advanced" option, then "manage Attachments".
So, I got the bright idea to wire up some LED lights on my Dirtbike.. A little backround on my dirtbike.. there is no battery.. a stator generates the power when the motor is running.. a regulator/rectifier converts the AC to a DC... I spliced into the power wire coming off of the regulator/rectifier and my multimeter showed a steady 14.5 volts..
Knowing this info, i purchased (4) 5mm LED bulbs. These bulbs are rated at 18,000mcd, Continuous Forward Current of 30mA, Peak Forward Current of 70mA , Forward Voltage is 3.4V - 4.0v maximum...
so i wired these 4 bulbs in series ( Power wire was soldered to Anode on first bulb, and the cathode on the 4th bulb soldered to a ground)...
I figured that 14.5 volts would be soaked up my the 4 bulbs wired in series (3.625V x 4 bulbs = 14.5 Volts) so the bulbs are well within the voltage rating, Right Sgt? I didnt think i would need a resistor on this circuit... is this untrue?
So here are my questions (which im sure will seem ignorant to an electrical genius such as yourself haha) but anyhow, are the bulbs themselves supposed to get warm rather quickly..(within 2 minutes)? How do i fix this? or do i even need to fix this? i purchased a multimeter, but i think i blew a fuse in the multimeter when i was playing with it at first.. so it wont let me check the mA being pulled through the circuit...
Any help will be very much appreciated!!!
Best Regards,
Dave
PS: I saw in the other posts that you often asked for a visual diagram to help diagnose our failures more quickly! im including the electrical diagram from the shop manual for the dirtbike (ignore the drawings on there, those are from the previous owner of the manual, however i did splice into the same place for the 14.5v power supply if that helps at all) my circuit is different though, im including a photo of my circuit drawing.
<snip> Moderator's note: Posts to the forums can have photos attached. Choose the "Go Advanced" option, then "manage Attachments".
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