Hello,
I'm an electronics newbie still grappling with the basics of circuitry, so bear with me.
I'm building a circuit with some high-power LEDs. Following some instructions online, I built a very simple driver and wired 6 daisy-chained red, green and blue LEDs to it. I gave it a 18V supply with two 9V batteries.
What I did not realize is that while the green and blue LEDs have a voltage rating of 3.2-3.4V, so 6 of them would have added up to 19.2-21.6V, the red ones have a much lower rating of 1.9-2.3V. Of course, one of them burned out after a minute of testing.
I have thought about 2 options to resolve this:
1. Putting a resistor between the + supply and the low-voltage LEDs, or move them to the negative side of the chain (so the more powerful ones act as resistors) -- I'm not sure how this would work out though.
2. Building two or more parallel circuits, each with a series of LEDs of the same voltage rating. For example, I calculated that three 3.2-3.4V LEDs would need 9.6-10.2V, and five 1.9-2.3V LEDs would come up to 9.5-11.5V. So applying a 9.6-10.2V supply would be in range for both circuits (drawing twice the current). Or splitting up more parallel circuits to use 3-4 D batteries.
Are my thoughts correct? Is there a better way to do this?
Thanks in advance for the help.
I'm an electronics newbie still grappling with the basics of circuitry, so bear with me.
I'm building a circuit with some high-power LEDs. Following some instructions online, I built a very simple driver and wired 6 daisy-chained red, green and blue LEDs to it. I gave it a 18V supply with two 9V batteries.
What I did not realize is that while the green and blue LEDs have a voltage rating of 3.2-3.4V, so 6 of them would have added up to 19.2-21.6V, the red ones have a much lower rating of 1.9-2.3V. Of course, one of them burned out after a minute of testing.
I have thought about 2 options to resolve this:
1. Putting a resistor between the + supply and the low-voltage LEDs, or move them to the negative side of the chain (so the more powerful ones act as resistors) -- I'm not sure how this would work out though.
2. Building two or more parallel circuits, each with a series of LEDs of the same voltage rating. For example, I calculated that three 3.2-3.4V LEDs would need 9.6-10.2V, and five 1.9-2.3V LEDs would come up to 9.5-11.5V. So applying a 9.6-10.2V supply would be in range for both circuits (drawing twice the current). Or splitting up more parallel circuits to use 3-4 D batteries.
Are my thoughts correct? Is there a better way to do this?
Thanks in advance for the help.