help with wiring

[dmferd]

Hello

Ok I can solder, past that, I'll admit I don't know much more. What I'm trying to do is rewire my Rubies belt boxes to make them as bright as possible with the 2 AA batteries that are there but I don't know what to buy to make them nice and bright.

I'm also trying to do the same thing for my ROTS chestbox.

Any and all help would be greatly appreciated

Joel

 

[Darth Mule]

Belt boxes? Chest boxes? One could only guess you're speaking of a Vader costume (might mention that, people here are usually more responsive to specificity). Anyway....

Go to Radio Shack or THE SHACK as they are now calling themselves and ask about the LEDs. You'll really only need to change out the LED and resistor to a higher power one. The resistor prevent too much battery power from being pumped into the LED, so simply getting a brighter LED won't work as the current resistor will not let any more power through than you're getting now.

On a side note. Be careful with terms like
as bright as possible." They make LEDs now that will turn you into a human spotlight. Lightsabers are run off a single, superbright LED.

 

[PadawanLearner]

yes, basically to get it brighter you will need to change out the LED's and resistor.
However, you probably won't be happy with LED's that Radio Shack carries for this.
Although it's a simple circuit, if you don't have any circuit design knowledge it might be a bit difficult for you to just go pick out an LED and resistor.
I'll give you a hint though, not only do you need to figure out what type of resistor to use to drop X amount of voltage, you'll also want to do the math to make sure you have a resistor that can withstand the proper amount of wattage.
P = I * E (which is to say Wattage/power equal Current times Voltage)
Ohm's law: V = I * R (voltage equals current times resistance)
So, if you need to figure out the resistor value you would say R = V/I
Your V would be V(total) - V(LED drop)
The I would be whatever your LED is rated to take.
Hope that helps, oh, I've found a good place to order resistors online is: http://www.parts-express.com/home.cfm
and this place has a good selection of LED's and I believe there's a cut sheet on each one:
http://www.superbrightleds.com/led_prods.htm?gclid=CN3w_8H7-JwCFQ7xDAodticObQ

I think they're in KC, MO so if you live near by you might be able to save on shipping by just going there.

 

[jackdoud]

If you want bright you're not going to do much better then you have know if you stay with 2 AA's. You'll need either 4 AA's or a 9v to get enough voltage for even low end superbrights.

 

[PadawanLearner]

oh yeah, I just thought of something. If you're using rechargeable batteries with your current setup, try regular alkaline. A standard AA battery is 1.5 volts of supply and typically rechargeables are 1.2, so you're losing voltage/amperage if the circuit was designed for 3V rather than 2.4.
The LED's on the page I linked are typical LED's so their forward voltage drop is going to be anywhere from about 1.4-2.5, which can be easilly designed into a circuit with a 3v supply.