I need some advice...

munson

munson

New Member
I'm working on my Tusky bio and need some assistance on the hookup for the Tri-Laser. I never worked on something like this and am a complete noob at it. I purchased these LED's from RadioShack, Red 120 MCD intensity, T-1-3/4 (5mm) [link below for more information]. With some more drilling they will seem to do just fine, plus the 3mm were way too small as well. From how I look at it, it seems that I shouldn't need a housing and that it should just tuck in the laser holes.

My main problem is what type of wiring should I use. I did some searching and found this thread to be pretty helpful:

http://www.thehunterslair.com/index.php?sh...install+led%27s

Lair member "BAM" seems to have a good write out of how to do it, but with being a noob I wanted to make sure I have everything down right before I would start. I have some other questions as well:

Is there connectors that should be used to hook up to the LED's to the wires?

How would I connect the wires to the batter?

The LED's show no [+] or [-] symbols, how could I make sure I hook it up to the correct one, or do I just hook it up to an open connection?

Sorry if my terminology isn't correct.

Here's the link to the LED for more information:

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.js...oductId=2103802

Thanks in advance for all your help!
 
usually the longer lead is the hot lead but in that diagram there isnt a longer lead... im almost wondering if it doesnt matter how its oriented? but lets try and get this resolved. im actually working on how to hook up 3 laser diodes. the wiring should be the same just you are using LEDs and less battery power and im using 3 laser diodes and more battery power.

what info do you have so far? ill help out ;)
 
Pestvic said:
usually the longer lead is the hot lead but in that diagram there isnt a longer lead... im almost wondering if it doesnt matter how its oriented? but lets try and get this resolved. im actually working on how to hook up 3 laser diodes. the wiring should be the same just you are using LEDs and less battery power and im using 3 laser diodes and more battery power.

what info do you have so far? ill help out ;)
Click to expand...

Thanks, unfortunately the associate up there was no help, he didn't know much.

I don't know which appropriate wire to use or how to connect the wire to the LED connectors. I'm also a little bit lost on how to connect the wire to the battery. I read what lair member BAM wrote and it seems pretty much straight forward.

Thanks again.
 
leddiodewiring.png


This is what i got out of his post. but i was confused on the part that depending on using 2 AAA batteries of a 9v that there is certain resistors needed?

i dont think you have to worry about this though, LEDS dont require that much power i dont think :p
 
The longer of the legs on an LED is the positive

Check the specs for your LEDs. Reds typically work at about 1.7 volts and 20mA. If you wire them like the diagram above (series wiring), then you would need 3 times the nominal voltage (1.7 volts x 3) to light all three LEDs. That would be 5.1 V.

Your other alternative is to wire the LEDs parallel. Each led would have leads on the positive and the negative, and then you'd wire all positives together and all negatives together. For this configuration, you'd need only 1.7 volts to light all three LEDs, but at 3 x the current of a single LED.

No matter what, you'll need an appropriate resistor. Use this calculator to determine what resistor you need:

http://led.linear1.org/led.wiz

Two other things to bring up:

Try not to use 9v batteries. Yeah, they are small, but they have almost no run time. A typical 9v battery is only rated for 450mAh. AA cells can be upwards of 2700mAh...much better. Also, remember that whatever voltage you are not using to light your LEDs is being burned off by the resistor as heat...wasting it. Tru to use a battery solution as close to the voltage you need as possible, so your resistor isn't burning off a lot of energy.

You listed the LEDs as being rated at 120mcd...that's really, really dim. I know I've seen LEDs at Radio Shack with ratings of 4000 to 6000mcd.
 
hez said:
This is what I use http://www.allelectronics.com/make-a-store...-LED-5MM/1.html

I wire them directly to a 9v battery, no resistor. The MCD rating is around 6000, so unfortunately I think Jon is right and 120 mcd is going to be extremely dim. I did look in radioshack for LEDs once, but didn't find anything appropriate.
Click to expand...


Thanks for the link and information Hez, greatly appreciated. That's a great price, I think I'll stock up on them.
 
Pestvic said:
leddiodewiring-1.png


jon is this what you are talking about? also would this work for the laser diodes as well?

thanks man
Click to expand...
Sorry for quoting the diagram again, but just in case of confusion...this is how I wire my laser diodes. Again, straight to a 9v battery, no resistors. I suppose I've just gotten lucky with the lasers and LEDs that I do use being able to take that amount of current and not frying. The only difference is that I no longer have to wire in a switch, as it's built into the battery case.
 
Jon said:
BINGO! Yes, this will work for laser diodes as well.
Click to expand...

awesome last question for you. (since you already answered the power question for the LEDS haha)

the diodes i ordered are at 3.0-3.2V each. does that mean i have to run 9 volts?

from what i understand from your other post is that if i wire it this way in parallel all i have to do is run two 1.5v AAA batteries right? that would bring me to the 3.0v mark, but what if it did need the 3.2v? would i run a 3rd AAA and just put a resistor that would knock out 1.3v of the 3rd battery?

Thanks again man. i hope this thread helps the topic starter as well as anyone else who will need LED/laser diode help in the future.
 
Pestvic said:
awesome last question for you. (since you already answered the power question for the LEDS haha)

the diodes i ordered are at 3.0-3.2V each. does that mean i have to run 9 volts?

from what i understand from your other post is that if i wire it this way in parallel all i have to do is run two 1.5v AAA batteries right? that would bring me to the 3.0v mark, but what if it did need the 3.2v? would i run a 3rd AAA and just put a resistor that would knock out 1.3v of the 3rd battery?

Thanks again man. i hope this thread helps the topic starter as well as anyone else who will need LED/laser diode help in the future.
Click to expand...

Correct. If you wire parallel, you can get away with 2 or 3 batteries. Remeber that alkaline cells are 1.5v each, so if you went that way, you'd need to pick a resistor to step down the 1.3v as you say. If you use NiMH cells, they are only 1.2v each...3 of them would be 3.6v and you could use a smaller value resistor. Always try to get as close to your target voltage as possible
 
This thread is great, thanks alot guys for the great info this is exactly where I'm at on my P1 bio deciding what to do about about laser/LED's. Thanks to you all for the great info!
 
bizenboat said:
This thread is great, thanks alot guys for the great info this is exactly where I'm at on my P1 bio deciding what to do about about laser/LED's. Thanks to you all for the great info!
Click to expand...

No problem man I'm glad the poster had this question. It was what I was working on as well. So I'm Glad that my wiring diagrams helped those in need as well as my questions getting answered. I will be posting Two more diagrams in the Near future about some LEDs I installed in the eyes of my bio and another diagram that I will crate for the Laser Diodes I install :D

Cheers everyone! If We can keep this up and keep helping people maybe this thread can become a great huntorial? :p
 
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