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LED Ohm Resistor Question

Ish

Nov 15, 2016
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Hey guys. I have some LED lights that I want to work with the tail lights and brake lights of my car. Kind of like rear fog lights but dual density. I saw this video on Youtube and the guy mentions that he used a 600 ohm resistor for a 6 LED tail light. That's 100 ohms per led. The lights that I have have 60 LED's per light. Does that mean I need a 6K ohm resistor?

 

Bluejets

Oct 5, 2014
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You will not drive 60 leds in one series circuit. Each LED (depending on type) will have a certain voltage requirement so you will need an amount of series/parallel circuits. Best to use driver modules off Ebay. Cheap and effective.
 

Ish

Nov 15, 2016
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These are already made lights, not custom made. They have 2 wires. One for ground and one for power. I just want them to dim in normal use and get brighter when I brake.
 

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Harald Kapp

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These are not simply LEDs, these are modules with an internal circuit that provides teh necessary drive for the LEDs when used in a car's 12 V system (I presume).
It is not at all clear that it is possible to 'dim' these modules by applying a series resistor - it depends on the internal circuit of the modules.

Assuming that these are inexpensive modules, the internal circuit is probably only a mixture of series and parallel connected LEDs with some internal resistors for limiting the current. If so, it will be comparatively easy to dim the lights by adding a series resistor outside of the module.
You will have to know the voltage (Vdimmed) at the module's terminals at dimmed brightness, e.g. by connecting a module to a variable power supply (DC) and setting the voltage such that the dimmed brightness matches your expectations.
You'll also have to know the currrent (Idimmed) these modules draw at the reduced voltaeg (Vdimmed) supply. Measure this with the same setup as above.

From these values you can calculate the required series resistor:
Rseries = (12 V -Vdimmed)/Idimmed.
The power rating of this resistor needs to be:
Presistor = (12 V -Vdimmed)*Idimmed - for a good safety margin at at least 10 % on top of that calculated value.

Got more questions about driving LEDs?
 
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