LED wiring help

I'm looking to put 4 led's in my boat. I've done a lot of work with 5mm led's with resistors for 12 volt systems, but none with the higher power cree and other LED's. I am trying to figure out if I should purchase a driver (since I don't really understand what they do, if someone could give me a driver 101) or wire up a couple in series.

I have a 16 foot boat that I'm going to run 2 white led's and 2 red led's. Only one of the colors will be on at a time. It's on a 12 volt system but of course w/ the charging system it bumps up to 14 volts. Any suggestions on LED's and a driver (if needed)?

I am trying to figure out if I should purchase a driver

Probably.


(since I don't really understand what they do, if someone could give me a driver 101)

Leds have a few quirks. They all run off DC and they are built to run within a fairly narrow current range. If you underdrive one (don't give it enough power) it gets dim, but isn't hurt any. If you overdrive them (give them too much power) they first get bright (at the cost of life expectancy) or if you push them a little harder they instaflash - give one nice bright flash and die permanently. This whole range from "not enough" to "too much" may be a space of only a few volts up or down.

The concern in a vehicle is that power spikes or passing high voltage levels will burn out your lights, leaving you thinking that this whole 50,000 Hour Runtime business is fake.

What a current regulated driver does is sit there between the electrical supply and your LEDs and act to smooth and steady the power supply so it is always just what they want. Sometimes you can set them a little lower for enhanced lifetime or a little higher for increased brightness.

Ken_McE said:

The concern in a vehicle is that power spikes or passing high voltage levels will burn out your lights, leaving you thinking that this whole 50,000 Hour Runtime business is fake.

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That's a nice way of putting it. These drivers are inexpensive ones that are probably suitable for what you've mentioned and are easy to use. The larger of the two shops linked sells white and red LED.

Thanks a lot, after doing some research there is no reason not to get a driver. Now that I understand what they do and how cheap they are I am really going to have some fun. Plus it's a lot easier than calculating resistors. If the Ma and V are right...fire them up.

I use http://ledcalc.com/ for calculating resistor values, and it draws a pretty diagram too. But with 12 V and power LEDs, a resistor gets too hot. You'll learn lots from experimenting, just make sure you keep the LEDs as cool as possible.

2 white and 2 red????? What is this lighting for? If you are on navigable waterways, you could run into problems. There are fairly strict rules for lighting on major rivers, lakes and the ocean.

it's for the interior, the exterior lights are already set up

Thanks A Lot!^^