best way to wire 3 leds

[thwang-01]

hi all
what would be the best way to wire 3 leds togerther in series or
Parallel?
cheers thwang

 

[Illum]

it really depends on what you have to work with in terms of input voltage/current, if your input has a voltage suitable for series, go for series, if your current input is suitable to run many LEDs at once? hook them up in parallel. heck, if your so inclined, you could set set then in series-parallel if you want :lolsign:

theres no "best" way to do anything...only whats ideal in your project

 

[thwang-01]

hi
input will be 14.4 volts 3.7 amps that will feed 2 units with 3x p4s running at .7 amps.
thwang

 

[Brum]

it really depends on what you have to work with in terms of input voltage/current, if your input has a voltage suitable for series, go for series, if your current input is suitable to run many LEDs at once? hook them up in parallel. heck, if your so inclined, you could set set then in series-parallel if you want :lolsign:

theres no "best" way to do anything...only whats ideal in your project

Nope...

Series is always better.
With the differences between the LEDs (Vf), in parralel they wont see the same current.

The choice you have is buck or boost drivers and battery voltage.

@Twan: 14,4V 3700mAh?

2 units with each their own buck driver, the two drivers are both connected to the same battery (parralel).

The 3x P4 of each unit should be wired in series.

 

[thwang-01]

hi guys n gals
i,m a bit confused now as electric,s arnt my strongest point the sparky at work says i could wire the leds parallel not in series now the thing is to me series is + - + - + - and so on and parallel is all the +s at one side and the - at the other? he was telling me that if one blows in series they stop working but not in parallel.
thwang

 

[msxtr]

hi guys n gals
i,m a bit confused now as electric,s arnt my strongest point the sparky at work says i could wire the leds parallel not in series now the thing is to me series is + - + - + - and so on and parallel is all the +s at one side and the - at the other? he was telling me that if one blows in series they stop working but not in parallel.
thwang

Hi, Yes your picture are correct.

Greetings - Saludos

msxtr

 

[FrontRanger]

hi guys n gals
i,m a bit confused now as electric,s arnt my strongest point the sparky at work says i could wire the leds parallel not in series now the thing is to me series is + - + - + - and so on and parallel is all the +s at one side and the - at the other? he was telling me that if one blows in series they stop working but not in parallel.
thwang

Hi Thwang,

You mentioned you want 0.7 A running in each LED. If you put them in parallel, you have two problems. First, you would need a driver capable of 2.1 A. This will limit your choices, as most ready-made LED drivers cannot source that much current. Second, you can only control the total current with your driver. As Brum says, the current into each individual LED will be slightly different, and therefore not be well-controlled (i.e., it won't be exactly 1/3 of the total). The reason for this is that each LED is not exactly identical to the others, due to variations in manufacturing (and even in temperature, once you have them running). If you put them in series, each of them will get precisely the same currrent. The required voltage will triple, but you've got 14.4 V, easily more than enough for a stepdown current regulator. A Buck regulator is an efficient type of switching stepdown regulator, and probably most useful for your application.

The advice given by your friend is applicable to a string of incandescent bulbs, but not for LEDs. A light bulb dies with an open circuited filament, while LEDs simply get dimmer over time (barring abuse, of course). And even then, the P4's you're using have a rated life of tens of thousands of hours.

Stephen

 

[thwang-01]

hi guys thanks for the info.
thwang