need help hooking up my 10W LED driving lights

[hartless]

Lens Color : Water Clear
Emitted Color : warm white
Intensity Typ. : 600Lm
Viewing Angle : 160°
Forward Voltage : 12V
Forward Current : 1000mA

These are my leds I am putting into a set of fog/driving lights

Is this driver suitable to power the two lights?

Regulator turns on at:

13.5v - 14.4v DC
PCB Free RoHS compliant
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Operating Temperature -40C to +105C[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Output power rating 700mA 10 W Max[/FONT]

And would I need one for each light or just for the pair?
Thanks

 

[Diesel_Bomber]

My thoughts:

Looks like one regulator puts out 700mah, and would drive two LED's at 350mah each, but the LED's are capable of handling 1000mah each. I'd do one regulator per LED and drive each LED at 700mah.

If the 14.4v upper limit for your regulator is the limit at which the regulator will be damaged, then you may have a problem as many cars have a higher system voltage than that while running. Also, if the system won't turn on at all below 13.5 volts, then you won't get it to work at all when the engine is off, as auto batteries are only 12.7v fully charged.

I am not an expert in wiring up LED's, you would do well to post this in the LED forum or one of the modification forums.

Other thoughts:

600 lumens each will be woefully inadequate for any kind of automotive illumination. Most headlights are around 1500 lumens, each.

A 160 degree beam pattern will also be completely useless for a driving light, especially if it's a 160 degree cone. It might work okay as a work light or increased-brightness backup lights, but as far as driving lights go it will be terrible.

 

[AnAppleSnail]

Lens Color : Water Clear
Emitted Color : warm white
Intensity Typ. : 600Lm
Viewing Angle : 160°
Forward Voltage : 12V
Forward Current : 1000mA

Regulator
13.5v - 14.4v DC
PCB Free RoHS compliant
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Operating Temperature -40C to +105C[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Output power rating 700mA 10 W Max[/FONT]

As noted, the 160 degree view angle for the LEDs is bad news for useful driving. In fog you'll get a white cloud just off your bumper, in rain you'll have a blinding smear of light in front of your car for the enjoyment of oncoming drivers, and you won't see very far with these lights. A 10W light in a 160 degree cone won't be much help at 100 feet - how fast do you go 100 feet when driving? This would be good for tailgating (football party, not the driving kind) but not for driving above 5 mph. Add optics to decrease the view angle (You'll want less than 10 degree ones).

A 10-watt LED light at 12v is probably 3 white LEDs driven at 1 amp. You'll certainly want a regulator for each of the lights, but it regulator won't play well with your car electronics (12 to 14+ volts, with random surges). An issue with almost-12v systems is that it's hard to choose a boost or buck regulator for the job, because buck regulators have a voltage drop and boost regulators will overdrive your LEDs while the alternator runs.

If you don't mind lacking maximum brightness, put a 12-14 ohm resistor (rated for over 12watts) on the string of LEDs. V=IR, so (12 to 14v) = (1 amp) * (resistance). You might want to use a voltmeter to see what your voltages are on a partly or well-charged battery, and with the alternator running. Using a conservative resistor for each string (1 amp at maximum system voltage) will help ensure that you don't burn out your LEDs. Use good wires. But you'll really want to do something to make a tighter beam.

 

[Alaric Darconville]

These are my leds I am putting into a set of fog/driving lights

They can be either fog lights (low speed driving, wide beam angle, used with low beams only) or auxiliary high beam lights (used at highway speeds on open roads, without oncoming traffic and preferably without traffic forward of you, and with the high beams on), there is no multifunction "fog/driving light".

In either case, fog lights and auxiliary high beam light fixtures originally designed for a filament bulb of a certain type must continue to use a filament bulb of that same type. Retrofitting an LED into an assembly that requires a filament bulb is unsafe and ineffective.

That admonishment having been administered: Welcome to the forum!

Also: "PCB Free RoHS compliant" just means it has no polychlorinated biphenyls and is "Reduction of Hazardous Substances" compliant.

 

[clint357]

I have done quite a bit of testing in this department. 600 lumens at 160 degrees will be pretty much useless unless your subject is within 10 feet of the source. For starters, what is the LED you are using?

 

[Changchung]

http://martin-led.com/home.html

 

[TorchBoy]

Looks like one regulator puts out 700mah, and would drive two LED's at 350mah each, but the LED's are capable of handling 1000mah each. I'd do one regulator per LED and drive each LED at 700mah.

For the record, mAh (note capitalisation) is capacity of a battery, while mA is current which is how LEDs are driven.

What happened with this project, hartless? What is the LED, or is it a module that has its own 12 V driver/regulator built in?

 

[Diesel_Bomber]

For the record, mAh (note capitalisation) is capacity of a battery, while mA is current which is how LEDs are driven.

What happened with this project, hartless? What is the LED, or is it a module that has its own 12 V driver/regulator built in?

Ya got me. I understand the distinction, just typo'd differently I guess.

I also understand that the "A" is supposed to be capitalized, as Ampere was an actual person.

 

[TorchBoy]

I also understand that the "A" is supposed to be capitalized, as Ampere was an actual person.

Yes, which I suppose is good to remember because a little a is the symbol for years, not A (from Latin annus). So Ma means mega-annum (millions of years) not milliamps (mA). Strangely enough when writing the unit word ampere (for current not the person), it gets a lower case a. :duh2:

What's the opposite of capitalised? :thinking: Lower case is the opposite of upper case...

 

[Kuryakin]

[Rude post deleted - DM51]

 

[DM51]

Kuyakin, you are advised to keep your posts civil. That sort of rudeness is quite unnecessary and will not be permitted here.