Help Wiring an LED Array?

pri0n · Jun 28, 2012

I'm trying to make an array of LED's as follows:
9 Orange LED's
9 Blue LED's
3 Red LED's
I'm trying to figure out how to wire them with two switches and a 9v so that when I turn on one switch, the red and another color turns on, and the other switch toggles between orange and blue without turning off the red. I also only have 220 Ohm and 470 Ohm resistors. Each LED draws between 1.8-3v and 24ma btw. Any help is appreciated, Thanks!

mds82 · Jun 29, 2012

It would first help to get the exact voltage needed for each LED. You could make a simple circuit running these led's however you would first need to know the voltage and amperage of each LED to make sure you have the correct resistors.

Also, here is a helpful tool you can use to help figure out what you need: http://led.linear1.org/led.wiz

Lynx_Arc · Jun 29, 2012

pri0n said:
I'm trying to make an array of LED's as follows:
9 Orange LED's
9 Blue LED's
3 Red LED's
I'm trying to figure out how to wire them with two switches and a 9v so that when I turn on one switch, the red and another color turns on, and the other switch toggles between orange and blue without turning off the red. I also only have 220 Ohm and 470 Ohm resistors. Each LED draws between 1.8-3v and 24ma btw. Any help is appreciated, Thanks!

what you need to do is wire the blue and orange LEDs to the opposite poles of a spdt switch and wire the center pole of that switch to a spst switch with the red line and the center line of the other switch connected together. You can use ohms law to calculate the resistors with the 3 red LEDs in series for 5.4v @ 24ma, the 3 blue ones may work fine without a resistor in series in 3 parallel groups but for a 9v battery (alkaline) the power drain may be too much along with the other color LEDs. The orange LEDs not sure of the voltage but again 3x3 array.

pri0n · Jun 29, 2012

Lynx_Arc said:
what you need to do is wire the blue and orange LEDs to the opposite poles of a spdt switch and wire the center pole of that switch to a spst switch with the red line and the center line of the other switch connected together. You can use ohms law to calculate the resistors with the 3 red LEDs in series for 5.4v @ 24ma, the 3 blue ones may work fine without a resistor in series in 3 parallel groups but for a 9v battery (alkaline) the power drain may be too much along with the other color LEDs. The orange LEDs not sure of the voltage but again 3x3 array.

Ah, thanks. The switches were giving me the most trouble. I think I may change it to 10 led's each for the blue and orange and then go 5x2 with 150 ohm resistors.

Lynx_Arc · Jun 29, 2012

pri0n said:
Ah, thanks. The switches were giving me the most trouble. I think I may change it to 10 led's each for the blue and orange and then go 5x2 with 150 ohm resistors.

If you are using 9v alkaline batteries I cannot tell you how it will really work as when the current load on the battery increases it will cave in voltage considerably. It may be you cannot get too much more than 50-100ma sustained out of it

pri0n · Jun 29, 2012

Lynx_Arc said:
If you are using 9v alkaline batteries I cannot tell you how it will really work as when the current load on the battery increases it will cave in voltage considerably. It may be you cannot get too much more than 50-100ma sustained out of it

Can I just connect 2 9v in parallel to get more ma load capacity?

Lynx_Arc · Jun 29, 2012

pri0n said:
Can I just connect 2 9v in parallel to get more ma load capacity?

Sure, it should double the ma capability for sure. Depending on how often you are going to use it and how much
light and current load you may even consider different resistors and 3AAs instead of 9v as the ma capacity of them
in series is a lot higher then 9v cells which are functionally AAAA based.

Help Wiring an LED Array?

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