Parallel vs. series triples

Despite my limited knowledge of electronics I have made three XP-G and XP-E triples, I have simply used three + and - wires from the driver, taking a pair to each LED, I believe this is series wired. Would someone explain what the difference would be in building one that is wired parallel, I know how to build one this way, but what are the advantages or disadvantages to each design. Thanks

You have already got a parallel setup. Think of batteries, if you lined up (in your case 3) batteries flat on the table all pointing in the same direction, literally parallel to each other ( I I I ), and took a wire from each positive and connected them together and then take a wire and connect all negatives together you will have a 1S3P connection (one series, meaning the voltage is the same as one single cell and 3 parallel, meaning 3x the current). If you start lining them up end to end (-+-+-+) you will have 3S1P connection, meaning 3x the voltage but same current as one cell.

To connect the emmiters in a series circuit the same rule must be applied, start with one positive(or negative) and work your way around. Positive from driver to first emitter positive, the negative from same emitter to next emitter's positive(just like the batteries) and so on till you reach the end and connect remaining lead(negative in this example) from driver.

One quick last tip: Whatever the connection you choose, make sure your driver is meant for such application. Ie the driver can handle either enough amps or voltage to power your chosen setup. And ofcourse that means you must have enough supply to the driver.

Hope this helps.

You have parallel connection to the LED... which means (as Thr3Evo explained before) you are supplying the same voltage to the LEDs but supplied amperage is being divided to each LED "equally"... so if you're using a driver that outputs around 3.7V and 1.5A constant current, each of your LEDs sees 3.7V and 500mA...

Series would mean that each LED's positive is connected to next's negative and end pos/neg in that series to the driver's pos/neg outs... This means that current will be constant but voltage will be divided among three LEDs (so you need driver that outputs around 11V and any amperage it shows, each LED will see...

Series is preferred setup as it should be more reliable, at least in theory... However, when used with batteries, it involves batteries to be in setup as well, thus forcing whole build to be a bigger flashlight, unlike parallel that can be very small since they are pushed with single Li-Ion battery...

Parallel always have a possibility that connections to the LEDs are not 100% same which could lead to more resistance involved with one or two LEDs which then means more current will be supplied to the one LED with the least resistance... thus in setups with a big amp draw might lead to possible failure down the time as one LED might get overheated/overused than other two... In general, that's not very scary as any good soldering tech will make the same solder connections and it will work (and probably outlive the solderer)...

I believe you wired it like this one, my first attempt a year ago:

Thr3Evo and Tana,
thanks for the information, both answers were very helpful. Tana, that is exactly what my triples look like. I have made two triple XP-E modules for E2Es, I did an XP-G for a C2, all run on a single li ion due to the linear drivers. Anyone have any suggestions on where to start with a series build, I know illumination supply has the 3 up boards, but what would be a suitable driver and power source. If I understand correctly, the series build would allow for a wider choice in batteries, as I won't be limited to a single li ion cell, thus possibly increasing runtime.