Light bar for atv

Hey all, i'm new here and need pick your brains. Can I put 4 t6 led emitters in series and feed from a 12 volt battery which may spike to 13.7? On a copper plate, it would be one great backup light for my atv. I get home late and plow my driveway in the woods late. Would I need any kind of resitor or driver to keep it from letting the smoke out?
Thankyou Mark

You can do whatever you want!

So by t6 I assume you mean cree XM-L of the brightness bin 'T6'.
Batteries change voltage as then drain. Those LEDs run on a voltage of around 3 volts so that's around 12 volts for 4 of them. But if you runt hem a little hot, like 3.4 volts then you're suddenly out of spec (danger of killing them due to too much power) and if you run them low (2.8 volts) you're getting very little light out of them. So if you don't want to try and draw 6+ amps from your battery and burn out your light while you drain your battery then you'll want a driver. Now I will give you one possible option that I know and find simple and cheap. It isn't the only option and may not be the best but it is a starting place.

You could get a standard 7135 driver (there's tonnes of them for cheap) and wire it with 3 of the LEDs in serise with the driver then the driver powers the 4th LED. The driver will cut off the amperage to 2800 mA (whatever amperage depending on your specific driver choice) and 'burn off' the excessive voltage as heat. If you heat sink the driver well it should survive the ATV's voltage spikes and provide a constant brightness instead of surges based on battery voltage as you might get by directly connecting the LEDs. Theres a post on doing this in a mag light but I can't find it right now.

A copper plate is great but you may need some fins or connection to something to help get the heat away.

Have you thought about 12 volt led strip lighting?

ElliDee said:

Have you thought about 12 volt led strip lighting?

Click to expand...

The little bitty LED tape things won't have the output.

I suggest getting the Automotive LED Driver offered in one of the threads here, and using that to protect your LED investment. This will never make a road-legal or road-safe driving beam.