Wiring LED lights??????

[Ganoderma]

I am desperately trying to figure out how to wire my own LED lights together.

 

I really need some help from you guys if you know how.

 

First my purpose is to try and grow plants with these lights, then move on to animal lighting. First up are plants though.

 

I am hoping for something at least remotely simple and not too expensive. my other goal is to get lots of bulbs in a small space (i realize heat issues).

 

I am looking for the most light intensity and in to wavelength ranges. I want some for the 400-450nm range and the 650nm area (for photosynthesis).

 

so lets go with these bulbs for example and discussion: http://files.intl-lighttech.com/pdf/GHB-3M50-RO.pdf

 

the page states these statistics:

 

Forward Voltage 2.0-2.5 volts (2.0 typical)

Power 150 mW

DC forward current 30 mA

Peak forward current 195 mA

 

 

I am wanting to use something very simple like this crappy drawing i did in paint. Is this even possible? Is it ok to scale up this, providing the power supply can handle the load?

 

 

This example uses 24 lights. Say I wanted 100, 1000 or more. Probably need to start adding power supplies.

 

Can I use a regular adapter that converts to say 5 V then add a resistor to cover the difference?

[Cedars]

LED Circuitry tutorial: how to hook up LEDs.

 

Wiring LED's to Work on 12 Volts

 

Aquarium / terriarium sites might be a good source for more info on this type of application.

[TheFaithfulStone]

I don't think that's right. I'm pretty sure you need separate resistors for each LED series.

 

Here's a little doo-hickey that draws up the schematic for you.

 

http://led.linear1.org/led.wiz

 

TFS

[Erasmus00]

The thing to keep in mind is that the more LEDs you have, the more current they are going to draw, which means that more current is leaving your battery. All of this current then goes through your resistor.

 

This means that if you add LEDs, you'll get a larger voltage drop across the resistor, and hence, lower the voltage across the diodes. The solution is either to put a variable resistor in place, and vary it until you get the desired voltage across the diodes, or to put diodes in place in set numbers, each set with the proper resistor.

 

The other thing to worry about is maxing out your power supply, in which case you can add another in parallel.

-Will

[Ganoderma]

thanks for the links i am reading these and will likely post more questions soon as i am sure there is something i won't get haha.

 

my plan is t plug this into the wall, so i will be using a 120V (standard N.A. kind) to ......V? still learning what would be best for that.

[snoopy]

You would only need seprate resistors if you were using diffferent colours but I would add a zener diode to limit the voltage to the circuit

 

Peace

:phones: