I’m fairly new to the lighting effects, but have no trouble with the LED’s in my trap that I wired up on my own, however, I wired 1 red blinking led on my trap pedal connected to a push button under the pedal. Basically I press the pedal and a blinking LED turns on. Seems simple enough. So for power I hooked up 2AA batteries in one of the project boxes. The light worls but my batteries, the battery holder, and even the project box were getting uncomfortably hot! Anyone know what I might have done wrong? Any help would be appreciated!
Definately resistance. LEDs typically only need something like 0.25-0.5v to work, very small voltage. 2 AA batteries is putting through nearly 3 V, you’re running a risk of not only blowing your LED (which will make a sharp pop crack and the head of it will shoot off when it does) but you are also at risk of blowing up your batteries. Its essentially a circuit running into itself, imagine hooking two 9v batteries together.
If you are, while it’s rated as a 3v LED you do still need a resistor in the circuit to prevent runaway current and overheating. Use something between 10 and 50 ohms and you shouldn’t have much drop in brightness. If you want to ensure full-brightness though add another battery and recalculate the resistor value. R=(v1-v2) / I(led)
Typical LED voltage is 2.2 volts, but that is probably not the problem. Most leds can handle 120v, It’s the amperage that kills them. Typical amperage is 10ma -20ma. Blinking LEDs use more Voltage. You proabably have some kind of a short circuit across the battery, other than the LED.
I have done a small project before, just a tiny computer fan 1mm x 1mm. I accidentally wired in a series w/ the switch. Just one of those days where I was not really thinking about what I was doing and zip zop zoopity bop wired it up. Same experience, batteries became hot to the touch after turning the device off after only a single minute of use. Re-wired properly and problem solved.
Just wanted to thank you guys for all the help! I figured it out. First..I did need a resistor..and then the second time I hooked every thing up I screwed up and hooked them in a series. I rewired everything..and neatened it up a bit. Now it’s perfect!
if you are only wiring one blinking red led to a battery pack and a switch you will need a resitor. I buy the little tan ones with red and blue stripes. You get a bunch for like a buck. pretty self explanatory after that. You just make a big circle. doing the resistor like you do the switch. I am only a beginner but I got it to work this way with a bright white LED. I used AA battery pack and it worked fine. I imagine with a blinking red LED you can do the same thing just wire the resistor between the LED and battery. Hope this helps some how. LOL