Connecting simple LED/resistor circuits to the 12-volt electrical system in a vehicle should be straightforward, but it's actually fraught with problems. First there's the problem of heat dissipation in the resistors. Then there's the issue of variability of supply voltage. A business based on this primitive way of driving LEDs was bound to fail.
By Julian
Youtuber, shed dweller, solar charge controller aficionado
These would be great with IR LED's around my licence plate.
wouldn't a simple buck convertor solve this issue?
Your original circuit is pretty much the same thing I used back when I had a business rewiring VW Camper vans back in the mid-late 00's. I'd use 10mm white LEDs because they were the only thing I could get for a reasonable price that would illuminate the interior. They actually looked quite cool through a 40+ year old dome light with yellowed plastic and they all seem to still be working.
Takes me back to the days of my youth. My first car was a 1950 Ford Custom. They had two dome lights, one on each pillar, and shaped sort of like a candle. Looked OK I guess, but since I was on the wild side, and my car doubled as my bachelor pad, so to speak, I painted the insides of the plastic covers for the lights with a dark red nail polish in very thin layers so as to put out a red glow. I guess I thought it made the little car a bit sexier. I also replaced the seat which was badly worn, after all dad got me the car for $25.00 after it had been in a nasty front end crash, I had to rebuild the front clip of the car before I could drive it, with seats from an old Rambler Station Wagon. The Ramblers were innovative in their day, and the front seats were fully reclining. Thankfully the back rest of the old Rambler seats matched up nicely with the back seat, making my car a full size bed. Of course I replaced the old Phil-co radio with a much better radio that I picked up at a junk yard out of a Cadillac so the sound was indeed amazing in these days before FM and Stereo sound. Large speakers mounted under the dash and in the back deck. OH she was a bute, and she served me well till I tore the transmission out one day trying to spin the wheels. Anyhow your color LED's sort of brought that all back, man they would have looked good in that light in the post, and the red lights sort of hid your car when parked on a lonely back road, exploring the grown up art of, well being grown up.
joule thief solves heat issue and is much lower power.
How about using a regulator to feed consistent power to the leds?
Is there any reason you can't just put 5 LEDs in series? It will be rated for 15v, and will just be a bit dimmer when the car isn't running… But you will still have an extra LED shining and no resistor needed, making it much more efficient and safer(because there is very little heat produced)
auto electrician here, your design is reasonable for intermittent use. i think since widespread introduction of switching supplies led in vehicles is much better but the early days of resistor based led set ups was a good learning curve.
LED's should always be powered by a constant current source (1 transistor, 2 diodes and 2 resistors in its simplest form) and run in series when the supply voltage is variable, resistors are only good for fixed voltage operation. This is electronics 101
Nice idea, I also came to something similar idea using screw terminals. Although I would used 2,2k resistors for single LED's and the heat dissipation is much lower. There's negligible light output loss if the current is a bit lower and it also helps the LED's last longer.
Who is selling this product right now?
why not use a regulator for the car battery voltage ?
Zenner? Another interesting video.
I suppose the thing is that the Chinese manufacturers don't care if the strip overheats and sets your car / house/ nuclear bunker on fire.
the working once for our jeepney it would be so good to see in Philippine jeepneys
can I buy it all??
+Julian Ilett
Ultra-violet is also down to 3 leds.Have you used the Led strips in any thing around the house/shed, if so mind taking a video.
I also had thoughts in using the RGB Strips in a car project.