LED's can be a screwed up situation

[hac327]

so i have hooked up pleanty of led lights and always enjoyed them for the simplicity and great color's available to give some bling to your dash or interior or w/e....

i did have a little "melt down" tonight though,...i bought these off ebay



i only turn them on when i am off the street or parked,..so tipically they are on for a short period of time then i turn them off....well i decided to go ahead and let them run while driving with my h4's on. you cant tell they are there unless you look really close. it also gives a neat looking purple glow to the very outer edge of the glass h/l lens....

well about 15 mins of them being on was no big deal,..its when i got out of my truck to adjust my h/l a little, when i got back in smoke was comming out under the dash like "HOLLY SHT!!!" i turned eveything off and the switch they were on busted and remained on. so i got to the fuse block and burnt the sht out of my finger on molten hot plastic and the copper wire had to have been around 600 degrees ...leason learned,...kind of...

question: do i hook up load balancers like the ceramic ones in auto zone and what not?

[NotaDime]

bet you didnt hook a fuse up to the switch......

[hac327]

no,...i didnt,..that was why the main power and led power wire melted down...

i had been told that a load balanceing ceramic goodie should be hooked up to dispence the bulding of energy back to the ground...

this is why the wire melted....is that acurate?

[yfz350rider]

I think it melted because there was no fuse. lol

[hac327]

Quote:

I think it melted because there was no fuse. lol

i doubt it,...a fuse is there to protect components just incase there is to much energy at any given point like a short or faulty connection.

basicly it would kep blowing the fuse no matter what cause there is stored energy in the power wire that the leds never use. it builds up more and more till the switch fails or wire melts or something along those lines,....so i am told.

well i guess replaceing all the wire that melted and hooking up this ceramic voltage distributor wouldnt hurt then,...ill keep ya posted

[beandip]

WHAT????? i never heard this before, but all i can say is maybe the excessive heat from your headlights caused one of the leds to short out, superbrightleds.com says the warranty is void if used in the headlamp due to heat.

but i never heard of having a load balancer because of the excessive power that the leds don't use. that doesnt make sense at all. if that were the case any power wire would do this because the battery has more potential power than any accessory your going to hook up to it.

My vote is heat caused the led(s) to short out since that is the only factor here besides the duration they were on. i tried to google about the load balancer and really didnt find anything to pretain to this. i only found topics about the turn signal speed and how to slow it down when using leds.

also does the led still work?

[greencactus3]

i dunno what a load balancer is, but what voltage was recommended for the LEDs?

if it wasnt 14, you want to use resistors, or put multiple LEDs in line to bring down the voltage

[OneLowSdime]

when u fused it it was prolly to the constantly hot side so it just bypasses the fuse

[raven2510]

SMD led's always say....Warning: do not place in headlight housing. excessive heat will cause led shortin life.

its common sense with high power leds

[hac327]

well i knowingly put them in the hl's dispite the warning. and have used leds alot. and have never ran into this problem before. thats why i started this thread.

i honestly didnt see the need for a fuse cause its only 2 leds and have never had any issues with them like this. leason learned. the grounds i used were fairly simple at the led's behing the hl housing. and one in the cab for the switch.

if you go to autozone's light section you can find these load balancers in a box of 2. they are ceramic about 2 inches long and are "saposed" to be hooked into the circut one side on + and one on your - .....

i havent got into removing the melted wire and inspection of the leds yet but prolly will this weekend

ill keep ya posted

an yes these leds have a 12v resistor built in and are ment for all 12v applications.

[neo71665]

Heat kills any LED, you just fried the LEDs by using them where they are not meant to be, they shorted out, with no fuse you melted the wires. The load balancers are just a bandaid for people too stupid to replace their flasher (or the flasher is built in) with and electronic one and the blinkers hyper flash with LEDs.

And no your LEDS don't have a 12 volt resistor built in, they should have a 16 volt one or the alt charging at 14 volts would kill them.

Sounds like you need to learn more about what your using and using it for before you try to play with it and burn your truck down.

[RustyButTrusty]

Quote: Originally Posted by hac327

basicly it would kep blowing the fuse no matter what cause there is stored energy in the power wire that the leds never use. it builds up more and more till the switch fails or wire melts or something along those lines,....so i am told.

[AK49BWL]

ok what the ****.... a wire is nothing more than a power distributor, not a power storer.. That would be a capacitor. The load balancers are ONLY needed if you are replacing your BLINKERS with LED bulbs. otherwise, your blinkers will always be on the fritz...... PLUS, you need a solid-state flasher relay unit, but that is a different matter. with this load balancer, you would actually be putting MORE stress on the power wire than you would with JUST the LEDs. LED blinkers need the extra load because the LEDs do not require enough power for the flasher unit to recognize there is actually a load there, making the system think there is a light out, thereby warning you of such with quick blinking. The load balancer, in this case, simulates a standard incandescent light bulb.

[xtrememeasures10]

As said with your alternator running at 14.2-14.5volts the leds need a resistor infront of them to drop the voltage down to 12 volts. Then wire them in parallel.

forget the load equalizer. that will burn up 12 volts easily and leave you with maybe 2-3 volts to the leds.

[hac327]

goddamn all i was doing was looking for some advise and sharing information that was shared with me. i wasnt at all looking for the third degree just knowledge to fix the problem,....

neo you seam like a cool person and all but you my friend are totally mistaken, there is a 12v resistor built in the bulb,...

and if the leds did short and melted my power wire cool now i do know not to trust the information i got directly from the manufacture of these leds that say "great for city lights in your headlight!"

just maybe once you can construct a sentance that helps a person out.




as far as everyone else that you for your imput i have gathered enough information to fix the problem,,,thanks

[neo71665]

Quote: Originally Posted by hac327

goddamn all i was doing was looking for some advise and sharing information that was shared with me. i wasnt at all looking for the third degree just knowledge to fix the problem,....

neo you seam like a cool person and all but you my friend are totally mistaken, there is a 12v resistor built in the bulb,...

and if the leds did short and melted my power wire cool now i do know not to trust the information i got directly from the manufacture of these leds that say "great for city lights in your headlight!"

just maybe once you can construct a sentance that helps a person out.




as far as everyone else that you for your imput i have gathered enough information to fix the problem,,,thanks

Sorry but its not a 12 volt resistor, if it was it would burn up everytime you crank the truck up since the charging sytem is 14 volts but ok. Do you even understand how to wire multiple LEDS up in a series and figure the correct resistor for the voltage and possible voltage spikes they might see? If your not using a voltage reg (like 99% of the premade bulbs) they have resistors rated for the highest voltage spike the system will hopefully see. I'm also sure since the company told you to use them in the headlights they will warranty their burnt up product. LEDs have very strict temp limits and I doubt any company would put something like that in a head light without a major heat sink which must be made out of some super conductor to be so small to be hidden and work well in that small plastic housing.

[hac327]

the case is semi clear, looking closely you can see a resistor inside the housing. and stamped on the case is 12v,...they are bipolar aswell.

[NotaDime]

Quote: Originally Posted by hac327

i honestly didnt see the need for a fuse cause its only 2 leds and have never had any issues with them like this.

Quote: Originally Posted by neo71665

Sounds like you need to learn more about what your using and using it for before you try to play with it and burn your truck down.

and this is normally why cars burn to the ground, because installs were done the WRONG way.


.............and he is right, if it had a 12v resistor, it would blow instantly, because like he said the alt charges 14v's

it says "12v" because it is meant to be used on 12v applications

[NotaDime]

oh and you might want to invest in a fire extinguisher. they can come in handy.

[hac327]

to many critics these days

no a 12v resistor will not "blow instantly" when you put 14volts to it. your information there is incorrect....

and yes it was used in a 12v situation and more then likely has a resistory in it that is closer to the actuall value of voltage depending on how they are soildered together paralell or series, however the led shorted due to the heat (mostlikly) and i hadnt thought of these very expensive, very nice leds shorting out due to heat.


was looking for a pointer or some information from someone who has done the same...thats all

[neo71665]

Well if you ever see a spec sheet on LEDs they have very tight tolerances on heat and voltage they can withstand.

Granted they might have cost a pretty penny premade those look to be cheap piranha styled LEDs, i'd much rather use superflux ones. If you learn to make your own bulbs like that you can buy the LEDs cheap and make a ton of the bulbs for what your paying now. I really need to lay off some of the other stuff and get back to playing with all my LED projects.

[NotaDime]

well heres the website his picture came from...... seems the website is under construction hhhmmmmm

http://www.wardenjp.com/

[neo71665]

Yeah I'm not too impressed with them. When I do by premade stuff I get it from a seller on flea bay named Bestinhongkong, he has specs on all his products, cheap, and really fast shipping time.

[orangesonoma]

Quote: Originally Posted by neo71665

Heat kills any LED, you just fried the LEDs by using them where they are not meant to be, they shorted out, with no fuse you melted the wires. The load balancers are just a bandaid for people too stupid to replace their flasher (or the flasher is built in) with and electronic one and the blinkers hyper flash with LEDs.

And no your LEDS don't have a 12 volt resistor built in, they should have a 16 volt one or the alt charging at 14 volts would kill them.

Sounds like you need to learn more about what your using and using it for before you try to play with it and burn your truck down.

i agree 100%

[neo71665]

Quote: Originally Posted by orangesonoma

i agree 100%

[hac327]

ok so the thread isnt dead yet lol,...

i did pull all of the burnt wire, pain in the ass. how ever both leds are 100% functional. heat did not short them out.

so with that in mind let me try to accuratly discrib the install again,...

each led is grounded to the core support only 4-6 inches of wire between the negitive pole and each led. my hot wire is run from an open spot on my fuse block to the switch, then to the drivers led and from drvs led to the pass led. that simple....

so now i come back to the information that was given to me about the leds not using a bunch of power and to install load balarncers(found at az or kragen)

this is that point that makes no sence cause i have never had this happen



so with that constructivly share you intel maybe there is something i missed?

hc

[AK49BWL]

only thing I can think of right now is maybe the wire got pinched to some ground metal in the cab but just as a friendly suggestion, a 10 amp or less fuse when you hook it all back up but no, as I mentioned before, you shouldn't need load balancers at all, unless these lights are being used as blinkers.... which based on what you've said, they aren't.

[hac327]

very possible,...i will be taking the hvac out here in a min. sience this melt down i noticed that when i set the air to go on the window defroster it turns on my ac....so i have to fix that before i reinstall the leds

[AK49BWL]

That is how the defroster works... it is supposed to trigger the AC Compressor, please don't ask me why tho I just clipped the blue wire leading off the output selector, but that will disable all AC, which I'm sure you're not interested in lol