Soldering Problem

[imax]

Yeah, the 'blip' is a dead- (ha ha, sorry for the pun) giveaway. You *murdered* a LED. Go get a resistor, and a new LED and try again. Killer.

-- I

[Smiley]

Yeah, the 'blip' is a dead- (ha ha, sorry for the pun) giveaway. You *murdered* a LED. Killer.

Hopefully it didn't have any family.

And you need to make sure the red lead is attached to the pin that is connected to the flag in the led (HOT).

Pin? Flag? Whosajigawha?

[Scottzilla]

I think the "flag" Gore Galore is referring to how when you look inside the LED one lead goes to a larger piece of metal (the one with the die and the reflector cup) than the other one. GG said hook the red wire to the "flag" pin but I've run into more negative "flag" pins than positive. The truth is there isn't really a standard for which pin gets the die so I usually just find the polarity by hooking it up and trying it.

Of course, always make sure to use your current-limiting resistor.

...unless that is part of your haunt. Killing LEDs in front of a live audience might be too graphic for some people. You should post a warning outside in your queue line.

[Smiley]

Okay, okay. What if.....

I hook up eight 5mm LEDs (20mA each/forward current of 17.6 total) to a 18volt battery source and use a 22 ohm 1/8W resistor? How's that?

[Infoamtek]

In series of parallel? This is an important question.

[Smiley]

Umm....parallel circuit.

[Infoamtek]

Young man, I suggest you take some basic night classes in electricity and electronics. Otherwise, you are going to be dangerous around components and circuits.

( In parallel, 18 volts is going to burn out a lot of LEDs)

[Smiley]

Bah. Forget it. I'll just buy a pre-assembled set.

[Scottzilla]

Ideally you would have a separate resistor for each LED. 9v will drive them all just fine, just make sure to choose the appropriate value resistors (if you post the voltage rating of your LEDs I can help you with that).

Also note that since you are drawing 160ma total you will probably get just shy of 2 hours out of a 9v battery. You may want to use a wall-wart instead.

Anyway, here's a quick schematic I drew of how you can hook up your 8 LEDs:

[Smiley]

Ideally you would have a separate resistor for each LED. 9v will drive them all just fine, just make sure to choose the appropriate value resistors (if you post the voltage rating of your LEDs I can help you with that).

The LED's I plan on using are these: http://monsterguts.com/lighting-stro.../prod_115.html

Anyway, here's a quick schematic I drew of how you can hook up your 8 LEDs

Ah, yes! Pictorial instructions! Now this I understand.

Also note that since you are drawing 160ma total you will probably get just shy of 2 hours out of a 9v battery.

Two hours of run time, eh? :/