LED help

Discussion in 'Cases, Modding and Gallery' started by TheIceman, May 7, 2009.

  1. TheIceman

    TheIceman Geek Trainee

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    okay, first of all i wanna say that i'm a noob to this website, and somewhat to modding. i know a lot, but not nearly as much as im gonna learn. anyway, im sure at some point this question has probably been answered on this site, but like i said, im a noob here and dont know much as to how to go about finding it. so please, bear with me. ive done many hardware upgrades/adjustments/tweaks in the last few days, and in the process managed to break both of my LEDS. the power led and the hdd led. its no big deal because over the years ive saved pretty much all the old computer hardware and junk ive gone through, or had given to me, so i have plenty more. my question is this, i cant imagine that leds use much juice at all to operate, and my motherboard has several different places for such lights. If i splice several leds, or purchase an led card, can the board take it without missing a beat, or could this lead to a short? ive also been in the process of making a completely custom case that encases the guts in two-way plexiglass mirror. what i would like to do is run several more lights than just the 3 without having to make any major changes in the hardware.
    so, is it okay to splice several leds and have them run off one channel? how many can it operate per channel without having an issue? what are the strengths of led i would want to use, or which would be okay? thanks for any help anyone can offer, and again, im sorry if this thread is wasting your time
     
  2. Ferg

    Ferg Manbearpig

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    It wont short - as an LED is a light emitting DIODE - A diode is a one-way only device so if you put it in the wrong way it simply wont light as the cicuit is not complete. Get the anode and cathode the right way and you'll be laughing - diagram here:
    http://www.societyofrobots.com/images/electronics_led_diagram.png

    Something to note if you are running them in series as opposed to parallel is as all diodes LED's drop 0.7v per LED so if you have them strung out you will need to compensate for the voltage drop.
     
  3. TheIceman

    TheIceman Geek Trainee

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    alright, thats exactly what i needed to know. thanks a lot
     

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