led wiring

[terra 5,000+ posts]

im trying to wire up my led's for my box but i forgot to get a relay. If i wire it up to my battery it stays on constantly. my question is how much power to LEDs draw? will it kill my batt? and what if i wire it into my capacitor?

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[Qbenjamin 10+ year member]

Although LED's require little juice to power themselves, I would highly suggest you run a relay to shut them off. Also, running them straight to your cap will make no difference, as a cap is no substitute for a battery. Go and buy a relay for about $5 from Radio Shack and save yourself some future grief.

 

[funkyab 10+ year member]

Im about to hit my boat with a ton of leds.

From what i understand, leds take a very small amount of power.

you definately dont want to leave them on all the time. Dosent matter if you wire them to cap or battery.. How many leds do you have.. It is generally not reccomended,, but if it is not very many,, you can run off your remote turn on wire.. Otherwise,, you can run a line and tap into your switched power supply on your head unit..

Or,, just wire a switch.

 

[terra 5,000+ posts]

i have 1 strip of 10 LED's.i already have my remote turn on going to my amp so how would i send it to my LED's as well?

 

[funkyab 10+ year member]

make things easy.... just wire your led to your pos and neg of amp... that way when amp turns on,, leds turn on

 

[b0und]

make things easy.... just wire your led to your pos and neg of amp... that way when amp turns on,, leds turn on

They would be on all the time if you wired them this way. Instead, wire a relay with your remote turn on as the trigger. Don't forget to calculate an R value and wire resistors so you don't blow you LEDs

 

[funkyab 10+ year member]

SHIT.. you are right... where did my brain go...

but because it is only 10 leds... there is virtually zero power requirements..

he could just use the remote as his power and ground in the amp ground terminal.. THEN it would turn on and off with the amp

 

[spoonraker 10+ year member]

I replaced every interior light in my car with an LED, I've left the interior lights on all night and the car starts right back up. That is every single light....under seats and dash, gauge cluster, courtesy and dome lights, window switches, etc...

I doubt 10 LEDs would drain your battery even if left on for a month.

 

[NeverEnuffBass 10+ year member]

SHIT.. you are right... where did my brain go...
but because it is only 10 leds... there is virtually zero power requirements..

he could just use the remote as his power and ground in the amp ground terminal.. THEN it would turn on and off with the amp

In which case he should be using a relay as previously said