How can I prevent my LED lights from blowing out on my car?

[darrylmcl]

Hi guys,

I recently purchased some LED strip lights for my car (like this - http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150374586680&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT )

To my knowledge I had them hooked up correctly, they have one positive and negative sire for power. So I found out which was which for my cars lights and simply attached them to that. They are able to handle a 12V current and so I saw nothing wrong with this set up... they worked for about a week and now both (individually wired to separate lights) have blown, I have extra ones but don't want them to die out the same way so I was wondering if you guys may know of another way to set this up so that they don't simply blow out.

Thanks,
Darryl

 

[jmatejka]

Ill try to keep the thread physics related. L.E.D. is a semiconductor by definition. Semiconductor lifespan is directly related to heat/current.

Putting a current limiting resistor in series with the lights would increase lifespan, but also diminish brightness.

I'm not sure about the quality, but low quality semiconductors have a high infant mortality rate,(many fail early).

"long service life up to 30,000 hours, made in Hong Kong" , definitely not Mil-Spec reliability, perhaps let the buyer beware?

 

[darrylmcl]

Please disregard this posting... it turns out that one of my kids had placed the cars lights onto HIGHBEAMS... for whatever reason this disabled the lights, once turning them back off the lights were fine.

Sorry for the time waster here.

Darryl

 

[Danger]

It sounds as if you've tapped into the low-beam circuit only. Try relocating your connection upstream between the main headlight switch and the dimmer switch. That should bring your LED's on with both high and low beam selection.