two led in series

General discussion of other lighting topics with an emphasis on software topics not covered in the support/feedback category.
Post Reply
cacoolee
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Jul 11, 2013 6:46 pm

two led in series

Post by cacoolee »

How to join more than one led with lm 317 in current regulation mode? I join a 50 ohm resistor to lit the white led. The single led lights up . Then i connect two led in series it wont gives light. If i connect in parallel it will ad dim . Please help me.
________________________________
cute video ~ video library ~ commercial video
Last edited by cacoolee on Fri Jul 26, 2013 8:02 am, edited 1 time in total.
admin
Site Admin
Posts: 1643
Joined: Mon Nov 05, 2007 1:26 am
Contact:

Post by admin »

LEDs do not behave as a resistive load. They do sink current like a resistor however, its not a linear function. For this reason, LEDs cannot be dimmed in a conventional fashion. In fact, they go out completely when the voltage across them drops below a threshold. A regular diode has a voltage drop of somewhere around 0.5v and the drop for LEDs vary. So, when you put 2 LED's in series with a current limiting resistor, you may drop the voltage below the threshold for the LEDs to light. All this means that calculating a value for a current limiting resistor for an LED requires more than Ohm's law. You need to know some values such as the current and voltage drop for the particular LED. Take a look at https://www.sparkfun.com/tutorials/219
Post Reply