12 volt led light

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fredb38

Member - Posts: 3

Joined: May 23, 2007

Location: United States

Posted: May 24, 2007 at 9:16 PM / IP Logged

Is their a way to make a 12 volt LED light dimmer. I tried a resistor which had no effect.

I have a light that contain 16 LED lights. When 12 volts is applied to the light it is very bright as it should be. I was wondering if their was someway to tone it down.

Fred

KPierson

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This member consistently provides reliable information

Joined: April 14, 2005

Location: Ohio, United States

Posted: May 27, 2007 at 8:46 AM / IP Logged

You can do it with PWM (Pulse Width Modulation).

You should be able to do it with a resistor, too, but you won't get a smooth dimming.

Kevin Pierson

fredb38

Member - Posts: 3

Joined: May 23, 2007

Location: United States

Posted: May 27, 2007 at 12:01 PM / IP Logged

I have tried resistors with no effect. I tried 10 ohms, up to 50 ohms and it did not dim the lights at all. I measured the voltage as it did drop but still had no effect on the LEDs. The voltage started out around 12 volts and with the resistors I had it down to 10 volts but no effect on the lights.

Fred

KPierson

Platinum - Posts: 3,527

Joined: April 14, 2005

Location: Ohio, United States

Posted: May 27, 2007 at 12:49 PM / IP Logged

You're going to need larger resistors then that, as you are trying to limit current.

If it is a 12vdc LED then has a resistor built in already. I would try something starting at 1K ohms and working up towards 10K ohms.

For a project that I completed that needed two different LED brightnesses I used 470 ohms for 'bright' and 10K ohms for 'dim'. These were standard non 12vdc LEDs though.

Kevin Pierson

integrapwnage

Member - Posts: 4

Joined: June 05, 2007

Location: United States

Posted: June 05, 2007 at 4:03 PM / IP Logged

Or you could goto radioshack and ask\look for a dimmer switch and hook that up so you can choose how dim or bright you want the LED's

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12 volt led light

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