will it work to connect more LEDs?

Our "pub" where you can post about things completely Off Topic or about non-silent PC issues.

Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee

Post Reply
vivitern
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Oct 25, 2017 12:20 am

will it work to connect more LEDs?

Post by vivitern » Wed Oct 25, 2017 12:28 am

I am reverting here for some advice on a LED panel circuit that I am trying to build as I cannot find any concrete answers anywhere else online. My apologies as my understanding of electronics is very limited and I lack some of the basic understanding around voltages and current and how this is consumed by components. This is why I am reaching out to the experts.
Image
The complete circuit that I want to build will have 100 LED's. The specs of the LED's are as follows from the datasheet:

Forward Voltage (VF) - Typ: 3.30V - MAX: 3.80V

Forward Current (IF) - Typ: 20mA - MAX: 25mA

The datasheet can be found here if it helps at all:KY59-HLMP-EG24-PS000

My source voltage is a 5V 7A power supply.

Im not sure if I have the right forward voltage value from the datasheet though. I built a test circuit with 10 of these led's in parallel and they all lit up quite brightly. The test circuit got its power from the 5V pin on a raspberry pi which outputs 5V at about 200mA. When I measured the output on these pins using a multimeter before the LED's were connected I got a reading of 5.22 V and after I connected the 10 LEDs in parallel I received a voltage reading of 5.17V indicating a voltage drop of around 0.05V for 10 LED's. This is where I am a bit uneducated as the way I understand it is that if I have 5 volts, I will only be able to power to LED's with a forward voltage of 2.5V each and it baffles me as to why a circuit with 10 LEDs with a 3.30V forward voltage will light up so brightly on a 5V power supply.

What I would like to accomplish is to split the 100 LED's into 5 rows of 20 where each row runs in series on its own resistor (just one resistor) due to the fact that the space on the circuit that I have is very limited. I then take that one row of 20 LED's in series and duplicate it 5 times which gives me the 100 LED's. I guess you can then say I have 5 isolated LED circuits all connected to the same power supply.

I have tried calculating the resistor value that I need to run all 20 LED's on online calculators but they all provide me with a parallel diagram where each individual LED has it's own resistor which is not what I want. I want to run all 20 LEDs on one resistor so I need to calculate which resistor I need to do that.

My questions basically sums up to this:

How can I calculate the resistor needed to drive the 20 LEDs in series with all 20 LED's using only one resistor?
I have 5V 7Amp on the power supply available in my project and at 25mA the entire circuit should utilize 2500mA or 2.5 Amps which should be fine. Will the 5V be enough to drive the 100 LED's at 3.5 to 3.8 forward voltage per LED though? This is where I lack a basic understanding of how it works. I do have access to a 12V 3A power supply in the same project if this is needed.
Will it be a problem if I build the 20 LED circuit, duplicate it 5 times and connect them all to the same power supply?
Is it necessary to use a resistor at all with all these LED's running on the same supply?
Thanks for the assistance.

BrianL
Posts: 6
Joined: Wed Dec 26, 2018 9:25 am

Re: will it work to connect more LEDs?

Post by BrianL » Tue Aug 06, 2019 10:03 am

vivitern wrote:I am reverting here for some advice on a LED panel circuit that I am trying to build as I cannot find any concrete answers anywhere else online. My apologies as my understanding of electronics is very limited and I lack some of the basic understanding around voltages and current and how this is consumed by components. This is why I am reaching out to the experts.
Image
The complete circuit that I want to build will have 100 LED's. The specs of the LED's are as follows from the datasheet:

Forward Voltage (VF) - Typ: 3.30V - MAX: 3.80V

Forward Current (IF) - Typ: 20mA - MAX: 25mA

The datasheet can be found here if it helps at all:KY59-HLMP-EG24-PS000

My source voltage is a 5V 7A power supply.

Im not sure if I have the right forward voltage value from the datasheet though. I built a test circuit with 10 of these led's in parallel and they all lit up quite brightly. The test circuit got its power from the 5V pin on a raspberry pi which outputs 5V at about 200mA. When I measured the output on these pins using a multimeter before the LED's were connected I got a reading of 5.22 V and after I connected the 10 LEDs in parallel I received a voltage reading of 5.17V indicating a voltage drop of around 0.05V for 10 LED's. This is where I am a bit uneducated as the way I understand it is that if I have 5 volts, I will only be able to power to LED's with a forward voltage of 2.5V each and it baffles me as to why a circuit with 10 LEDs with a 3.30V forward voltage will light up so brightly on a 5V power supply.

What I would like to accomplish is to split the 100 LED's into 5 rows of 20 where each row runs in series on its own resistor (just one resistor) due to the fact that the space on the circuit that I have is very limited. I then take that one row of 20 LED's in series and duplicate it 5 times which gives me the 100 LED's. I guess you can then say I have 5 isolated LED circuits all connected to the same power supply.

I have tried calculating the resistor value that I need to run all 20 LED's on online calculators but they all provide me with a parallel diagram where each individual LED has it's own resistor which is not what I want. I want to run all 20 LEDs on one resistor so I need to calculate which resistor I need to do that.

My questions basically sums up to this:

How can I calculate the resistor needed to drive the 20 LEDs in series with all 20 LED's using only one resistor?
I have 5V 7Amp on the power supply available in my project and at 25mA the entire circuit should utilize 2500mA or 2.5 Amps which should be fine. Will the 5V be enough to drive the 100 LED's at 3.5 to 3.8 forward voltage per LED though? This is where I lack a basic understanding of how it works. I do have access to a 12V 3A power supply in the same project if this is needed.
Will it be a problem if I build usps tracking the 20 LED circuit, duplicate it 5 times and connect them all to the same power supply?
Is it necessary to use a resistor at all with all these LED's running on the same supply?
Thanks for the assistance.
I also need help with this.

Thanks in advance.
Regards,
Brian

Post Reply