Hi all, I firstly just wanted to say how helpful and informative this site is there is so much information and help on here. I am woodworker but looking into making a busy led board for a family member. I don't really have much knowledge of designing circuits so wanted to know if you could help me with this part. Ideally I'm looking at having a wooden board with around 8-10 switches all operating 1 or 2 led diodes each, I'm wanting to use a mix of different switches and different colour let's would that be possible to then run of a 9v or a few AA batteries? |
by Jamiel01
January 11, 2023 |
9V seems way too high. You can probably go very well with 5V if not 3.3V as long as you have one single LED in series. Consider 15 mA to 20 mA per LED if not under direct sunlight. Or maybe as low as 5 mA if in a dark environment. As for the setting, you can use push button (normally close) which is more "to these days" than a light switch we have on our walls. But that is a matter of look, not very technical. For the circuit itself, if you plan do modify it from time to time, I would consider to use an MCU (a micro controller) such as an Arduino: it is easier to modify a program than to reroute wires. You can also consider multicolored LED: less LED to secure in place on a board. |
by vanderghast
January 13, 2023 |
Thankyou for your reply vanderghast I'm quite new to the electronics side you couldn't give me a little diagram of how I would do this in relation to wiring and resistors etc could you? |
+1 vote by Jamiel01 January 14, 2023 |
Note that individual LED comes with a long leg and a short leg. The long leg should be placed toward the + side of the battery, and the shorter leg should be placed toward the - side of the battery (or ground). If the legs have been trimmed, you should be able to spot, near the base of the LED's dome, a cut slicing the otherwise circular ring supporting the dome. That "cut" indicates the side of the initially shorter leg. I suggest that you use hatch push-button for switches (push once, the light comes on, push once again, it turns off, and so on). But you can use standard SPST wall switches too. You can add more LED (to the right of the sketch), but the battery must be able to supply the total current (around 15 mA per LED turned on). |
by vanderghast
January 14, 2023 |
22 gage wire is more than enough. |
by vanderghast
January 14, 2023 |
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