I searched and found enogh adequate information to fit 6 multi-colored low voltage surface mount LED's to my helicopter blades for night flying.
I am using a single lipo cell with a storage voltage of 3.8v and a full charge of 4.2vMy LEDs vary slightly in forward voltage, but seem to run efficiently enough using the 100 ohm resistors for each LED wired in parallel. The battery is 300 mah and running the set for 25 minutes resulted in about 25/30 mah recharge.
I figure I'm good, but ..... I question.I started to read more and understand more and thought hey- what if I put a 1.8 and 2.1 v LED in series without a resistor as a voltage indicator of storage charge and time to stop flying.I found a pair wired in series that lights (not bright) with 4.15v, but is very dim almost not lit at 3.85v.Then I read the LED might not be consistent and might still require a resistor. So I worry it would discharge the battery too quickly with no resistor, or is 2 leds in series enough resistance together to not require a resistor.?I do not know the exact specs of the LEDS as I bought from Amazon and I have 5 or 6 different colors and notice different light output from each color.I am using smd 0603 100 ohm paired to 0603 smd super bright LEDs found on Amazon.
Thanks for your timeSteve
I am using a single lipo cell with a storage voltage of 3.8v and a full charge of 4.2vMy LEDs vary slightly in forward voltage, but seem to run efficiently enough using the 100 ohm resistors for each LED wired in parallel. The battery is 300 mah and running the set for 25 minutes resulted in about 25/30 mah recharge.
I figure I'm good, but ..... I question.I started to read more and understand more and thought hey- what if I put a 1.8 and 2.1 v LED in series without a resistor as a voltage indicator of storage charge and time to stop flying.I found a pair wired in series that lights (not bright) with 4.15v, but is very dim almost not lit at 3.85v.Then I read the LED might not be consistent and might still require a resistor. So I worry it would discharge the battery too quickly with no resistor, or is 2 leds in series enough resistance together to not require a resistor.?I do not know the exact specs of the LEDS as I bought from Amazon and I have 5 or 6 different colors and notice different light output from each color.I am using smd 0603 100 ohm paired to 0603 smd super bright LEDs found on Amazon.
Thanks for your timeSteve