Electronics/electrical wizards-- Help settle an argument regarding LED lights
 

Electronics/electrical wizards-- Help settle an argument regarding LED lights

I have a chance to buy some very sturdy trailer lights. These lights were extra ones bought by a company as spares for their equipment trailers.

The systems on which these LED tail lights were used are 24V.

I want to put them on my 12 V trailer.

Person A says they will not work.

Person B says they will last longer because less voltage is going through them.

I just want to know if they will work.

Your assistance, please

12v to 24v converter - Tacoma World Forums

http://www.wranglerforum.com/f5/24v-trucklite-led-lights-to-12v-159643.html

Each white LED runs on ~3.3vdc. Each red LED runs on ~2.2vdc

A unit setup to run on 24vdc will be running very dim at 12vdc if at all.

They are typically setup in a combination of series and parallel. You just need to find the 1/2 way point of the 24vdc setup, split it and add a second 12vdc line to that place. You will also have to add a resistor in series with the new 12vdc line.

24/ 3.3 = 7 in series white LED's.
24/ 2.2 = 10 in series red LED's.

A pic would help figure out the needed resistor too.

To answer your question - they probably wont work, but I'd try putting 12v across them just in case they do (the chance of breaking something by doing this is pretty slim). If 12v lights it up enough for you - just rock it.

The above post is great information if you are buying LED's yourself, or can break open the lights and access the internal wiring. Not sure how much messing you want to do - I'm not sure thats even possible for the LED light fixtures that I've seen.

I agree with most of the content in the threads the aklim linked - you really need a 12v - 24v converter to do this at all. not sure if thats worth the cost or not.

-John

Too dim
 

I would expect them to be too dim ... If they did work.

I just bought a long strip of 12 volt LED's which I planned to cut into 3 bulb sections to make some anchor lights for my boat. I put a 9 volt battery to the 300 bulb strip. They seemed plenty bright.

Please be safe on the water- others could be involved if you fail to adhere to the law.