# LED Help!!!!



## Dead Things (Apr 4, 2009)

Hey folks, hope someone can help. I made 30 plus white, green, red, blue and UV LED floods a la hpropman (12 Ultra bright leds, 3 wired in series and those 4 groups of 3 wired in parallel) and made a daisy chain cable similar to hpropman and ghoulishcop. The cable has boxes set at regular intervals. In those boxes are 3 speaker terminals and all the boxes are wired in parallel. I used common anode across all speaker terminals and used seperate wires for the cathodes (was planning on using a 3 channel color organ but that will have to wait until nex year). Since I am not using the color organ I tied all the cathodes together. I am powering it with a dedicated CPS ([email protected]). My problem is it keeps tripping the CPS internal fuse. 
Trouble shooting:
1. Made sure there is continuity on the anode line and all three cathode lines of the cable. I seperated the three cathode wires on the daisy chain and hooked only one up to the 0V of the CPS. Then touched each of the other two, one at a time, to the 0V. Tripped the fuse in every combination, although each strand will run by itself.
2. Unplugged every flood and with the CPS on, plugged them in one at a time. I was able to plug all 21 floods in and not rip the breaker.
3. Unplugged every flood and plugged in one, turned cps on, turned it off and plugged another flood in, repeat. I was able to plug in 11 floods before it tripped.

I am perplexed but I think it is in the wiring of the daisy chain. Each flood is drawing approximately 80mA, give or take. I should be able to plug in all of my floods with headroom to spare. Any suggestions, greatly appreciated.

Here are some pics.


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## MansionHaunter (Sep 20, 2006)

You _measured_ the current each flood takes? Or is that 80mA figure an estimate of what it should draw? Breaker tripping = overcurrent, OR bad breaker. Since it isn't tripping with individual floods connected, you must either have a short somewhere or the combined load of the floods is too much. That's pretty much all there is to it.


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## Dead Things (Apr 4, 2009)

MansionHaunter said:


> You _measured_ the current each flood takes? Or is that 80mA figure an estimate of what it should draw? Breaker tripping = overcurrent, OR bad breaker. Since it isn't tripping with individual floods connected, you must either have a short somewhere or the combined load of the floods is too much. That's pretty much all there is to it.


I did not measure the current of each flood. This is based on the results of an LED array calculator. And it is a generalization as each of the LED types (red, UV etc) has a different forward voltage and different current draw. According to the array, the most current draw I have for a completed flood is 120mA. It is possible that it is a bad breaker. It is an old CPS. Correct me if I'm wrong, but to find the combined load, I just times current of each device by number of devices.


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## Dead Things (Apr 4, 2009)

Bad breaker in the CPS!


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## hedg12 (Jul 6, 2008)

Sounds like a bad power supply. Do you have another you can try?


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## Dead Things (Apr 4, 2009)

Got it! Thanks MansionHaunter!


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## Dead Things (Apr 4, 2009)

hedg12 said:


> Sounds like a bad power supply. Do you have another you can try?


Exactly what it was and I do. The lights are all up and running.


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## hedg12 (Jul 6, 2008)

Glad to hear it!


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