Wiring LED Cabin Lights

So I just went out and bought 4 LED cabin lights for my Formula. They all looked great on display at West Marine so I picked the ones I wanted and went home. I can post the models if necessary. I started connecting them in series (Negative wire of one light to positive of the next, and so on), and when I went to flip the switch light them up, 2 of them barely lit, and 2 didn't light at all. I thought maybe something was connected backwards, but I checked all the connections and they were correct. I then tested each light individually using the battery in the boat, and they all lit up very bright. I realized they draw different amounts of current, so connecting them in series was causing the brightness problem. However, I've read posts that say not to connect LEDs in parallel. So, my question is, what is the best way to wire these lights? Should I wire each one individually, put them all in parallel, do I need resistors, etc? Any input is appreciated.

Re: Wiring LED Cabin Lights

i think you have series and parallel mixed up , one ground , and as many positive's as you want switch's .ground goes thru all switch's
on batteries connecting neg to pos on two batteries changes them from 12 volt to 24 volt. parallel i beleive.

Re: Wiring LED Cabin Lights

They have to be hooked up in parallel. I have no idea where you got the idea to hook them up in series- I don't recall seeing any posts stating that.

Re: Wiring LED Cabin Lights

The posts I read were just sites with general information, nothing from iboats. I'll put them all in parallel tomorrow. Thank you NYBo

Re: Wiring LED Cabin Lights

Just tie all the positives together, and all the negatives together, and hook to power and ground. These have resistors in them so wireing in series causes too much voltage drop to run the led's.

Re: Wiring LED Cabin Lights

LED's do not work like that. They have to have the +'s hooked together and the -'s hooked together. They will only operate with the proper polarity.

Re: Wiring LED Cabin Lights

Alright, thanks everyone for the input! Going out for trial #2 today. I'll report back later.

Re: Wiring LED Cabin Lights

Ok let's slow down a bit... yes those types of led lights need to be wired in parallel. They already have the current limiting resistors and such built into the housing.

If you have bare bones leds, just the bulbs, depending on their operating voltages they are very often wired in series to get them to operate correctly. There will also be current limiting circuitry such as resistors in the circuit. That's nut what were dealing with here.

Wire your lights in parallel and you should be all set.

More ?'s just ask.

Bill

Re: Wiring LED Cabin Lights

Thanks Bill - I think I was reading about bare bones LEDs and thats what got me thinking to put them in series.

Wired them up in parallel this morning.. everything lights up bright and looks good. I do have one interesting thought though. When I installed the toggle switch I bought from West Marine, the lights were very very dim. I removed the 2 wires from the switch and held them together and everything lit up bright. The Cole Hersee switch I bought was supposedly rated for 25 amps. I hooked it up to one of the other switches from the Formula dashboard (not sure who makes it) and the lights lit up bright again... The Cole Hersee switch caused them to be dim. Do I need to get a switch rated for more amps, or was the one I bought most likely defective?

Re: Wiring LED Cabin Lights

25 amps is WAY more capacity than the LEDs require. Is this a lighted switch, perchance, and did you accidentally hook up the wires to the internal lighting terminals?

Re: Wiring LED Cabin Lights

Yes, it is a lighted switch. That must have been it