Creekdog
USA
Asked
— Edited
Resolved by Jeremie!
After doing some further digging into the light issue in my earlier post "Night Vision Camera", I found out that my LEDs need an LED driver to give me the light I need. My original intent was connecting the each LED to the E-Zb via the black and the white pins on two ports so that I would get power to both headlight assemblies. The LED driver is capable of running multiple LEDs, but would the 5V be enough to feed the driver to power two LEDs? I'm adding the links to the datasheets for the driver and the LEDs to provide further info.
www.ledsupply.com/content/pdf/leds-cree-xml2_documentation.pdf
www.ledsupply.com/content/pdf/led-driver-luxdrive-buckpuck_documentation.pdf
Quick question: Do you want the LEDs constantly on or controllable via a digital port?
If you wanted them to be constantly on you wouldn't necessarily need a driver.
5V is plenty to run these LEDs as the forward voltage is a max of 3.3V. You just need to be 3.3V or above and provide a bunch of current.
I would prefer constantly on. I spoke to the supplier I bought the LEDs from and he advised me to get the driver as 5V could potentially damage the LEDs. I also wondered if current might be an issue without the driver. At $12 it's not prohibitive if I do decide to try it out.
I'm very surprised that the supplier advised that 5V could damage the LED, if you limit the current with a properly spec'd High wattage resistor the LED would run fine.
The only thing with using a resistor is that you'll waste a lot of energy as heat, this is where the drivers will shine. The drivers will give you more battery life.
More battery life would be a plus as would eliminating extra heat. Based on a flashlight I have that has a Cree LED rated at 90 lumens and used before getting these, the 200-260 lumens a single one of the LEDs would give MORE than enough light. I'm tilting towards the driver, but welcome any input!
Oh, and the possible damage warning was based on me having connected the LEDs without a driver or resistor. They lit up, but nowhere near 200 lumens :D
Please in the future continue to use the same thread. Creating a new thread for the same topic will clutter anyone searching for similar topics. Thanks :D
Sorry DJ, I'll remember for next time! ;)