3- and 4-way switch demo board lights


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Old 02-13-12, 12:47 PM
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3- and 4-way switch demo board lights

Should I be concerned about maintaining a minimum load on a battery-operated LED light string?

For example if the string has ten LEDs, can I have one lit whenever the battery is turned on, use four for showing the variable path of the electricity, and use the remaining five as the load?

I want to set up a demonstration board for 3- and 4-way switches.

Battery >> 2-way >> 3-way >> 4-way >> 3-way >> LED (Load)

So, fairly simple at this point. I'm thinking -3 or -6 VDC, aka using negative as the "ungrounded" conductor.

Now, I want people to see where the electricity is actually passing along the way. I'd like to add one LED just before the 2-way, after the 2-way, then on each traveler between each switch. Presumably I would connect the indicator LEDs between battery (-) and "neutral" (+).

So at any given time, I would need as few as one or as many as five LEDs lit.

Possible light string source:
Deco String Lights, White Wire, C Battery Operated, WHITE
 
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Old 02-14-12, 04:00 AM
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The product you linked doesn't appear to be LED -- just standard low-voltage string lights.

If you are talking about using individual LEDs at each switch, pair each LED with a current-limiting series resistor. Then it won't matter what's on and what's off.
 
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Old 02-14-12, 01:13 PM
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Sorry about the link. This is what I meant to post:

LED String Lights, AA Battery Operated, GREEN

So what you're saying seems to be that the battery string is most likely intended to operate all the lamps at once, and if I operate just one, it may go over current and burn out, so I should use a resistor on each LED to limit the current.
 
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Old 02-14-12, 07:01 PM
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I think you might be best using something like this, rather than using a string of led lights.5mm Green LED (RL5-G7532) | Component LEDs | Super Bright LEDs
 
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Old 02-15-12, 04:12 AM
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If you plan to break up the strings you'll need to install limiting resistors on each LED. For a project like this you'd probably be better off using individual LEDs anyway.
 
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Old 02-15-12, 05:22 AM
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Thanks folks. I was looking to get LEDs matched to the voltage, with a nice-looking battery holder, but I know I can get that stuff separately as well. Using individual LEDs will allow us to use different colors, as well.
 
 

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