Interior red leds

The Dude

The Dude

Eight Pointer
So I got 4 of these 4" red led strips I'm trying to redneck engineer to be cab lights for my truck. I want them to run off an independent power source, one because I don't feel like going through all the trouble of removing the headliner side panels ect, to wire it to the battery. Two because I want to be able to use the red lights without the engine being on or keys in the ignition. I've got it wired to a rocker switch and have the wiring sorted out but my issue is my battery sources I've tried get extremely hot after less than a minute of the switch being flipped. I've tried single 9v, multiple 9v wired appropriately, 8 AA'so in a case (case melted btw). What am I doing wrong? Any suggestions on what I can do for a battery source that'll fit in the flip down sunglass holder that won't set my truck on fire? I'm not very keen when it comes to electrical stuff so any help would be much appreciated. Pics below. Redneck engineering buddy!
 

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The Dude

The Dude

Eight Pointer
The package said 12v iirc. The AA battery box will allegedly achieve that 12v but it got so hot it melted the box.
 
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bigten

bigten

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
I'm not sure your batteries are producing enough amperage for the application. Those light are sucking power quick enough to drain the batteries and create your heat issue. Wire them to your truck battery and see if that problem doesn't go away. Wiring and hiding the wires is pretty simple and will function much better.
 
The Dude

The Dude

Eight Pointer
bigten said:
I'm not sure your batteries are producing enough amperage for the application. Those light are sucking power quick enough to drain the batteries and create your heat issue. Wire them to your truck battery and see if that problem doesn't go away. Wiring and hiding the wires is pretty simple and will function much better.
Click to expand...


Well I wired them to the truck battery and less than 1 min later I had smoke billowing up in my cab.

LOL!

I love trying to redneck engineer some stuff.

Everything was wired correctly (+ wires to + wires and - to - wires. Ran it to the battery and the leds turned on. Left them on and saw a bunch of smoke in the cab.

Suggestions?
 

willch

Twelve Pointer
Have you tried just one set of lights? May want to try each one independently and see if you have one bad. Definitely shouldn't be heating up that quick
 
nccatfisher

nccatfisher

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
I would search for the hot spot in the wire and then look toward the lights from there. Somewhere you have a problem, either polarity has been reversed or wires are shorted to each other. Those LEDS just don't pull enough amperage for that to be happening.
 
The Dude

The Dude

Eight Pointer
willch said:
Have you tried just one set of lights? May want to try each one independently and see if you have one bad. Definitely shouldn't be heating up that quick
Click to expand...

I didn't think they would heat up that quick either. I'm going to try each strip individually to the battery without the rocker switch. I'll post results later if it stops raining.
 
bigten

bigten

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
aznginf said:
Well I wired them to the truck battery and less than 1 min later I had smoke billowing up in my cab.

LOL!

I love trying to redneck engineer some stuff.

Everything was wired correctly (+ wires to + wires and - to - wires. Ran it to the battery and the leds turned on. Left them on and saw a bunch of smoke in the cab.

Suggestions?
Click to expand...


You definitely have an issue. There is something in your circuit drawing too much power or a short to ground. Not knowing how you have them wired together leaves me without a recommendation. Checking them individually will be your best action. If that checks out, make sure polarity connections are correct for the strips.
 
The Dude

The Dude

Eight Pointer
Who'dve thunk that a quick Google search and following a simple wiring diagram would get it working with no issues?

on_off_toggle_switch_diagram.jpg
20170103_194340.jpg
 
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The Dude

The Dude

Eight Pointer
It was redneck engineering at its finest! At least now I know how to start a fire using reverse polarity.
 
bigten

bigten

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
aznginf said:
It was redneck engineering at its finest! At least now I know how to start a fire using reverse polarity.
Click to expand...

:)
Red is positive +
Black is ground -
UNLESS you're dealing with an import, then that's out the w I ndow...
Glad you got it figured out.
 
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