question on LED

[bent]

Hello !   

I need to understand something about LED !   

I'm looking to build something like the COLORBLAZE 72 http://www.colorkinetics.com/ls/rgb/colorblaze/  but i dont know wich type of LED to use , and how to calculated everything... The unit is using total 3,7A ... 216 LED total...

Each chanel on my dmx decoder can drive 3A 36w ( 12vdc).... My question is about choosing the good LED's and how to connect them ( parrallel or in serie) ....

if i put in series , if each LED have a drop of 0,7v , i can only put about 16 LED ... but how do you calculated the WATT ?

Bent

[Gurner]

From your line of questioning, it sounds like you might be biting off a bit more than is chewable.

Firstly, an LED doesn't drop 0.7V...depending on the colour it'll drop somewhere between 2V (red) & 3.4V (white oe blue)

So if you've only 12V available, you could string 5 red leds in series with a current limiting resistor....for blue LEDS about 3 leds in series.

Re calculating watts....that is going to depend very much on your fincal choice of LED (and what the current rating of the LEDS re) ...looking at the product you are going to emulate I doubt many here (a guitar stompbox forum) that will have had much contact with such large LEDs.... I reckon you'd be better off asking somewhere like this....   http://www.candlepowerforums.com/