LED assistance desired, Just a little project Options

[Bigmeanbulldog55]

I'm doing a little project for my Animal Training class and I'm having some problems with my LED set up. I've got some regular Radio Shack brand LEDs, model 276-1622. The power source is 4 AAA batteries putting out about 6.4 volts (volt meter measured). I'm only lighting one LED at a time with the 6.4 volts. I've done this twice now. The light flashes and then won't light again. Am I really blowing these things with little little voltage? I don't understand because I had some hooked up in my car running the 13-14 volts between the 2, and they worked just fine. They were a different brand though. What do I need to make this work?

[vsideboy]

I would say that yes you are blowing them mate.

Usually LED's are only 3volt max so banging 6v will blow it.

You would need a resistor before the LED to drop the voltage beforehand.

This is a site that I used when I was playing with LED's.

http://led.linear1.org/led.wiz

you put the source voltage, the LED details and number of LED's to use and it shows you what resistor you will need.

You should be able to get the LED details from the place you bought them, otherwise check on ebay or something as theres always tons on there with the respective details.
The mcd value relates to the max brightness, e.g. red usually max at 7,000 - 10,000 whereas white or blue can go to 22,000.

hope it helps mate. lucky they arent too expensive eh, when you blow them all when learning haha. I have done the same though mate, had one shatter into pieces when I accidentally wired it direct to car battery!