Battery powered led lights HELP! PLEASE

[ttolli]

I have been studying and working on a battery powered led light as big as I can make it has 2 9v battery compartments in the back of the frames with 2 on/off switches. The milling of the project is fine. When i put the batteries in and I let both burn until they went out ( which was about 135 hrs , continous) They lit up the carving fine. My problem is if I put the batteries in and do not turn the switches on, the batterries start getting warm immediately and the batterries get drained within minutes so they won't even light up when needed. I am sure that there is someting wrong with the wiring. but they burn fine as long as you leave them on. It is like when the switch is off the batterry is put under a strong load which drains it fast. I would appreciate any and all help. I have everything hooked + to + and - to - . I painted the frames of this with chalkboard paint so that the football team could sign it with chalk and I am going to give it to my grandson who is a freshman starter this year.
Thanks,
Tim

[zac]

Hi Tim,
That should not happen.
Can you post a wiring diagram of how you wired the circuit.
Maybe some "bright" forum members can help out.
Wayne

[LeeWills]

If you are wiring serial, it should be + to -.
I don't quite understand the 2 switches and the 2 batteries.
For the led lightstrips, you want at the most 12 volts not 18 volts. 2* 9 = 18.
Why the circular wiring?
Cheers
Lee

[basecircle]

First nice Job on the carving.As for the wiring Something is not correctly wired.Where you always have a complete circut.(sucks the life otta the batteries)I would go with one battery (9v) and one switch.The leds will light just fine.As Wolffie stated the leds run with 12v.give it a shot. Basecircle

[ttolli]

I rewired the lights . I originally had the + from the battery snap and the + for the lights on one side of the switch and the 2 - 's on the other side. After careful consideration I think the switch was more of a resistor than a switch. I took the 2 +'s and hooked one on each side of the switch and tied the 2 -"s together, they seem to work fine. The reason for the 2 batteries is that 1 could run the lights on one side and one could run the other, the batteries are not tied together. I thought it might be a strain just to have 1 battery and would cause it to have to be changed very often. Since this is just a prototype I think I will do the next one a little different. Thanks for all your help.
Stay Warm,
Tim

[CFIGlenn]

Your original wiring by-passed the switch completely and was a dead short until you shut the switch OFF and removed the short. That is why the batteries were draining when you had the switch ON, not off. The switch should always be inline or "in Series" with your power source so it controls the power. I'll attach a drawing of what you did and how it's supposed to be.

FIY: And for the record, LEDs don't run off of 12V or even 5V with out a resistor lowering the voltage to 1.9V - 2.4V., at 12V they will just pop after a quick flash.

[LeeWills]

FIY: And for the record, LEDs don't run off of 12V or even 5V with out a resistor lowering the voltage to 1.9V - 2.4V., at 12V they will just pop after a quick flash.

Oh yes they do,

21.5'' LED LIGHT BAR 40 x 3W 120w 12V 24VWORK LAMP off road ALLOY LIGHT BAR 4WD 9. (I have this one on my Nissan Patrol 4WD)
you can have a 12V transformer

KDQ7 AC/DC 12V POWER ADAPTER LED POWER SUPPLY TRANSFORMER ADAPTOR 2A SCA-1368
On the 12V light strips

These can be cut to the length you desire.
You can use the transformer, a 12 V battery or as I do, a 9V battery.
The 9 V doesn't last as long as the 12 V but are easier to fit.
Regards
LW

[JuniorBirdMan]

FIY: And for the record, LEDs don't run off of 12V or even 5V with out a resistor lowering the voltage to 1.9V - 2.4V., at 12V they will just pop after a quick flash.

Oh yes they do,

You normally can't see them, but resistors are used to lower the voltage to something in the 2-volt range despite the fact that your power source is something much higher.

[ttolli]

Thanks for the info,
Tim

[LeeWills]

"LeeWills,
Oh yes they do"

You normally can't see them, but resistors are used to lower the voltage to something in the 2-volt range despite the fact that your power source is something much higher.

Whatever you say, it is not really that important as long as one knows what power source to use.
LW