Wiring Multiple Lights, Help Needed

[Jeff]

I'm working a LED project light and am using these little lights. 18 of them to be exact. They're to be connected together into one source.

Whats the best way to connect them? Solder? Taps? Bullets?

 

[8mpg]

Individual LEDs? Id solder them.

 

[Jeff]

forgot to include a pic...

 

[cdestuck]

Wire nuts, has worked for decades

 

[Jeff]

Here's a mock-up of my project.

 

[jfrey123]

Wire that small I’d solder them. Or at least braid them together NASA style and then heat shrink them. Taps and crimps on wire that small won’t hold on vehicle vibration. And I hate wire nuts on automotive due to vibration too, as well as water penetration for something like lights in a grill.

 

[Platonic Solid]

Am I the only one who doesn't see any pictures?

 

[Jeff]

Am I the only one who doesn't see any pictures?

No, I just realized it an Imgur thing where pics with them won't post on GJ.

 

[fasteddie]

Definitely solder the leads and I would encapsulate the leads all the way up the the base of the LEDs in silicone or something similar, unless you can enclose the entire back of the unit in a waterproof enclosure.

 

[Jeff]

Definitely solder the leads and I would encapsulate the leads all the way up the the base of the LEDs in silicone or something similar, unless you can enclose the entire back of the unit in a waterproof enclosure.

The LED's are sealed. My only concern with solder is replacement if only a light here or there goes bad.

The lights:

 

[CJ7VFR]

How long are the wire leads coming out of each LED to where you want the ends mounted?

If you can run the leads from each LED to some type of PC board so that they are all together, then you could easily solder them to the board. Doing it this way would allow you replace any burned out LED's by simply de-soldering the bad one and soldering in a new one.

You can buy the small PC boards from electric places like Digikey online. They come in a bunch of different shapes so that you can cut them down to exactly the size you need.

They also sell small enclosures that you can put them into, which would make it easier to mount behind the grill.

Here is an example of a simple PC board from Digikey. You can see that you can solder a bunch of wires or components into the copper busbar areas and have them all connected. Plus you can cut the board down to whatever size you need. This small board is about $6.00.

Jim

 

[Jeff]

These lights create their own mount with the rubber bezel. Drill a 3/4" hole, mount bezel, add trim ring, then insert light from front. Each side of the grill is 18" x 2".

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

Automotive? Correctly sized bare crimps and adhesive heatshrink. Something to think about; How many soldered joints have you seen in OEM vehicles?