xbox 1 lighting question

[Jammin0]

I'm trying to wire up the lighting for my xbox pedestal and am wondering if anyone has ever worked out a solution before.  Originally I thought I would just tap into the HardDrive molex connector for a +5V line and a +12V supply.  I tried the 12V supply last night and burned out a few 1W LEDs.  I don't think they liked it.  I'm not really sure what happened except that I think it must have had a current spike right when I turned it on.  Not really sure though since little kids have been adding LEDs that can handle a lot less current for a long time.

Anyway, I think I decided on using the 5V line to switch a relay that turns on a current regulated 12V source which is made for LEDs.  I'm not sure which relay to use or what the current rating should be.  I wouldn't imagine that the 5V supply off of the xbox has that much current, I would guess that it is at most .5A but I have no idea.

Any suggestions?

[BobA]

Leds have to have a current limiting resistor in series with them or they will burn out.  These can either be built in or have to be added to the Led depending on what you have.   There are lots of LED resistor calculators available on the internet.   High current Leds can also be fed by a constant current supply which can be purchased separately.

[Jammin0]

Thanks for the response.  Yeah, the conclusion that I came to was to simply run them from a constant current source vs. the xbox with resistors.  Mainly  I don't want to steal that much power from the xbox power supply, search as I might I haven't been able to find any detailed specs about how much extra wattage it might have.  Since it is a console my guess is that it has been trimmed down to be barely sufficient for what it needs so no need to steal the extra 5W for LEDs.  

I'm still baffled as to why when testing my circuit 2 of the lights blew.  I've blown led's before and even at way too high of a current they usually go up in a puff of smoke.  These guys flashed barely enough to even see them and then were dead, no heat, nothing else.  I'm thinking there must have been a short somewhere, probably shorted to my heatsink.

I was able to find an LED driver for $3.30http://www.dealextreme.com/p/5w-power-driver-for-led-light-bulb-ac-85-265v-82745, the only bad thing is that it is coming from china so 2-3 weeks air post.  Oh well, I can wire everything up and use my bench supply for the time being to get everything dialed in.  I'll use a relay from the +5V rail on the xbox to power on and off the LED driver when the xbox is running.

[BurgerKingDiamond]

yeah man, you definitely don't want to give 12V to LEDs. Most are designed for like 3.5V or lower I think depending on the color.

Just pick up 5V from the xbox somewhere and stick a 220Ohm resister in series with your LED to avoid burning it out.

[Jammin0]

Voltage doesn't really matter that much with LEDs actually.  You could give the LED 30V as long as you limit the current to it.  For my application I am running the LEDs in series which means that for each additional LED you need at least that much more voltage to get the diode to light up.  I ended up giving my array of 5 LEDs about 22V.  If you know how to read current with your multimeter, here is an experiment so that you can see what I'm talking about:
Take 5v and hook up an LED like you mentioned with a resistor, now put the multimeter in series with the LED and you should be able to read the current, you'll know your reading it when you light lights up, then you will get a reading at the same time.  If you don't know what it means to hook it up in series then google it first, likewise with how to read current on your multimeter.  Finally change your multimeter back to read DC voltage and put one end on the positive line of your source 5v while putting the other end on your negative line with the resistor attached.  How much voltage do you get?  Should still be right at 5v.  That is the long explanation to what a CURRENT limiting resistor does.

[northerngames]

I had a clear blue xcm running a 80mm cc light with inverter and around 60 led's.

ran till I sold it and probably still today.

most common leds for xbox's were 3.3V constant draw max anything over they die faster or on the spot period.

[Jammin0]

Not sure how else to explain this so that it makes sense.  By no means am I an expert at electronics but I know my way around LEDs.  Here's a decent article about why you shouldn't overrun LEDs.
http://led.linear1.org/why-do-i-need-a-resistor-with-an-led/1/

Anyway, like I said, voltage doesn't matter as much as current does.  Without any resistors and with an adequate power source, 3.2v will have about 20mA of current and you're sitting pretty.  However, as long as you have at least 3.2v and 20mA, you will be running your LEDs safely.  For example, it is possible to run an LED at 5V but 15mA and it is actually less bright then if you run it at 3.2V and 20mA.  Extra voltage doesn't matter if you are able to bring the current down using a resistor.  Or run the LEDs in series to bring down the total current given to each LED.  Usually, even if you have the exact right voltage it is a smart idea to throw in a 1-ohm resistor at least to even out the current for any spikes that you might experience in voltage.

[northerngames]

yeah I summed that up in 3 sentence's anything over and you killing them either slowly or on the spot!!

I had a 80mm cc light and 60 leds with no problems adapter etc. so I am not sure why I need to read something I have made thousands of succesfully already 

[Jammin0]

Sorry dude, I guess I wasn't really even talking to you on that one.

Just trying to keep it real for the community with a real explanation.  What you said is true but doesn't really help anyone out who doesn't understand what is going on there and I'm trying to be helpful for anyone else in the future.

I originally asked a question and started this thread and didn't get any real helpful information from the community.  I figured I would add some information since it didn't seem like this was readily available information in the forum.

Any pictures of the mod from back in the day?  60 LEDs sounds intense.  I have started using 1 and 3 watt LEDs in my projects because the price came way down on them, I can get a 1 watt LED that puts out around 100 lumens for less than a dollar.