I put a 3.7V blue LED in my security light. And it burned out twice! Both times, the LED lasted about one week. Am I doing something wrong?

ny96maxse and 1HOTMAX both put them into their security lights and when mine was still lit, mine was a lot brighter.

All three of us put in 3.7V and theirs is dimmer, but have lasted so far.

Any ideas? Suggestions?

 

Couldn't comment on the desparity between your car and the other 2 maximas...

I would imagine using a 5V LED like the ones for the switches would last longer.... but I think I recall someone blowing one of those on the security LED too...

Might have to use a resistor...

 

i swaped mine out last week and it is super bright. im using the radioshack 3.7 blue LED that i read about in the previous posts. how did you swap the bulb out? did you try to reuse the grey foam thing or just directly soldered the new bulb on?

 

I re-used the grey foam thing. But the leads are plugged directly into the +/-

I try not to solder unless necessary ... besides, if I soldered, I would have had to unsolder two times already! That would have been a pain!

 

After testing the voltage coming out of the security LED, I found out that it was around 5 volts, not stable for some reason. I put in a blue 5 volt LED that I got from RadioShack.com in Norcross, GA and this LED seems to work fine for over 3 weeks now. This LED is more blue than the one from Radio Shack. I can give you all a number if you want this one. Later.

 

If it was burning out after a week, then it was probably getting too much current through it and a 5V one probably would be the better choice. . . The other thing is that blue LEDs don't have the best relieabilty record and will burn out easier with torture than a typical LED.

 

I'll pop in a 5V one. And if it burns out ... I'll just go back to the red.

 

The voltage won't be stable because it has circuitry to make it blink. . . If the voltage was stable the light would be also. . . Just make sure to get an LED that will handle the Maximum voltage output.