my first time trying to buy leds ..so im on ebay looking for white 5mm leds and theres a number like...10000mcd ..what does this mean?

 

That would be how bright the LEDs are. If you are doing your interor over I would stick with leds around 3000-6000 mcd after that your gonna need to put on sun glasses to open your window at night

 

thank goodness i asked cuz i was looking at 20000mcd...thanks man

 

sorry, but since this is kinda a n00b LED thread, (which I am when it comes to LED's so don't hate), but how do you tack them on? wo you just need LED's and resistors? anything else for a swap?

 

Look in the group deals section or do a member search for org member wariow , he's got a group deal through a guy that sells on eBay where you get them for cheaper than listed on Ebay and you get the resistors with them. I think it's like 50 for about $14 shipped.

 

Ebay has some good deals on LEDs. 5000 Mcd is fairly bright, 10000 is Bright and 20000 will be like one of those bright LED flash lights they sell in stores.
For a 12 volt system you probably want to solder on a 500-800 ohm resistor depending on how bright you want it. Try it out with aligator clips and a battery to see what you like best. Once you've soldered a resistor to the LED of your choice you can substitue it directly for any normal light bulb. Just make sure the long lead comign out of the LED goes to the positive power lead. (LEDs only work in one direction)

 

http://www.petah.org/maxima/maxima.htm

here is Warrios write up on installing LEDs.