66 dart LED prototype working for now

About the controller. I use Atmel AVR, for your application the tiny series may be a good choice. Raw PWM sets a duty cycle to provide an average voltage. This works well for motors and solenoids, however will not work well for LEDs. The LED current vs voltage is very sensitive to voltage. A small increase in voltage creates a large increase in current. The circuit needs to be designed to provide good resolution for the desired current range. I have good ideas how to make the control work correctly.

Your recent post suggests the range from a few to 70 mA. This range should be easy to do. I also need to consider how the LEDs are connected in strings of series and perhaps parallel. It may be necessary to to provide separate control for each series string.


hmm ok I have on one type of led's (the full version)
9 rows of 4 led's which work as both turn (dimmed still regulated 12volt)and brake (full regulated)12 volt.

and for the C ring version which I'm leaning toward I have
5 outer rows of 4 led's (12volt regulated) set to 4 Ma and
7 rows of 4 led's for the turn and brake function. set to 50ma (12volt regulated)


I'm not overdriving the led's and hope this will give the led's a safety margine when the temp get into the 100's down here in florida
I have had the full setup running in that type of weather and forgot to turn then off for the night (in full brake light mode@50ma)and they didn't lose any led's or even raise more than a degree or 2 for a 35 hour run but i haven't tested the C ring , but I expect even better results since I etched the boards for the largest copper pad that would fit in the design and huge (for electronic's) traces for extra heat sinking.

I am using the Sharp pq12rd21 low drop out regulator for voltage stability
I actually solder it inline up near the light switch. to regulate both front and rear tail light and in the brake light line