Power Wheels Project:In over my head... HELP!

[openingact]

So my son's 3 year old birthday is this weekend and we ended up picking up a motorized ride-on toy. It's a sports car design and as a little added flare I I'm trying to hook up some LED strip lighting to it. Seemed easy enough... Plan is simply to put the LEDS under the car, and run it to a rocker switch on the dash, then put wires along the channel to the back of the car the rest of the wires and then hooking it up directly to the battery. However I'm getting hung up on a few parts.

1. The car I got him runs on a 16v battery. The switch and LEDS got are for 12v. I understand that I'll need a resistor, but I keep and going in circles with the ohms formula trying to determine the size I need. Can anyone please help me come up with a resistor size.

2. All the current wires in the car are 14 gauge wires, however the ones that are coming off of the LED Strip lighting are 22. Would I run 14 g into the resistor and then into the switch, and then from there run 22 from the switch to match up with those on the light?

I'm sure this is very novice to a certain point, but I didn't realize that I was over my head until I melted some wires and killed a switch. None of which were the stock ones on the car thankfully.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

-Chris

 

[k7elp60]

So my son's 3 year old birthday is this weekend and we ended up picking up a motorized ride-on toy. It's a sports car design and as a little added flare I I'm trying to hook up some LED strip lighting to it. Seemed easy enough... Plan is simply to put the LEDS under the car, and run it to a rocker switch on the dash, then put wires along the channel to the back of the car the rest of the wires and then hooking it up directly to the battery. However I'm getting hung up on a few parts.

1. The car I got him runs on a 16v battery. The switch and LEDS got are for 12v. I understand that I'll need a resistor, but I keep and going in circles with the ohms formula trying to determine the size I need. Can anyone please help me come up with a resistor size.


2. All the current wires in the car are 14 gauge wires, however the ones that are coming off of the LED Strip lighting are 22. Would I run 14 g into the resistor and then into the switch, and then from there run 22 from the switch to match up with those on the light?

I'm sure this is very novice to a certain point, but I didn't realize that I was over my head until I melted some wires and killed a switch. None of which were the stock ones on the car thankfully.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

-Chris

Can you give us some spec's on the LED strips. Generally they have led's in series with a small resistor and then those are in parallel. How may groups of series are you using , or can up post a picture of a small section of the strip? You can use #22 wire to and from the resistor.
I just thought of a solution that does not use a resistor. It requires more parts but will work actually better. If you have a Radio Shack store near buy 5 ea of part # 276-1101. It is a diode.
You put 5 in series and they will drop the voltage from 16V to 12V for the Led's These devices are small tubular shaped, black with a silver band. The silver band end goes to the LED's and the other end goes to the switch. Like this + 0f battery to switch, diode,diode,diode,diode,diode,+ of LED's. The negative of the LED's can be connected directly to the negative of the battery.

 

[Misterbenn]

Don't panic, we'll sort you out.

The key question to this will be what are the LEDs. If you could provide a URL or datasheet then we'll be able to help you out much faster.

I think the best design would need a 12V regulator as the battery voltage could dip quite a lot when its discharged. However to keep it simple we can do an adequate design with just a resistor.

 

[dr pepper]

Measure the battery voltage if you can, 16v is an odd voltage (if its a nimh or lipo then it could be 16v), it might well be a usual 12v lead acid, 16v would be the absolute maximum.

 

[ChrisP58]

Like dr pepper said, 16V is unlikely for the actual battery, but it is a reasonable voltage to see on a wall adapter for charging a 12V SLA battery.

So I expect that the internal operating voltage is a nominal 12V. The typical DC voltage in a car ranges from ~8V (cranking the starter motor) to ~14.2 (engine running with a full battery.) So, if the LEDs are intended to be used in an automotive environment, the'll probably be OK to use them just as they are.

As for the wire size. you choose the wire size based on the current that flows in each individual circuit. The motor in the toy car draws much more current than your LEDs will so 14AWG was chosen. But 22awg should be OK for all of your LED wiring. I would recommend putting a 1Amp fuse where the LED positive wire connects to the battery terminal though.

 

[crosslakeguy]

most of the motorized stuff is 24v..... but if indeed 16v no matter. I also recommend a 12v regulator it is a 7812 , 3 terminals. power ground and 12v output, your source can be up to 36v. radioshack probly still has them. you probly wont need a heatsink but no matter what method you go with absolutely use a fuse right where you tap into power source. the blue auto crimp on connectors work ok put over wire insert wire and drive spade down then close it together...... Please make sure you fuse it, a 2 amp should be enough..... those batteries WILL start a fire if shorted!!!!!!!!!

 

[audioguru]

I looked at Battery For Power Wheels in Google and found that most are 12V lead acid like in a real car except they are smaller.
So simply connect each string of LEDs to a fuse and switch in series with the battery.