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What happens if an LED is connected in reverse?
When a LED is included in a circuit that applies a reverse voltage that exceeds the reverse breakdown, a reverse current can flow and the LED might be destroyed.
What is a reverse polarity LED?
What is reverse polarity? Reverse polarity, in our case, typically happens during installation. When the wires of the LED Neon Flex fixture are not connected to the proper ports in the decoder, or to the proper wires of the power supply, reverse polarity occurs. You could say the connection of the wires is “backwards”.
What was the LED break down voltage and current?
A red LED typically drops around 1.7 to 2.0 volts, but since both voltage drop and light frequency increase with band gap, a blue LED may drop around 3 to 3.3 volts.
When is a led exposed to reverse voltage?
The typical situation where LEDs are exposed to reverse voltage is when they are operated in a multiplexed configuration- they will see up to the supply voltage in reverse. It’s not really a good idea for efficiency to make the supply voltage much higher than the sum of the series LED forward voltages (often, but not always, just one LED is used).
Why do I need a parallel power supply for my LEDs?
Think of a parallel connection as each 10-20ft section of your LED lights running independently back to the power supply rather than linking them in a single series. Parallel connections will always give you the most even and consistent lighting output due to less voltage drop with less serial connections.
Can a LED strip be connected to more than one power supply?
If you’re trying to connect more than one LED strip segment to a single power supply, you may suddenly realize that you could connect the first segment to the second segment in “series” or connect to two segments independently to the same power supply. Generally, “series” will be more straightforward, but may lead to some issues with voltage drop.
What should be the supply voltage of a series led?
It’s not really a good idea for efficiency to make the supply voltage much higher than the sum of the series LED forward voltages (often, but not always, just one LED is used). For example, you might use 5V for a single 2-3V LED array, or 12V for an array of series strings with 6-9V per string.