Hi guys, i have a bit of a problem, my knowledge of electronics is very limited, first time i've tried it, though theres a slight problem..

I have 3 leds in one line (LED-LED-LED-Resistor) i've done it with a Resistor Per LED too but the outcome is the same, basically the First led is brighter than the rest, or the first two leds are brighter than the last.. although the ship will only be seen from one side i'd prefer to have all LEDs working the same, any ideas why this is happening?

Hi Admiral

It sounds like what you're doing is wiring the LEDs in series whereas what you need to do is wire them in parallel. You need two wires, one for the positive and one for the negative. All the positive legs on the LEDs go on the positive wire and all the neg legs go to the neg. The resistor can go on either wire although most stick it on the positive by convention. What happens then is the current is evenly divided between all the LEDs so they all light up by the same amount.
LEDs have a voltage drop of a couple of volts across their legs, this is what actually powers them, the way you have them in series, each LED is taking those 2v from the next one down the wire so they will get progressively dimmer the further away from the positive terminal they are.

I'll try and draw up a quick pic and attach here to show it better.


Best of Luck

Robin