Custom LED tail light help

[Sirius815]

Disconnect one lead from your pot, then measure (in ohms) across where the one lead was and where the other lead still is. Don't worry, you didn't do anything wrong at all! Didn't mean to confuse you, but to measure resistance you need to at minimum disconnect one side of what you are measuring from the circuit.

I'm looking at your circuit again (the photos from your last post) and it looks like you have all three legs of the pot wired into the circuit? You should only have two...one of the outers and the inside one... Can't tell too well from the picture.

 

[Loki]

Yes i have the middle wired up to the resistor. I have it wired just as it was shown in the top circuit. Is this bad? It works and thats what i want! lol.
EDIT: nvm

 

[Sirius815]

The middle is correct. I was just making sure that only one of the outside leads is connected, not BOTH. It *looks* like all three leads are connected <---which is wrong...

 

[Loki]

Measured my pot by taking the red wire off and measuring between it and the bottom (according to picture) and got 5k.. and when i measure top and middle i get 916ohms. Im going to assume that the 916 ohms is what i have the pot set to. Correct?

And are you saying all 3 leads on the pot shouldnt be connected? They are, and i thought that was wrong (just like a switch) but when the circuit worked i figured i did it right. What do you suggest?

 

[Sirius815]

Um...ONE of the outside leads needs to be connected to R1 and the ADJ part of the LM (refer to the circuit diagram in your post above).

The middle should be connected to ground.

The other outside lead is left disconnected.

Measure resistance between the connected and the ground lead after you adjust the potentiometer for the brightness you need.

 

[Loki]

Ok ill fix that. What should i have my c2 connected to. The circuit shows 3 outputs. Vin, Vout, and unlabeled one. Of course GND also but thats a given and is labeled. The bottom right. Do i not connect it to anything?

 

[Sirius815]

Vin is from your source (ie the bike)
Vout goes to the positive side of the LEDs
The bottom right is the negative side of the LEDs and is connected to the ground (negative of the battery/bike chassis)

C2 is connected to ground.

 

[Loki]

Im sorry im making this such a big deal with my lack of knowledge. Im going to go buy a breadboard and do some testing like that. Still kinda hard to relate circuits on paper with proper built circuits for me sometimes.

 

[Sirius815]

Practice makes perfect! Keep it up.

EDIT: It is infinitely easier when somebody is there to teach you. I do commend you for powering through it. [up]

 

[Loki]

Im still having trouble wiring it up.