LED & Resistor Help for interior buttons

[DrunkPenguin]

I know this gets asked alot but the search didnt help me much on which OHM resistor to use. I am replacing the tiny leds inside the various buttons of my eclipse, cruise, ac, mirror controls, etc. i changed a couple using 3mm leds with 100ohm resistors and they look great, but somebody told me 100ohm is too strong for these leds and they will likely burn out quick. they recommended 470ohm for a 12 volt system but when i tried this the leds barely even light up.

so i have 2 questions..

1) for those who did this.. what ohm resistor did you use and did they ever blow?

2) does anyone know the voltage coming into the lights for these buttons? its it 12v or less?


Thanks guys, this is my first post btw.

Johnny

 

[sjgYFZ200]

Not sure about that, but update your car profile

 

[DrunkPenguin]

ya ya ya ill get to the profile part


so i got a multimeter and it is 12v. a 470ohm resister is just way to dim but a 330 lights up pretty good. so i guess thats what ill use and cross my fingers.



Johnny

 

[ClevSilverEclip]

OK, I confess, I'm a flashaholic --> a flashlight collector.

You don't even wanna know how much I've spent on flashlights. And yes, there are "custom," one-off flashlights and "high-end" flashlights, as well as flashlight "tuners" out there.



Some resources for ya --

This is a great read, and ESSENTIAL for beginners:

http://www.kpsec.freeuk.com/components/led.htm

And the following is a great utility:

http://linear1.org/ckts/led.php

Now, if I can just hook up SureFires for my headlights............

-A