How many lights can I hook up to a battery

MarkJohnston

10 kW
Joined
Mar 25, 2021
Messages
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What's the limit to the number of lights I can hook up directly to my battery without frying the controller? I just fried an LCD with a power guzzling motorcycle light.

But I want to hook up a massive LED string, and the same guzzling light. Plus a motorcycle light, rear. :twisted:

I just mean sharing the voltage/amps/watts going straight into the controller for lights and maybe a USB phone charger.
 
Are you hooking up the lights to the battery (title) or the lcd (post) ?

You can hook as many lights and load up the battery as much as you want, how long the light shines until the battery is drained or battery bms lvc kicks in is the other question.
 
markz said:
Are you hooking up the lights to the battery (title) or the lcd (post) ?

You can hook as many lights and load up the battery as much as you want, how long the light shines until the battery is drained or battery bms lvc kicks in is the other question.

BATTERY. thanks markz.
 
I'm going to hook up a buck down converter inline from battery to controller. I need 12v to run LED 6 foot strip from Amazon. I have this crazy splitter I got in Ali baba. It's a terminal connector you screw in and can plug tons of wires into.
 
I power all assessories (including lights) using a 12V 5A buck converter.
That will get me about 50 watts of total power, which is much more than a 12V 6 foot LED wire strip will need.
I run two spotlights, a 12V cooling fan for battery/electronics box, and USB charger port.
BMS will never trip due to over-current draw. BMS will eventually kick in due to battery depletion (example: 10 hours for 100% charged 48V 10AH pack).
 
I can't take credit as it's been said before but you can hook 4 12v lights up in series to 48 or 52v battery so no buck converter is needed. Obviously they are all on or off together but very simple and only needs one loop of wire.
 
BKGuy said:
I can't take credit as it's been said before but you can hook 4 12v lights up in series to 48 or 52v battery so no buck converter is needed. Obviously they are all on or off together but very simple and only needs one loop of wire.

If they are incandescent lights, then that's a lot of wasted power compared to LEDs. If they are LEDs, then that's 4 buck converters, built into the LED drivers.
 
E-HP said:
BKGuy said:
I can't take credit as it's been said before but you can hook 4 12v lights up in series to 48 or 52v battery so no buck converter is needed. Obviously they are all on or off together but very simple and only needs one loop of wire.

If they are incandescent lights, then that's a lot of wasted power compared to LEDs. If they are LEDs, then that's 4 buck converters, built into the LED drivers.
Old thread, but dropping a technical note:

If they are 12v LEDs that series three (or more in some cases) LEDs with a simple dropping resistor, then there arent' any converters in them. I've used a number of such LEDs, including all the original striplighting on the SB Cruiser trike.

(the new turnsignal / marker strips on it have active electronics, however)
 
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