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Can I run 12 volt LED's from a single battery on my MEP802?

ECS

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I have some 12 volt LED flood lights I would like to hook up to my 24 volt MEP802.

Can I hook them up to a single battery and ground to the same battery?

The generator uses two 12 volt batteries in series.

Can I run wires to one of these both ground and positive to run some 12 volt lights?

or would that cause some problem that I have not thought of?
 

2Pbfeet

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If you are using more than one at a time, hooking two in series gives you a 24V LED system. But as @Evvy Fesler points out many have a pretty wide acceptance voltage.

If you can, I would really try to avoid using just one battery of a two battery 24V system. It throws the battery charging out, and your batteries are likely not to last as long.

All the best,

2Pbfeet
 

Farmitall

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Put a 500 ohm 5 watt resistor in series with the + of each 12v light and use a 24v input.

Tapping between batteries for 12v will work but is not a great idea as posted above.

I would also check the operating voltage range of the lights.....most will operate from 10v to 30v +-
 

fb40dash5

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I would also check the operating voltage range of the lights.....most will operate from 10v to 30v +-
This, but definitely check.

I gad a hard time finding 24v/multi-volt 194 bulbs for gauge backlights. Ended up just buying a bag of them (that claimed 12v) from the 'zon. Thought I was in business, they did light up (very well!) but after about 2 minutes the magic smoke came out.
 

Farmitall

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This, but definitely check.

I gad a hard time finding 24v/multi-volt 194 bulbs for gauge backlights. Ended up just buying a bag of them (that claimed 12v) from the 'zon. Thought I was in business, they did light up (very well!) but after about 2 minutes the magic smoke came out.
Amazon.com : 24v 194 bulb


Plenty to choose from here.

If I were going to replace them, I would go with the LEDs. Brighter, whiter light and no filament to subject to vibration.
 

fb40dash5

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Amazon.com : 24v 194 bulb


Plenty to choose from here.
Yes, there are plenty of search results. Problem is, most of them aren't 24V, and they say as much.

I wish they had functional filtering, but it seems at odds with letting anyone & their brother hawk Chineseum willy-nilly using imaginary brand names.

Edit: I bought some that claimed to be 24V... bag of 30 for like $6. 1st pair lasted about 30 seconds. I stuck about 6 more in before I got bored, one literally lit up for a split sec & was done. One pair made it maybe 2 minutes... dunno, walked away to grab a wrench, when I came back both were burnt out. 😂
 
Last edited:

2Pbfeet

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Yes, there are plenty of search results. Problem is, most of them aren't 24V, and they say as much.

I wish they had functional filtering, but it seems at odds with letting anyone & their brother hawk Chineseum willy-nilly using imaginary brand names.
I hate the Amazon search function for this exact reason.

FWIW: I have better luck going to my favorite search engine and searching
"24v" "1820" site:amazon.com​
and then picking through the product listings that at least claim to be 24V.

I use the same strategy when trying to find unusual parts like odd relays, starters, or temperature sensors.

All the best,

2Pbfeet
 

Coug

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This is a common question over on the HMMWV forums, and the answer is usually "so you want to destroy your batteries?"
Even a small draw on only one of the batteries will cause a charge imbalance. In the short term it wouldn't really do much, but as time goes on the upper battery in series will become overcharged, and the lower battery that has the lights attacked will never fully charge. If you let it go long enough you can cook the upper battery, while sulfating the lower battery..

If you really want to run something off of the batteries that is 12V, you need to get a 24-12V converter like the Orion 70 amp.

It's also a good idea to go in and charge the batteries individually with a 12V charger every so often as well, to balance the charge in them, even if you aren't hooking anything up to just one of them.
 

ECS

Member
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Location
Florida
Put a 500 ohm 5 watt resistor in series with the + of each 12v light and use a 24v input.

Tapping between batteries for 12v will work but is not a great idea as posted above.

I would also check the operating voltage range of the lights.....most will operate from 10v to 30v +-

Thanks for all the replies.

These ones I have say 12 volts.. so I'm going to use the resistors and hook them up power to frame ground.
 

Chainbreaker

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You'll want to switch the power to the buck converter to turn the LEDs on and off. That way the idle current drain of the buck converter won't draw down your batteries when the LEDs are off.
A way to accomplish that might be to use a "Batter Disconnect Switch" between the 2 batteries ( + to - batt terminals). That is... unless you are using a 24 VDC Battery Charger/Maintainer on your genset batteries.
 
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