help! LED nightlight project

[coi]

i have this wall thing, like a frame and i want to put some led's on it and serve as a nightlight. thought it was a simple task. bought some leds

(10PCS 12V DC 10mm 60,000mcd SUPER BRIGHT AMBER LED 6 inch (~15cm) cable PRE-WIRED (RESISTORS BULID IN) worked for 6V- 15V)

bought 2 types of night light. one using leds and the other using a 120v 4w bulb.

i was thinkin of hacking it and use my leds that i bought so i can light up my frame. my problem is ive got no idea where to start. i thought it was as simple as wiring up my new leds to the circuit and its done. i tried hooking it up with to the one that uses bulb, it got toasted as expected. hehe.. then i hooked it up to the one that uses led but it dosnt light up... i guess the power thats driving the leds was not enough coz the led it uses are the tiny square ones.. a whole lot smaller than the one i bought.

need some advise guys....

here are pics of my stuff....

[img]http://www.flickr.com/photos/8654094@N03/528548287/[/img]
[img]http://www.flickr.com/photos/8654094@N03/528548273/[/img]
[img]http://www.flickr.com/photos/8654094@N03/528544081/[/img]
[img]http://www.flickr.com/photos/8654094@N03/528541939/[/img]
[img]http://www.flickr.com/photos/8654094@N03/528539723/[/img]
[img]http://www.flickr.com/photos/8654094@N03/528537169/[/img]
[img]http://www.flickr.com/photos/8654094@N03/527560178/[/img]
[img]http://www.flickr.com/photos/8654094@N03/527560168/[/img]
[img]http://www.flickr.com/photos/8654094@N03/527560134/[/img]
[img]http://www.flickr.com/photos/8654094@N03/527560130/[/img]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8654094@N03/

hope you guys can help... thanks!!

[precisewitem]

I'm sure there is a way that you can hack the LED and the bulb nightlights in order to power the LEDs to light the frame. I think a much easier and more appropriate thing to do would be to simply add a battery compartment in back of the frame or where ever to power the LEDs.

The LEDs that you have wired into the nightlights previously are most likely blown and will no longer work. this is because eletrical outlets in the wall put out something like 120 Volts at 15- 20 Amps in the US and 240 volts at 15-20 Amps if you live in the UK. The LEDs need 12 Volts DC.

I noticed you say they can operate at a range of 6 to 15V, but they are prewired with a resistor and that resistor is meant for 12V operation. If you supply a different voltage it changes the equation and therefore the specifications for the resistor change as well. I'm not positive, because there is a resistor involved, that the LEDs you have wired already won't work. Depending on where in the nightlight you wired too, you could have supplied 120 or 240 Volts to a resistor meant for 12 Volts = torched LEDs.

If you decide to use batteries as I have suggested you have several choices as to how to assort them. AA AAA AAAA C D batteries all supply 1.5V. The bigger the battery, the longer it lasts (in most cases). So, if you are going to use a battery from this group I would go bigger not smaller.

Lantern batteries provide an extreemly long charge life when compared to 1.5V batteries. You would need two lantern cells as they are 6 Volts each. They are a larger / more expensive battery, but they last a long time.

My suggestion would be to purchase some rechargable batteries for this application as those LEDs seem to be power hungry. Your best bet would be C. AA will work as well. You will need 8 total batteries as they are 1.5 Volts each. Along with the batteries get some battery holders / bays with terminals to wire to. Most AA bays I've seen only hold two batteries at a time so you may need to buy 4 of these, they are cheap though.

Wire all positive terminals from the individual bays together and wire all negative terminals togetherand you have your power source.

[coi]

i was thinkin of goin for bateries too coz it looks a lot cooler with out plugs runnin from it.. its a lot simplier to use batteries but my problem is the photo cell that will enable the leds to serve as a nightlight. im not familiar with it thats why i tried to hack an led nightlight but im having problems to where will i attach the leds? took some pictures of the circuit board, hope someone can pin-point to where will i connect the leds or to what part of it will i replace for the leds to work. thanks!

[Peter3D]

precisewitem wrote :

Wire all positive terminals from the individual bays together and wire all negative terminals togetherand you have your power source.

That's 8 x 1.5 V in parallel. This still equals 1.5 Volt (with a higher amperage) and thus won't work. . .

[coi]

can you explain further... this is my first time... im not good with electronics.. thanks