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Ask an Expert Forum Need help to understand whats happening with simple led circuit?
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Need help to understand whats happening with simple led circuit?

mk1manno
mk1manno over 10 years ago

Hi had a mate ring me today said he had a circuit made with a 12 volt power supply, a led, a 220ohm resistor and a push switch to turn it on and off when testing with multimeter black lead on ground and push button not pressed so led is not lighting tested circuit with red lead first put red lead to just after resister and got 12 volts like we should then put red lead to anode of led and again got 12 volts like we should but then put red lead of meter to cathode and read 10 volts and led is on very dim when I would of though we should either get 0 volts or else 12 volts and no led on .Can someone please explain why this is to me and sorry if this is a basic question just can find this explained any where all info is with circuit running.

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  • dougw
    dougw over 10 years ago +1
    If I understand the setup correctly, it sounds like the input impedance of the meter is low enough that some current is flowing through the meter to ground - just enough current to dimly illuminate the…
  • Robert Peter Oakes
    Robert Peter Oakes over 10 years ago +1
    OK, OK, this is all speculation We know that LEDs can light dimly with very, very low current so we need to know about the multimenter being used here It is all basic ohms law, and there seems to be enough…
  • michaelwylie
    0 michaelwylie over 10 years ago

    Any chance you could draw what the setup is? I'm having difficulty imagining it.

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  • dougw
    0 dougw over 10 years ago

    If I understand the setup correctly, it sounds like the input impedance of the meter is low enough that some current is flowing through the meter to ground - just enough current to dimly illuminate the LED. If you put a fairly high resistance resistor in series with the meter, the LED will not have enough current to illuminate, but the meter may not accurately measure voltage in this configuration.

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  • michaelwylie
    0 michaelwylie over 10 years ago in reply to dougw

    That's what I thought too Doug, but I figured 10 Meg would be standard for a Voltmeter. Maybe it's really cheap?

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  • dougw
    0 dougw over 10 years ago in reply to michaelwylie

    Perhaps it is an analog meter - they can have fairly low impedance....

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  • Robert Peter Oakes
    0 Robert Peter Oakes over 10 years ago in reply to dougw

    Thats my thought too, need more info from the Poster Sean image

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  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 10 years ago in reply to dougw

    With a cheap analog Voltmeter you would expect something like 10kOhm which should prevent to reach the minimum Forward voltage of the LED however if the multimeter has some poor old leaking elco in DC mode for smoothening the DC input, filter AC components, then the said effect is very well possible.

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  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 10 years ago in reply to Former Member

    With such multimeter you should be able to see the voltage of a battery collapse a bit when measured together with a more accurate high impedant DMM

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  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 10 years ago

    LEDs light up when power is applied against the diode. So, somehow he's getting a bit

    of current in the right place, but the setup may be in reverse polarity, depending on how the LEDs are labeled. Quite frequently they are labeled backwards but correctly from a physicist's perspective. If you check a LED with a diode check, and you observe the polarity that produces a voltage drop, the opposite polarity will light the LED.

     

    I hope he's using a   constant-current DC supply.Otherwise the LEDs could be damaged!

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  • michaelwylie
    0 michaelwylie over 10 years ago in reply to Former Member

    The resistor limits the current.

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  • yagi
    0 yagi over 10 years ago

    Sounds to me that the LED cathode is not connected back to the negative side of the power supply. Check that connection.

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