How to power cree led

[zatchsmayr]

I have purchased a 16 mm 10 watt Cree LED (XM-L2) and a constant current voltage driver, the spec sheet for the LED has a maximum of 3 amps. I limited my driver to 2.5 amps connected it to the 12 volt battery in my car. Now the led worked when I powered on my lights normally but when I locked my car and the parking lights flashed, it burned out. Is it because my voltage was not limited?

 

[Simon47]

Did you use a constant current driver, or a constant voltage driver ?
How did you connect it ?
Your question can be summarised as "I connected some unspecified stuff in an unspecified way and something went wrong".
There are a couple of key things to remember. That sort of device had both thermal and electrical limitations - ignore either and it'll probably fail sooner or later.
Thermal wise, LEDs (contrary to what many say) do produce heat - just a lot less than (e.g.) incandescent lighting of the same light output. Most high power LED modules need heat sinking according to the operating environment - run them without a heat sink and they'll over heat and stop working.
Electrically, they MUST be driven by a constant current source - or more technically, you must control the current through it. The current can be smooth or pulsed - but you must keep within the limits for the device. The pulse capacity may be a higher current than for a smooth DC current - but the duty cycle will be limited to achieve a similar effective current.

 

[zatchsmayr]

Did you use a constant current driver, or a constant voltage driver ?
How did you connect it ?
Your question can be summarised as "I connected some unspecified stuff in an unspecified way and something went wrong".
There are a couple of key things to remember. That sort of device had both thermal and electrical limitations - ignore either and it'll probably fail sooner or later.
Thermal wise, LEDs (contrary to what many say) do produce heat - just a lot less than (e.g.) incandescent lighting of the same light output. Most high power LED modules need heat sinking according to the operating environment - run them without a heat sink and they'll over heat and stop working.
Electrically, they MUST be driven by a constant current source - or more technically, you must control the current through it. The current can be smooth or pulsed - but you must keep within the limits for the device. The pulse capacity may be a higher current than for a smooth DC current - but the duty cycle will be limited to achieve a similar effective current.

I limited the current but I didn't limit the voltage. The device has the ability to limit both, and I think it is supposed to keep it constant. The spec sheet says a limit of 3 amps at 2.9 volts. Was the mistake I made not limiting the voltage? It ran perfectly fine for almost 2 minutes straight, and afterwards I locked my car, the parking lights flashed and it burnt out before it even flashed a second time.

 

[zatchsmayr]

I limited the current but I didn't limit the voltage. The device has the ability to limit both, and I think it is supposed to keep it constant. The spec sheet says a limit of 3 amps at 2.9 volts. Was the mistake I made not limiting the voltage? It ran perfectly fine for almost 2 minutes straight, and afterwards I locked my car, the parking lights flashed and it burnt out before it even flashed a second time.

 

[zatchsmayr]

The led has a built in heat sink, and the driver is what Im using pictured above.

 

[Simon47]

I assume you are simply connecting the LED to the output terminals, setting the current limit, and applying 12V to the input ? AFAICS that should "just work".
So when it burned out, what was the input connected to ?
Also, is the LED electrically isolated from the car ? I don't know what circuit this device uses, but some of them can have problems if whatever is connected o the output isn't otherwise electrically isolated.

 

[zatchsmayr]

I assume you are simply connecting the LED to the output terminals, setting the current limit, and applying 12V to the input ? AFAICS that should "just work".
So when it burned out, what was the input connected to ?
Also, is the LED electrically isolated from the car ? I don't know what circuit this device uses, but some of them can have problems if whatever is connected o the output isn't otherwise electrically isolated.

Yes the input is wired to the parking light for the vehicle, the bulb was inside of the headlight so it should have been electrically isolated. I don't think at any point there was wiring touching any other metal.