I have a traffic light that seems to be over powering its mate on the other corner. The red is brighter than others and when paired, the other red is very dim. The dim red is not dim when run alone. To use them on four corners, each pair is wired in parallel. My question is would a resistor in series with the bright led result in helping the dim red? I have paired this light with two others and get the same result.
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Yes.
OK, snarky answer aside, consider that disconnecting the "bright" red signal is equivalent to adding a really big resistor (infinity Ohms). So adding the series resistor indeed steers more power to the dim red.
The question is whether balancing the red LEDs using a resistor lowers the average brightness of both too low. That is, all a resistor can do is convert available power into heat. I don't know what kind of resistors you have in your parts stash but I'd think something like 100 Ohms would be a good starting point. 10 Ohms and 1000 Ohms would be too low/high.
Thank you Stan. A project for tomorrow. I'll let you know.
I moved up to 150 ohms, as 100 didn't make a lot of difference. I might try a little higher, but certainly more acceptable now. Thanks again.
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