LED (12v) strip is very dim, LED globe is bright

Hi All,

I've been trying to wire a strip of 15 LED lights to a USB-C breakout board and I can get power and lights work, but the LED strip lights are very dim where a LED globe is nice and bright.

AND, I do know the power source is a 5.1V USB charger and I know that the LED strip requires 12V, but I'm not powering the entire strip, just the 15 LEDs and am wondering if there's something I can do get these brighter?

Parts I'm using:

  • Arduino USB-C breakout board (4090)
  • 5.1V USB Charger with USB-C Cable
  • 2x resistors
  • 15 LEDs on 12v LED strip

As we can see in the below photos, with 15 or 3 LEDs connected, I still get a very DIM light source and I'm sure these get brighter.


As for the board config, here's a photo of how it's wired up

I'd love to know if there's something I'm doing wrong here or a better way to wire/set this up so I can get my LEDs working properly.

Thanks for any insight!

Powering 12V LEDs with 5V is never going to be bright

Either change to 5V LEDs or power them with 12V, possibly using a boost converter to turn 5V into 12V

2 Likes

Thanks @UKHeliBob - I thought that was the case, but just wanted to check. Thanks for confirming!

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