Disclaimer : I take no responsibility for harm done to individuals or components as a result of this installation or misuse of this information. If you have read over the following tutorial and are still uncomfortable completing this installation, CONTACT ME and I will help answer your questions or try to direct you to an experienced installer who can assist you.
About this guide: This guide will show you how to build a very simple circuit that will allow you to power more LEDs from a single channel from a Ghozt Sequencer module can all by itself. This can be useful for builds that have large LED arrays, halos, or high-powered LEDs. This booster will be able to supply up to 2 amps to an LED while converting the output to a positive-side switch.
Difficulty: Advanced
Users of the guide should be confident in their soldering skills. Users should be able to determine how much current their LEDs require. Users should be able to assemble a circuit to prevent post-installation failures. Users should know how to manage heat in their electronic builds to prevent overheating and/or vehicle fires. Users should have experience using the Ghozt Sequencers in simpler builds. Users show be able to determine if a voltage regulator is needed for their LEDs. This guide is recommended for individuals who have experience building custom LED arrays for taillights.
Tools required :
- Soldering Iron
- Wire cutter
- Heat gun (for heat shrink tubing)
Materials required :
- Solder (as needed)
- Wiring (as needed)
- Heat shrink tubing (as needed)
- Components for your custom LED circuit (user specified)
- Electronics prototyping board (as needed)
- Fairchild/ON Semiconductor part #FQP9P25 (P-Channel MOSFET)
- 1k Ohm resistor, 1/4 watt or greater
- Heatsink for TO-220 package (optional, recommended for <500mA loads)
Step 1 – Identifying MOSFET Pins: The diagram below on the left shows the package diagram of the Fairchild transistor you’ll be using. The diagram on the right shows the traditional circuit diagram for this component. Note the locations of the three pins in both diagrams and make sure you can identify the pins on the part itself. For reference, these pins are named as follows:
- Gate
- Drain
- Source
Step 2 – The circuit diagram: Below is a diagram of the circuit you will be building. You can build one of these for each of the channels you want to boost. Each one should be connected to a different sequencer output channel. The negative side of the LED circuit should be connected to the same ground as the Ghozt Sequencer. Also, note that you are going to connect the Drain (pin 2) to the positive side of your LED circuit. Finally, although the diagram shows one LED, you are free to design your LED circuit with multiple LEDs as you see fit.
Step 3 – Construction: This step is sort of up to you so long as you build the circuit diagrammed above. Instead of providing detailed steps, I’ll offer a list of suggestions to consider when using a booster like this:
- Keep your metal connections very short and sturdy to avoid shorts or disconnects as things shift around during shipment and while on the vehicle. I would recommend assembling this on electronics prototyping board to help hold everything in place
- Insulate metal connections wherever possible. In the event that anything does shift around, you don’t want it to cause a short. This can lead to fire, a blown circuit, or faulty operation.
- Be aware of how much heat will be produced in your assembly and make sure you know how to manage it. With this much power some of the components are going to get warm, including the transistor and the LEDs. Be aware of the overall amount of heat and any hot-spots. Make sure that there is room for air to circulate by convection so that all of the components get the cooling they need. Use zip ties and other wire management techniques to keep wires away from hot components that can melt insulation. Use only fire retardant materials.
- Consider potting this part of your assembly. This will help with all three of the above suggestions and can provide water-proofing, if needed.
- Use thicker gauge wire than normal. Normally, we recommend #22 or thicker stranded wire everywhere. When building a high-powered assembly, we recommend that you consider going even thicker on the +12 and Ground connections, as well as any internal connections that will carry alot of current.
When done, inspect all of your connections and test carefully before installing. Enjoy!