Lightbulb Discharger - Series or Parallel?

[Aylien]

I went to the store and bought 10 no.1157 lightbulbs to build myself a battery discharger, but I can't remember how to assemble them. I'm not going to spend $40 on ten dollars worth of light buibs and $.10 worth of solder for something I can do myself. I just don't remember if you're supposed to solder them in series or in parallel.

btw, what's the difference between parallel and in series? I can't remember. I know one way is like you build a battery pack,

http://members.aol.com/A6EQUJ5/Images/seriesparallel.jpg

P.S. I know you would probably never wire a battery pack in parallel, it's just for an example.

[This message has been edited by Aylien (edited 12-04-2000).]

[This message has been edited by Aylien (edited 12-04-2000).]

[Gokou]

Parallel. Each bulb will get the full pack voltage and draw approximately 2 amps each, for a 20 amp discharge. You could wire a battery pack in parallel though if you wanted a high-capacity 1.2 volt battery pack =)

[Aylien]

So is my diagram correct? Parallel is across all the positive and negative leads at the same time?

-Aylien

[JP]

Yeah, I wired mine with bulb up, bulb down with the neg. (gold thing that holds everything together) soldered together. Then I took wire and stripped it enough to wrap around to the positive (the bottom metal circle).

[Aylien]

I was going to take a coat hanger wire and solder it across the side of the bulbs, and then take another piece and solder it across the bottoms, with a T at each end to make it stand up on it's own.

-Aylien

[JP]

Then it cant touch ANY metal at all. Also, coat hangers dont carry enough current. Get a 3/32" piece of music wire and solder it across.

[RC10 RaCeR]

can someone e-mail me or tell mr where i can get a diagram that shopws me how to make a bulb discharger? i want t omake one that has wire soldered to the sides of the bulbs and a wire that is soldered to the bottom of the bulbs, if i want a 30 discharge rate, how many buls should i use, and wut kind of bulb?

[Aylien]

The standard bulb everyone uses is an automotive taillight, no.1157

They pull 2 amps each, so you'd need to use 15 bulbs. 15x2=30amps

Just pretend my diagram above is lightbulbs instead of battery looking things and there's your instructions.

-Aylien

[SRBaja]

Why couldn't you use an old car headlight ?

[Aylien]

Me dunno, give it a try and let us know how it works http://www.rccaraction.com/ubb/tongue.gif

I guess if it pulls the same 20amps, it'd work, but I have no idea other than the fact that those 1157 tail light bulbs pull 2 amps each...

-Aylien