How to reduce 12v to 8v?

If you could get a pic of the meter, that would be great.

 

Couple ideas come to mind. You could use an appropriate voltage regulator. Or try using several diodes in series to take advantage of the diode drop.

 

Move the red lead over to the white plug.

 

80.1

 

Thats more like it. I'll draw a picture of what I think you've got.

 

Actually 78.5 is where it tops out

 

Thank u so much for all your help

 

I guess this is what it is. There are 36 LEDs on that board. If they're split into 9 groups of 4, then each LED gets about 2V of drop and each group gets a little less than 9mA if that measurement was right. Seems reasonable if they're trying to get a nice long life out of the LEDs.

I don't immediately see any convenient off the shelf LED supplies that are that small. Are you just looking to run one of these?

 

Zeners are definitely looking like the easiest way to go about this.

 

Actually 2 of them, they could be ran together on one if that helps
U can see the grid on it, I'll try and take a pic

 

Actually, what resistors do you have handy?

 

I have a giant bag full, maybe 1000 or so

 

Well, if you can turn some of those resistors into a 65 ohm resistor, then you can just run it off 12V that way and it'll be pretty close.

So, for example, 4 16 ohm resistors in series hooked to the red wire.

 

I'll see what I can do, thx again

 

I used 5=15 ohm resistors and bam works like a top, 4 and it's super bright and 6 is to low. Thanks again for all your help

 

For someone who doesn’t exist in memory you rocked this dude. Nice job and nice thread.

 

Good deal. You'll want to make sure those resistors stay cool. Glad I could help.

 

I left it on for an hour and no sign of heat whatsoever, you the man
This is what I've done, license plate light third brake light, doesn't look bright in the pic but it is very bright.

 

Faaaancy. Looks good!