I just finished building a custom garage (pics coming this weekend!) and I want to complete the pimpness by adding some LED tubes behind the walls (the whole garage is pegboard so the light will shine through pretty nice I think).
The problem is that I have no idea what to use for a 12v source. I don't think it would need to be rechargable like a car battery since LEDs draw very little power. The lights would only be on when friends were over, etc.
I have a jump-start box with a cig lighter input in it - I can probably use that, but is there some kind of small battery I could use or some other system I can buy?
Thanks!
they sell inverters that are kind of like the opposite of car inverters. instead of taking 12v sources and using them as 120v(like a ps2 in the car) they plug into a wall jack and provide you with a 12v source. i have a few in my shop to bench test amps and ect)
click me! heres one on ebay for 12 bucks plus shipping
well they sell benchtop converters but if you arent running more than a neon tube you could always go the cheap route and use a computer powersupply.
Cool - thanks very much for the help. I had no idea this product existed - never really looked until I needed it.
Steve
I made an LED light set up for my bar in my basement. I just went to radioshack and got a 12 volt convertor for about $15. It was a 1A invertor and works great. You can also get adjustable ones that can change voltages to lighten or dim the LEDs. They're about the same price.
yeah, you can just get an AC to DC adaptor from RS.
if you only need a few amps, then a wall plug transformer is fine. I like to have at least 10A avaialble and you don't find that in many wall type transformers
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schembo2000 wrote:yeah, you can just get an AC to DC adaptor from RS.
Its actually a DC to AC converter.. HHHAAAAAaaaaarrrr !!!
heres an idea... what about picking up one of thise tiny 12V ers for liek a lawnmover, or bike, and if you have a AC charger, just throw that on it once in a while.....
wait for it... wait for it... NOW GO!! ---> '02 LS Sport <---
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I have my 2.5 year old car battery if you want it. I just upgraded to a Yellow Top, so i have no use for it anymore. It's yours for shipping.
I would use a pc power supply - then you get 5v and 3.3v outputs for testing LEDs etc.
I've seen 120v - 12v devices specifically for neon lights in the rice aisles at Meijer.
thenetdog wrote:I would use a pc power supply - then you get 5v and 3.3v outputs for testing LEDs etc.
what i said from the beginning
Goto a school, busness, ISP. Ask for broken PC-AT computers (the ISP will know, the school or busness you may have to ask for the IT person) that they are going to throw out. Any thing with a big orange switch on the side is the best option (less wires). Ones with a rocker on the front you will have to remove the switch from the PC as well as the PSU. The yellow wire is 12+ and the black wire is negative. Red wire is 5v+ incase you are intrested.
