Newbie electronic neophyte... hope this is an appropriate question here.
I have 4 LED candles that each have 2 AA batteries. I would like to wire them up to run without batteries.
I suppose I could buy four 3v wall warts but would prefer to drive all 4 from one 110v power supply.
The candles are in 4 lanterns that hang on ropes avg of 12' from ceiling (battery changing is inconvenient), so would be quite a bit of 20gage wire in the circuit.
The candles have circuit boards in them to flicker the leds, provide a timer and RF remote support. Don't have any specs on amperage.
Will an X? volt Y? amp ACDC power supply wire up to these successfully?... in parallel or series? Resistors?
Thanks for any advice!

 

You can indeed wire these in parallel from a single power supply. And given the very low current they draw, you could even use #24 wire if you chose. The current would not be more than 50Ma for each one, and so a 3 volt 300 milliamp supply wold work. It may be that you will need to have a capacitor in place of the batteries to make the functioning more stable. The capacitor must have a voltage rating of at least 6 volts for this application. 470 microfarad would work and it should fit in place of one of the AA batteries.
A word of caution here: you must have the correct polarity connected because the candle circuits probably will fail if the positive and negative get reversed for any length of time, even an instant. AND, verify that the supply voltage is not over 4 volts before you use it,

 

Thanks so much MisterBill2!!
This is a great forum

 

Thanks so much MisterBill2!!
This is a great forum

Indeed, this is a great forum, although sometimes the threads wander a lot.

 

Does the capacitor go in parallel? PS+ to Cap+ to Candle+; Candle- to Cap- to PS- ?
I got some 16V 470uF aluminum electrolytic capacitors... assume these are OK?

 

Does the capacitor go in parallel? PS+ to Cap+ to Candle+; Candle- to Cap- to PS- ?
I got some 16V 470uF aluminum electrolytic capacitors... assume these are OK?

Yes, in parallel, exactly as you described. But if you solder the connections be cautious because the plastic will tend to melt. And leave enough leads on the capacitor so that it des not get hot while soldering either.

 

Thanks again MisterBill2. Wired all up today... working great!

 

Thanks again MisterBill2. Wired all up today... working great!

You are quite welcome This one was interesting.