DC power supply for multiple devices

Thread Starter

copernicus666

Joined Jan 29, 2020
4
Hi all,

I am a novice with electronic (I dabbled as a kid) but I am interested in making things for myself and so want to take on a project for my girlfriend's lighting situation.

She has 5 led strips, one of which runs off the mains with an IC (rectifier maybe) standing in as the AC converter, and 4 that use batteries.

The mains strip is dodgy; frequently you can see electricity arcing , so I've retired it for now.

What I wanted to do, is build a power supply with 5 outputs without a transformer (taking inspiration from the transformers rectifier on the mains light led strip.

My question is, is this possible? From what I've researched, a set of bridge rectifier will do it. And so my follow up isthis method as safe as using a transformer

Sorry for the long post!

Thanks Jon
 

djsfantasi

Joined Apr 11, 2010
9,156
What I wanted to do, is build a power supply with 5 outputs without a transformer (taking inspiration from the transformers rectifier on the mains light led strip.
Discussing circuits with transformer-less power supplies are not allowed to be discussed per the terms of this site.
They are much to dangerous and the site owners have prohibited them.
 

wayneh

Joined Sep 9, 2010
17,496
Oh ok! Sorry!
Well that kinda answers the question - it's best not to
There may be some perfectly good solutions, though. What sort of power (volts, amps) is needed to light the LED strip? You might be able to repurpose the power brick from an old laptop, or maybe a 12V supply from one of many household electronics. It just depends what you need.
 

dendad

Joined Feb 20, 2016
4,451
I would suggest you cut the power cord off the directly mains powered LED strip so it cannot be used. They are pretty dangerous.
Depending on how they are wired up, you may be able to power them from a plug pack, or at least, rewire them so that can be done.
There are plenty old power supplies that can be pressed into service. But you need to look at the LED strip circuit to see if they include suitable current limiting resistors. Just connecting LEDs to a power supply can damage them. LEDs are current dependent devices, not voltage.
Can you post pictures ot trace the circuit out of the LEDs in question?
 
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