hello to all
i was hoping someone could help me with a little project i am working on, i have made chandeliers for home and have bought flickering led candle lights which give the desired effect,these led,s are cheap,poundshop things but do the job,they make the light fitting look like a real candle chandelier, however they are battery driven and each has a seperate switch , i want to switch all five led,s on using mains voltage, obviously this will require a transformer and rectifier, or an led driver, if an led driver is suitable for the job which i am unsure of,also unsure if i have to add resistors to the circuit, i have experimented with three led,s and a simple plug in transformer of 4.5 v dc and this worked for the short time i tested, any advice please.

 

Welcome to the forum!
What is the battery voltage?

 

Just measure the battery voltage they run off of in their native container, and replicate that.

If using a higher voltage supply is simpler for you to make, you need to read what current the LEDs natively use, then use ohms law to compute what resistor drops the higher voltage to the native voltage at the native current.

 

Are these the small tea lights, lithium CR2032, 3V battery powered? The LED can be used to control brighter yellow LEDs. There is a post in completed projests to do this from a verry active AAC member- name lost to me.

 

Just measure the battery voltage they run off of in their native container, and replicate that.

If using a higher voltage supply is simpler for you to make, you need to read what current the LEDs natively use, then use ohms law to compute what resistor drops the higher voltage to the native voltage at the native current.

The flicker circuit in the LED's my be a bit more finicky- requiring a solid 3V supply.

Use a regulated 3v power source.

 

You can buy candle flicker LEDs without the tealight form factor.

http://shop.evilmadscientist.com/component/content/article/189

 

thankyou all so much for your replies
yes these are the tealight flickering led.s with a 3v lithium battery, ive bought three in a pack for a massive £1.00, cheap but really do give the desires effect.
As stated in my original post i did get three working with a small transformer im just unsure if it is the correct use of that transformer.
If i am to use a regulated 3v supply, do these little plug in transformers afford a regulated supply.
many thanks

 

If i am to use a regulated 3v supply, do these little plug in transformers afford a regulated supply.

Some do, some don't (and if they have only a low-current load will put out >3V). You need to read the label. Regulated is safest.
You could perhaps get hold of a junk phone charger and drop the volts from 5 to 3 using 3 diodes in series.
I'm guessing you could wire the tealights in parallel, perhaps each with a respective ~10 Ohm resistor in series in case they try to 'fight each other'. Each might also need a respective capacitor across its terminals for the same reason.

 

... these are the tealight flickering led.s with a 3v lithium battery...

Can you tell if the flickering is built into the LED itself, or is there a little circuit board supplying a generic LED? The latter may be more tolerant of an unregulated voltage. I seem to recall using one up to 9V.