electricview
New Member
Hey guys, new here and a questiona bout wiring an led control box to my car!
I've in the past had some super cheap LED strip lights and a control box in my car for a few months then the box stopped working, I assume its becuase it preferred 12v and the way i had it wired up was probably giving it anywhere from 12-15 volts depending on if the car engine was on or accelerating or not. anyways i'm buying a new box from a website and i want to try to expand its life a little longer than 6 months this time..
I have it hooked up leaching off the glove box lightbulb wiring, so it only is on when my parking lights/headlights are on at night. I've read one person used a 7812 inline to keep the voltage down, I am aware the 7812 wouldn't protect against larger spikes, but I asume these occasional spikes are not what was killing my old box just the constant 14.8v while driving.
so here's the specs.
From what i understand my 1 meter of lights, consisting of 3 colors, each color line uses 300mah of power, so the total draw of the lights should be less than 1amp i believe. But the box i'm getting supposedly has these specs:
Voltage: DC 12V
- Output: 3 CMOS drain-open output
- Static power: < 1W
- Max output current: 2A each color
- Output power: 5V<30W; 12V<72W; 24V<144W
the picture of the controller box says "Output 12v 3*2A
So i'm not sure if that means this controll box is going to draw 6 amps even tho my particular lights are only going to use 900mah? or if the control box will only draw 900mah therefore making the 7812 possible to use? I realize if the car is off and i wanted to turn on the lights my battery would be supplying around 13.70-13.90 volts and it might not be enough for the 7812 to do its thing? (or would the lights just be real dim?).
I'm trying to avoid spending tons of cash on this solution. The replacement control box is only costing me around 8 or 9 bucks, so spending 30 on some kind of voltage converter/limiter/capcitor concoction isn't really an attractive option for me. Heck i was just gonna throw a resistor in line just before the box assuming most of the time my power would be at 14.5volts and hope it would work!
I didnt post any links to the actual box in case its frowned upon here, but its from Dealextreme (chinese).
Anyways any advice or thoughts on this would be much appreciated!
Thanks knowledgable peoples!
I've in the past had some super cheap LED strip lights and a control box in my car for a few months then the box stopped working, I assume its becuase it preferred 12v and the way i had it wired up was probably giving it anywhere from 12-15 volts depending on if the car engine was on or accelerating or not. anyways i'm buying a new box from a website and i want to try to expand its life a little longer than 6 months this time..
I have it hooked up leaching off the glove box lightbulb wiring, so it only is on when my parking lights/headlights are on at night. I've read one person used a 7812 inline to keep the voltage down, I am aware the 7812 wouldn't protect against larger spikes, but I asume these occasional spikes are not what was killing my old box just the constant 14.8v while driving.
so here's the specs.
From what i understand my 1 meter of lights, consisting of 3 colors, each color line uses 300mah of power, so the total draw of the lights should be less than 1amp i believe. But the box i'm getting supposedly has these specs:
Voltage: DC 12V
- Output: 3 CMOS drain-open output
- Static power: < 1W
- Max output current: 2A each color
- Output power: 5V<30W; 12V<72W; 24V<144W
the picture of the controller box says "Output 12v 3*2A
So i'm not sure if that means this controll box is going to draw 6 amps even tho my particular lights are only going to use 900mah? or if the control box will only draw 900mah therefore making the 7812 possible to use? I realize if the car is off and i wanted to turn on the lights my battery would be supplying around 13.70-13.90 volts and it might not be enough for the 7812 to do its thing? (or would the lights just be real dim?).
I'm trying to avoid spending tons of cash on this solution. The replacement control box is only costing me around 8 or 9 bucks, so spending 30 on some kind of voltage converter/limiter/capcitor concoction isn't really an attractive option for me. Heck i was just gonna throw a resistor in line just before the box assuming most of the time my power would be at 14.5volts and hope it would work!
I didnt post any links to the actual box in case its frowned upon here, but its from Dealextreme (chinese).
Anyways any advice or thoughts on this would be much appreciated!
Thanks knowledgable peoples!