I want to help my friends wire up a table of theirs with some ultrabright leds, but I've swiftly learned that this is kinda out of my league, and don't know where to go.
they want to be able to plug it into a wall outlet, and have a switch. So far everything i thought i knew is wrong, but here's where I'm at.
120v outlet should be used at about 80%, so 100v or 17amps.
leds like DC, so i would need a rectifier of some sort and a capacitor to even out the current. wire all that to a switch, then to the leds in a circuit and i'm good!
something tells me that's not right. also, I have no idea how to hook up a rectifier, so i don't know quite what that entails.
the other option is to use cold cathodes. those use like .3amps, so if i just bought a power brick or something of the like, i could just spice it all together. i would need like 8 or so, so i would need a 3amp box? and use resistors? would it be easier to use a batter pack? how long would AAs hold up?
I think i'm over my head...
they want to be able to plug it into a wall outlet, and have a switch. So far everything i thought i knew is wrong, but here's where I'm at.
120v outlet should be used at about 80%, so 100v or 17amps.
leds like DC, so i would need a rectifier of some sort and a capacitor to even out the current. wire all that to a switch, then to the leds in a circuit and i'm good!
something tells me that's not right. also, I have no idea how to hook up a rectifier, so i don't know quite what that entails.
the other option is to use cold cathodes. those use like .3amps, so if i just bought a power brick or something of the like, i could just spice it all together. i would need like 8 or so, so i would need a 3amp box? and use resistors? would it be easier to use a batter pack? how long would AAs hold up?
I think i'm over my head...