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A 12v regulator for running LED light units.


 
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C.B.
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Joined: 08 Mar 2008
Posts: 144
Location: Central Scotland

PostPosted: Mon Apr 27, 2015 1:30    Post subject: A 12v regulator for running LED light units. Reply with quote

Many LED light units and LED ribbon strips being sold at a fairly low price (on that famous site) are designed on the edge as far as reliability is concerned. Most 12 volt units will happily light at any voltage from about 7v up to 15v but won’t last very long at the higher voltages.   This is due to the current limiting resistor being chosen in value and wattage to run at 12v Max., and some of those will heat up quite a bit. As you increase the voltage past 12 volts all that happens (apart from a slight increase in light brightness) is more current passes through the resistor and generates more heat, eventually these resistors will burn out if run at alternator voltage level.   Sad  (Note that I’m referring to units or strips here not replacement bulbs).  Exclamation

So if you're thinking about adding some extra lighting on your Trooper one way to get around this is to run any added LED units or strips from a stabilised 12v supply, you can probably buy them ready for the job, but if you are handy with a soldering iron and components (or know someone who is), it’s a fairly easy and low cost job to make one up.   Idea

You will need the following materials, Metal box, LM1085-12v regulator, TO-220 mounting kit, 2 x 10uF tantalum capacitors, fuse-holder with a 3 amp fuse and some red & black wire.  For the posh version you can add 2 x LED’s and 2 x 470R resistors.  The mounting kit is required to allow heat transfer from the regulator to the box and also isolate the output so it doesn’t make the box sit at +12v through the mounting screw (the regulator mounting tab is connected to +v out). This regulator will deliver up to 3 Amps and here’s the circuit:-



Here pictures of the units I recently made:-




Another (and lower cost) way of doing something similar is to run LED’s via some diodes in series. For every diode you will drop around 0.7v, therefore using 3 diodes would present approx. 12.3v to the LED unit when the engine is running, however that means when the engine is not running the voltage would be only around 10.5v. You can use 1N4001 for up to 1 Amp loads or 1N5400 for up to 3 Amps.
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 27, 2015 1:30    Post subject: Google Ads keep this community free to join!


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Rhanagar
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 27, 2015 8:53    Post subject: Reply with quote

Cool  Cool

Sticky please!
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eithan h
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 27, 2015 19:05    Post subject: Reply with quote

made this a sticky as i think it's quite interesting as a lot of people are adding led's now
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C.B.
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 28, 2015 0:31    Post subject: Reply with quote

If you want to try this the cheaper diode way here’s some more detail, the first is a partly made 1 Amp dropper, just needs the middle part encased in epoxy or similar.
Getting the terminal sleeves on in reverse after soldering to the terminal block was a slight challenge but do-able (note: blade on the input and receptacle on the output).



The second is a completed 3 Amp one, which after soldering I sleeved with heat-shrink and then silicon tubing.
This one is now rattling around Scotland somewhere in a van fitted with LED front DLR's, grille lighting and loadspace lighting.


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Red Robbo
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 28, 2015 22:03    Post subject: Reply with quote

Excellent logic and write up... Cool
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