I just bought two Ultimarc UltraLux light up buttons, used for my +1 credit buttons. I am fine with hooking up the buttons, but where do I get the power for the illumination from?
There are two types of UltraLux button LEDs:
1. Single color LED with two 1/4" male QD "stirrups" on the LED holder -- one for 5v, the other for ground.
The LED should draw about 20mA * 2 buttons = 40mA.
2. RGB LED with 0.1" 4-pin wiring harness -- 5v, red-channel ground, green-channel ground, and blue-channel ground.
The three LEDs (red, green, and blue) should draw about 20mA each ==> 60mA per button * 2 buttons = 120mA.
As JDFan pointed out, you can hack a
USB cable to power the LEDs.
Pin 1 VBUS (+5 V)
Pin 2 Data−
Pin 3 Data+
Pin 4 Ground
Motherboard USB and powered USB hub ports are rated for at least 500mA.
If you're using a non-powered USB hub port, the USB spec is supposed to only be 100mA per port, but most manufacturers exceed that so you should still be fine.
Scott