What is the best way to hook up 12V lights

[Jabba]

Hello all,

Not being much of an electrician, could anyone give me some ideas on how to hook up 12V lights. Ideally, I would like to come from one power source and hook the lights up in series. The items I need Power to are:

   - Two lights for my Happ over/under coin door
   - Light for my Happ 3" Trackball
   - Two 12V brushless cooling fans

My computer is in a case so I would prefer not to have to come off the power supply in there.

A few questions for the board are:

- How many devices can a single 12V Power supply power?

- I found a 15V adapter from an old device. Could I use this? If so, how would I power it down to 12V.

- Conversely, If I had say a 10V power supply, how could I boost it up to 12V (or could I and is this a maronic question?

- What if I added another light, not 12V. What would I use?

Hope this all makes sense and thanks for all the help.

Garry

[StephenH]

Look at the voltage and amperage rating of the lights.  If they need +12V, then anything less than 12V will probably make the light dimmer.  Anything above it, will make it brighter (and burn out much quicker).  

Additionally, the amperage rating (often in Amperes (A) or Milliamps (ma) tells you how much current that light needs.  When looking at power devices, you need a device that puts out slightly more current than the amount your light is drawing.  If you have signifigantly more current out from your power supply, it is not a concern.   What will damage your power supply is not enough current output to power the device (kind of like when too much draw blows a fuse or blows a circuit breaker in your house).

Some ways to get power from lights:

1) run from a PC power supply.   You can connect to an unused Disk Drive power connector.    These supply +5V and +12V, and check the wiring on your supply for the correct wires to use.

2) You buy low voltage adapters from Radio Shack, Walmart, Target, Fry's, and other stores that supply several voltages ranging usually from 1.5V usually up to 24V, at various current ratings.  1.5V, 3V, 4.5V, 6V, 7.5V, 9V, 12V, 15V, and 24V are the most common.  For most incandesent lights, it does not matter if the current is AC or DC.  

3) You can look at adapters from devices you no longer use anymore, or may have abandonded that you may still have laying around in your garage or junk drawer that origninally went to answering machines, cordless phones, toys, musical keyboards, or the like.   Again, check the voltage and current rating, to see if it is what your lights need.

[eightbit]

Go buy some 6v bulbs to fit your holders and tap into the 5v from a USB cord.

[Spaced Invader]

Car battery!  

Use the PC power supply...standard colors are...

Yellow +12 volts

Black Common

Red +5 volts

Blue -12 volts

White -5 volts

You should test though...do what I say not what I do.  

[paigeoliver]

PC power supply is EASY to use, even if you keep your PC inside the case.

I powered my Happs serial interface board off a PC power supply, all I had to do was run two wires out of the back of the PC's case.

If this thing is going in a cabinet then that should not be an issue at all.

[Stingray]

PC power supply is EASY to use, even if you keep your PC inside the case.

I powered my Happs serial interface board off a PC power supply, all I had to do was run two wires out of the back of the PC's case.

If this thing is going in a cabinet then that should not be an issue at all.

I started to post essentially the same thing. If you don't want to cut up a disk drive power lead from your power supply, go to radio shack and buy an disk drive power extension cord and cut the end off it. Splice your wires to that and just plug it into your power supply.

-S

[mushmouth]

I have 6V lights in my CP and coin door and I use a switchable wall wart adaptor set to 6V to power them. Works excellent. Only now I think I want more powerful bulbs, which makes my power source choice a lucky one because I can just move the switch on the adaptor to the voltage I decide to go with. Kinda nice. Plus, it's completely unrelated to any other power/computing source in the cabinet and that makes me feel a little safer.

Whatever gets you through the night.

[Jabba]

Thanks to all who replied so far (what a great board). I have a few additional questions:

StephenH, that was an excellent description of how this stuff works. So Stephen (or anyone) , If I follow StephenH through, the apapter I was able to find says:

   Input: 120VAC  60HZ  16W
   Output: 12VDC   1000 mA

I could therefore power 10 12V bulbs if each only required 100 mA of juice... right. Is the math that simple?

Does anyone know how many mA the 14V lamp takes on the Happ Over/Under door (#161 14V light bulb) ?

mushmouth: Great idea. I think I'll go with the adapter as I found one in my junk sopare parts pile... :-)

I am a little cautious of working on the computer as I have already destroyed a good pair of speakers and serial cable while hacking... :-)

Garry

[StephenH]

Thanks to all who replied so far (what a great board). I have a few additional questions:

StephenH, that was an excellent description of how this stuff works. So Stephen (or anyone) , If I follow StephenH through, the apapter I was able to find says:

  Input: 120VAC  60HZ  16W
  Output: 12VDC  1000 mA

I could therefore power 10 12V bulbs if each only required 100 mA of juice... right. Is the math that simple?

Yes, technicially, but it is not good to overload to the max.  I would say 8 or 9 is probably a safer bet.


Does anyone know how many mA the 14V lamp takes on the Happ Over/Under door (#161 14V light bulb) ?

from http://donsbulbs.com/cgi-bin/r/b.pl/161.html, it says they require .19a or 190ma.


mushmouth: Great idea. I think I'll go with the adapter as I found one in my junk sopare parts pile... :-)

I am a little cautious of working on the computer as I have already destroyed a good pair of speakers and serial cable while hacking... :-)