Build Your Own Arcade Controls Forum
Main => Main Forum => Topic started by: thatdecade on June 01, 2008, 09:17:45 am
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Just thinking out loud, bear with me.
I'm looking to connect a Cold cathode fluorescent lamp to my ipac's LED harness. Problem is that the light tube is 12V 700mA.
I know the ipac's LED connections are 5V and can only source 10mA, but I think I would be safe stepping up the voltage and using the pc power supply to source the current needed.
(http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/2616/transistorccfltz8.jpg) (http://imageshack.us)
The only thing that worries me is the start up time lag (their not instantly on with power). The bars do have a switch that makes them sound sensitive, but it looks pretty lame with the arcade but proves that the light bars can have fast reaction/start up times.
I may ditch the whole 12V problem by leaving it always powered with the pc and rewiring the sound portion of the tube's inverter circuit so it switches on/off with the keyboard's LEDs.
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How about some background as to *why* you would want to do this.
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presumably he wants to use something like scroll lock as an output pin, and use it to control the lights with software, or at least that's what I would do.
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(http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/2616/transistorccfltz8.jpg) (http://imageshack.us)
Not quite. That will only feed ~4.3V to the CCFL, the remainder on the 12V being lost in the transistor. You want the CCFL on the collector (+12V side) of the transistor with the emitter (leg with the little arrow) going to ground.
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you mean put the ccfl between 12v and the transistor, and hook ground directly into the transistor?