Just bought a pair of these http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/191237106339?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649 ans they come with no connection at all and I wondered whether I could wire in a molex connection or do they need to be powered via an inverter which would mean the smaller three pin connection?
I'm pretty sure you should just be able to wire it to the yellow wire and one of the black in a molex connector, as it says they are 12V so that should be fine.
Looks like you don't need any special electronics for this one. Just connect it up to the 12V and ground wires on a molex connector.
Normal LEDs don't need an inverter as they run with standard 12 DC power that the computer PSU provides. Cold cathodes on the other hand require an inverter because the tube needs a much higher voltage than the PSU provides.
That's fairly misleading as there isn't really any such thing as a "normal" LED... Lots of different LED require lots of different forward voltages. most of the LEDs that I use tend to run from about 2 - 3.5v @ 20ma. I wouldn't be surprised if those strips had resistors to bring the voltage down to something similar and are infact 12v due to them being intended for car installations etc. and being run off the 12v supply.
I'd mis-edited 12v out of the sentence, it should have read: "standard DC power that the computer PSU provides."
