Is there any way I can power one of these LED strips from my laptop? http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/Kustom_PCs_Shop_LED_Strips_97.html The laptop will be plugged into the mains when the strip is connected/switched on. I am thinking of getting the UV strip to light up the UV markings on my DJ mixer.
Just wire one up to a 12v Wall-wart. One should be available off eBay for about £3 - you only need around 100mA or so.
If you're talking about usb then NO. These run off 12v, and usb gives 5v at 500mA max. The captain is correct. Just buy a wall adaptor. Its cheap
I'm not talking about USB (I know it's only 5v) If I put my tower computer on I can easily power it from the external molex on the back of the PSU. I was just wondering if there was some way of getting 12v from the laptop, as I don't always have the tower on. I don't want to add any more plugs into the mains sockets. I already use enough from one wall socket. (laptop, tower, speakers, router, network switch, DJ mixer)
The extra 0.025A @ 240v is not going to overload the socket. The power would be coming from that socket anyway if the laptop would have been plugged into it. Where's the difference?
Well I think he means he doesn't want the extra wiring... I'd say it may be possible to mod the Lappys PSU (is it one of the external ones? You know the brick at the end of the wire?).. and then run wire along the main wiring all the way into the lappy and set something like a headpone jack on the back that you would use to power the led strip. You could even sleeve the wiring from the lappy to the PSU for a more clean look and to hide the extra wires used to power the leds. If the PSU is inside the Lappy, you could just splice wires from the power leads inside and route them to the back into the headphone jack you built into the case.... that would make for a cleaner look. Just an idea...
It's an external transformer. (one of the dell ones) Is there any power pins from say the card slot, that could be used?
Headphone jacks make terrible power connectors because they short when a jack is inserted/removed. Use a proper DC barrel connector instead.
hadn't thought of the shorting part... I was just thinking of a neat way of plugging the led wires to the back of the lappy... but yeah; proper connectors would be better.
I suppose you could splice a connection of the 18v ish laptop power supply and use a voltage regulation circuit to drop down to 12v, still it would be quite messy. Easier to buy a battery or a wall plug and safer.
I could be wrong but if this is for you mixer why even bother with either comps? Use the mixer power input and use a little PSU inside as theres bound to be room. Just got to remember to shield the psu magnetically from the mixer as it could cause a little interference.
Try these: http://www.dimensionengineering.com/AnyVoltMicro.htm http://www.dimensionengineering.com/AnyVolt3.htm you could easily stick on a usb cable to get your 5v input, then adjust it to get 12v output- I dont imagine the led strips will draw more than 0.5amps anyway but you could use 2 sockets in parallel in theory to bump up the current if required...
I've decided to use the output of my tower PC PSU, when I have it on, and when it isn't on I'll plug to a compact 12v battery. I've also decided to get 1m of the blue strip sold at Maplin. this will run at 400mA http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=218015 I'll also get from Kustom PCs the 60cm UV FlexLight PRO which runs at less than 26mA at 12v http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/info_3311.html That's a total of 426mA at 12v
Bought the 1m length of blue strip from Maplin. currently got it powered from the external molex of my tower pc.
