hey guys, I have been absent from the site for a while, and Im back, but I am completely baffeld right now. Excuse my noobish ignorance. I have modded my gamecube with lights, and will be doing a friends soon. Now, I know the gamecube has a point where you can draw 12 volts, but then I read somewhere that from thet point, you can draw "up to 1000ma" which is supposed to be enough for 150 leds, this person said... i am completely baffled at this, If anyone can help me, I would really appreciate it, an explanation would be great... this would really help me to make my mods better.
I'd be rather dubious about the claim. I highly doubt that Nintendo would give you an AC adapter that'd supply a whole amp more than necessary. Anyway, getting 150 LEDs with a 12v/1A supply is simple enough. All you need to do is string 3 LEDs in series, along with a resistor such that they don't get too much voltage. Then repeat 49 times. 150 LEDs, 1A drawn. Electrical components in parallel have the same voltage while the current adds up. In However, just because you have an amp to spare doesn't mean you should try to use it all. To be on the safe side, I wouldn't try to go past 800mA, simply because when you power on all of those LEDs, they'll draw more than 1A, which could screw up the AC adaptor or power board on the Gamecube.
So what If I wanted to use 3.3volt leds? Wouldnt I hit the limit quickly? I want these suckers to be bright....... is there a conversion I am missing? I could run them in paralell, but thatd be tough, inside of a cube there is cramped space. The resistors would lessen the power the leds recieved, and wouldnt that make them duller?
If you used 3 3.3v leds in series plus a resistor to make up the voltage difference and add overcurrent protection, put a load of those series setups in parallel, you'll be fine. seeing as most ultrabrights are 20-30ma, you could get 33-50 series-chains in parallel IF you have 1 amp to draw from. tbh, it sounds like you need to research a tad bit more on LEDs, especially as you could easily kill the system if you do it wrong.
I was basing what I said off of using typical 3.3v/20mA LEDs. 3 of those in series adds up to 9.9v/20mA. The appropriate resistor to use would be 100ohms ((Voltage Supply - Voltage Drop) / Current Drawn = Resistance Needed). The resistors are there to make sure LEDs don't draw too much current.
I think the official adaptor is 12V 3.5A (42W) so I'm equally dubious. But using a 3rd-party 12V adaptor with a bit more oomph would be one solution.
Conclusion, if you really want 150 LED's (would you be able to fit them into the cube case?) you are better off with an external adaptor. Personally I'd limit myself to 0.1A from that point (without reasearching it further).. which is 9-15 LED's that should be enough to light a cube.
I wouldnt want 150, lol... I was just trying to understand how to fit more, brighter leds in... thankyou for the help everyone, I appreciate it!
Grab yourself some really bright (15,000mcd+ ) LED's of whatever color you like and slice some strategic slots in the case so you can see the glowy goodness. You can cover the slots with coke bottle plastic to keep the dust out. Just don't forget to use the right value Resistor otherwise the magic smoke will come out of the LED's and they won't work any more.... LED Resistor calculator : http://www.casemodgod.com/led_calculator.htm Mod on
