candle_thrower
Newly Enlightened
- Joined
- Aug 4, 2010
- Messages
- 1
Hi -- I'm a noob and this is my first project, so be nice about chastising me. I bought a 5pack of 20W 1500lum LEDs on ebay. Each module is about 2 sq inch rectangle with a metal mounting plate and 20 tiny 1W leds. Not knowing anything about LED driving when I bought these, I assumed I could just hook it to a battery and be done. Then my friend told me I would need a constant current circuit to avoid burning the LED out. The battery I plan to use is from my laptop.
LED Characteristics:
20 W
11 V
1.82 A
Battery Characteristics:
5000 mAh
6 cells
?? W max
11 V
?? A max
I've searched, and I can't find exactly what I'm looking, and that's why I'm posting:
(1) I see BuckPucks that are almost what I need but only go up to 1A.
(2) I see lots of modules on DealExtreme that are all made for 120V household AC.
(3) This instructable (link to circuit schematic): http://www.instructables.com/id/Pow...t-with-constant-current/step2/Specs-Function/
>>> SO... What configuration would you suggest to power this LED? Is there a pre-built power module that could help me?
Some other possible questions to answer:
1. Is there anything I'm badly misunderstanding about powering LEDs?
2. Can you share a good explanation of the reason for needing constant-current circuitry?
3. What's inside a BuckPuck or other commercial power module?
4. Is there a big problem with using the simple circuit in (3) Instructable above?
5. What's the simplest thing that could work, and the most complicated thing?
LED Characteristics:
20 W
11 V
1.82 A
Battery Characteristics:
5000 mAh
6 cells
?? W max
11 V
?? A max
I've searched, and I can't find exactly what I'm looking, and that's why I'm posting:
(1) I see BuckPucks that are almost what I need but only go up to 1A.
(2) I see lots of modules on DealExtreme that are all made for 120V household AC.
(3) This instructable (link to circuit schematic): http://www.instructables.com/id/Pow...t-with-constant-current/step2/Specs-Function/
>>> SO... What configuration would you suggest to power this LED? Is there a pre-built power module that could help me?
Some other possible questions to answer:
1. Is there anything I'm badly misunderstanding about powering LEDs?
2. Can you share a good explanation of the reason for needing constant-current circuitry?
3. What's inside a BuckPuck or other commercial power module?
4. Is there a big problem with using the simple circuit in (3) Instructable above?
5. What's the simplest thing that could work, and the most complicated thing?