10w led grow light strips, need help starting a project

Thank you in advance, I am new and very willing to learn. I have purchased 10 10W (12V) LED grow light strips and am learning about electonics. I wired them in series and used a 12v 800mA power supply. The end ones did not light well. Yes I said that I am learning. I think I have to wire them in parallel. If that is the case, how many mA do I need? If I use too much amperage or more amperage am I more likely to burn them out? Could someone help me with these basics and formulas I need?

vicvet said:

Thank you in advance, I am new and very willing to learn. I have purchased 10 10W (12V) LED grow light strips and am learning about electonics. I wired them in series and used a 12v 800mA power supply. The end ones did not light well. Yes I said that I am learning. I think I have to wire them in parallel. If that is the case, how many mA do I need? If I use too much amperage or more amperage am I more likely to burn them out? Could someone help me with these basics and formulas I need?

Click to expand...

Is the power supply a constant current source? If you connect a bunch of 12V strips in series, the voltage required will increase by 12V for each additional strip (e.g. 2 strips in series = 24V@800ma). If wired in parallel, the voltage stays the same but the current is divided among each strip (e.g. 2 strips in parallel = 12V@400ma).

I am pretty certain by series the op meant end to end ... otherwise they would all be dim not just the end ones.

LED strips are poor conductors normally, unless you pay good money for good ones. That means you can only have them so long before they start to dim quite noticeably on the ends .... especially when your power supply is not up to the task.

That power supply will run one unit essentially. 10/12 = 0.833A. If you put more units together, what is likely happening is the voltage of your power supply is dropping below 12 and the current may be more than 0.8A. It may do this for a while .... and then just burn out from overheating components.

18650 said:

Is the power supply a constant current source? If you connect a bunch of 12V strips in series, the voltage required will increase by 12V for each additional strip (e.g. 2 strips in series = 24V@800ma). If wired in parallel, the voltage stays the same but the current is divided among each strip (e.g. 2 strips in parallel = 12V@400ma).

Click to expand...

If I wire them in parallel, does that mean that I could connect them to a 12V 8A power supply (10 800mA strips)? How many strips would I need to have to connect safely in parallel to say...a car battery?

It depends of the battery, and how you will charge it, and also how long the leds should run.

In my opinion the best solution for you is a simple 12v 8A power suply wich you can get of Ebay, conect them in paralel and the led should be happy. But thats my opinion

Or else you need some kind of (12x10) DC120v 800mah driver, or power suply to run them properly in series, and thats something you won´t find so easy
What about a picture of the led or leds?
Best Regards
Keep us posted

PS: the power suplies on ebay can be cheap, especial the ones from china, but they take about 1month to ship