[raesunrae]

Does anyone have any suggestions of what I would need to connect a power supply to these LED rigid strips?

Ebay Item number:280942192300

 

[GeToChKn]

Hope you're not planning on those for any kind of plants and just ambient lighting as they're not plant capable really, just accent light.

As for power, an average LED draws 20ma, x 36 LED's x 3 stripes ~= [email protected], so a 12v power supply from an old cordless phone, electronic, etc, at around 2amps.

Now the problem is most "wallwart" power supplies are unregulated, meaning when they say [email protected], they put 12v at around 700ma. If you run it on something that only draws 200ma, it will run more than 12v and probably fry it. So by my above calculations, each strip will need about [email protected] if you intended to wire them to different tanks or different power sources.

using an old computer power supply, while big, is regulated and you can power LED's, fans, etc, all from it and have 12v power at whatever power you need.

 

[raesunrae]

LED power supply

Hope you're not planning on those for any kind of plants and just ambient lighting as they're not plant capable really, just accent light.

As for power, an average LED draws 20ma, x 36 LED's x 3 stripes ~= [email protected], so a 12v power supply from an old cordless phone, electronic, etc, at around 2amps.

Now the problem is most "wallwart" power supplies are unregulated, meaning when they say [email protected], they put 12v at around 700ma. If you run it on something that only draws 200ma, it will run more than 12v and probably fry it. So by my above calculations, each strip will need about [email protected] if you intended to wire them to different tanks or different power sources.

using an old computer power supply, while big, is regulated and you can power LED's, fans, etc, all from it and have 12v power at whatever power you need.

Thank you for explaining that. Would I just wire it directly to the 12v 700ma by stripping it and using wire nuts? If I can find an old computer power supply could I wire two strips to the one supply?

I'm sorry! I am REALLY challenged when it comes to electrical. I bought them to add some wattage to my existing LED lights, but it sounds like you don't think it will add anything except visual light. If that's the case, I may just scrap the idea of using on my tank and find something else to use them on. I'm just scared to hook them up wrong and cause a fire or something! They didn't come with any directions for hook up to a power supply.

 

[shift]

Any generic 12V power supply over 2A should work.. I reuse old router and random ones all the time.. If you use 3 of those strips i'm sure you can grow some plants.. mine seem to be doing well with my diy led lighting.

 

[raesunrae]

Cool! Thanks!

 

[John K]

Thank you for explaining that. Would I just wire it directly to the 12v 700ma by stripping it and using wire nuts?

They sell screw on connectors on ebay that will make it easier to plug/unplug from the power supply. Look for "2.1 x 5.5mm DC Power Jack Adapter" . This seems to be the most common size connector, but you'll need to check your power supply.