Help w/power source ..Im so lost

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figurator
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Help w/power source ..Im so lost

Post by figurator »

Im having a hard time getting together the power components for the 41" Blockade Runner. I have 5 3mm white LEDs in the cockpit and I will be using 3 more in the main body, along with 11 yellow LEDs for the engines. All LEDs have resistors already installed.
Heres my problem.. for one, Im a complete idiot when it comes to electronics..Ive been reading for hours, and I dont understand the lingo.
Some of you helped in pointing out a wall wart for use in the UK, but yet, I have no idea what that would plug into (on the model end,not the wall plug)
so,basically I need the 'inerds' that youd find in between the wall wart and the wires coming from the LEDs.... :help: please :|
figurator
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Post by figurator »

PS...remember,Im an idiot on this subject so please K.I.S.S (keep it simple smart-people) :D
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Glorfindel
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Post by Glorfindel »

Figgy you'll need a corresponding jack for the plug end of your wall wart (power supply) I know the jacks I use have three prongs for connecting wires sticking out the back end. You'll need to figure out which prong is which, meaning one will be for positive, another for negative, and usually the middle one is ground which you won't use. Mine aren't marked so you'll need to rig the jack up to either a battery or bread board and test light with an LED and a resistor . Once you've determined which leads off the jack are neg/pos you should be good to go with the rest of the hookup. Depending on how many LED's and or blinky circuits I'm running I sometimes extend posts off the neg/pos leads from the jacks to give more soldering space to wire connections too. Try and solder all you LED's in parallel, not series. in series if one goes out then they all go out. In other words solder each LED to the jacks leads individually. Yeah. you'll use more wire but you'll thank all Gods in the end.
Oh' and another thing.....make sure your Wall Wart is DC current not AC. Your LED's won't last long on AC.
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Ziz
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Post by Ziz »

Back up a second. You said you have white and yellow LEDs, right?

Whites and blues run in the 5 to 6v range, all the other colors are half of that, down around 2.5 to 3v. Secondly, each is going to pull a certain amount of milliamps (mA). Find out what those are.

So now you've got three issues - white voltage, yellow voltage and total amperage. Since white is the larger of the two voltages, you need a power supply that will give you 6v and at least as much mA as whatever that total comes out to. Chances are you won't find the exact amount so make sure the adapter can supply MORE mA that what you need.

Pre-installed resistors on the LEDs may not be a total help since they assume you're starting with a certain supply voltage. If that assumed voltage isn't 6V then you need to replace the resistors with the right ones.

http://www.rapidtables.com/electric/resistor.htm

That should help you figure out what the values are of the resistors you have compared to what you need. Plug in the various amounts you do know and calculate for the rest.
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