12v and LED rope lights

[daft]

I have a couple of sets of 16' LED rope lights. 18 and 36 watt. Controllers too. I have them running now with the 117 in and 12v out power supply.
I have a deep cell 12v battery from the big box.

I want to connect the deep cell to the controllers and I am nervous that with the fat load from the 12v battery the wires will got hot or the controller will fry. My buddy says no as the draw is the the 18-36 watts. What do the gurus of electrons say?

Once I get that going I can use the multimeter to guess how long I can go between charges,but if you have experience let me know.

Hey thanks in advance compadres

[Captain Goddammit]

If you were using a power supply that supplied 12 volt DC and you use a 12 volt deep cycle battery instead, your power draw will be the same and everything will be fine.
18 and 36 watts are not "fat loads". You can use pretty small wires for that.

What does your controller do? Is it connected downstream of the power supply, getting 12 volts DC input, and 12 volts DC output to the lights?

[daft]

Yes the controller just lets you pick different lighting patterns.

[Captain Goddammit]

OK, you should be fine using the battery. 12 volts DC is 12 volts DC. I have a couple of those C*stc* deep cycle batteries and they will run those lights a long time!

[BBadger]

With electrical sources, the ideal assumption is that they can supply unlimited current at the rated voltage. The LED rope lights themselves are what are regulating the current, not the power supply unless it's at its limits, or the batteries aren't up to the task (like alkaline batteries at high current loads). Deep cycle lead-acid batteries, on the other hand, can supply 30 amps or so without a problem. At 18-36W at 12V, your LED lights are drawing only 3 amps. You'll be just fine.

[kowtow]

I have done this in my trailer. I bought the Sylvania Mosiac LED lights. I simply cut the cord on the wall wort (part that plugs in the wall) and I wired it to a light switch and directly to the 12vdc trailer battery. The switch supplies a cutoff on/off and then I use the remote to manage all the cool controller functions of the LEDs.

[Captain Goddammit]

If I weren't sitting out this year, I would actually construct a "First Time Burner Of The Year" award and give it to you at the M&G at Pyro's.
Unfortunately, next year you won't be eligible!

[daft]

Thanks everyone. It works just dandy of a 12v or 24v deep cell

[kowtow]

If I weren't sitting out this year, I would actually construct a "First Time Burner Of The Year" award and give it to you at the M&G at Pyro's.
Unfortunately, next year you won't be eligible!

Well if you want to construct me a Second Time Burner of the Year award then I'll let you do that also. In fact you can make a 1st time one and just give it to me next year, crossing out 1st and making it say 2nd. lol...

Thanks for the kudo's, but I couldn't have done it without all the awesome veteran burner advice that I've received from eplaya. You guy's have all given me the ideas and the know-how and I just put it together and blow the cash make it happen.

Damn I wish you were going this year!!!

[Captain Goddammit]

Just a quick minor peeve - the batteries in question are "deep cycle" batteries. Not "deep cell".

Daft, post some pictures of your project! We'd love to see it!!

I'll be back next year come hell or high beer.
You can drive the Yacht if you want, I rarely get to ride and imbibe!
That would actually be pretty funny to make a First Timer of the Year award and do a shitty hack job changing it to "second"! But we don't already know you'll win that one!!

[maladroit]

Whenever kowtow posts yet another Doin' It Right item, I can't help but feel like a proud father somehow, although it doesn't make any sense to feel that way.

[Captain Goddammit]

Whenever kowtow posts yet another Doin' It Right item, I can't help but feel like a proud father somehow, although it doesn't make any sense to feel that way.

Did you boink his mom?

[kowtow]

Whenever kowtow posts yet another Doin' It Right item, I can't help but feel like a proud father somehow, although it doesn't make any sense to feel that way.

Did you boink his mom?

What do you mean, did he? He still is. She won't even let me come visit when he's around because she say's I just keep gettin in the way.

[theCryptofishist]

If I weren't sitting out this year, I would actually construct a "First Time Burner Of The Year" award and give it to you at the M&G at Pyro's.
Unfortunately, next year you won't be eligible!

Well if you want to construct me a Second Time Burner of the Year award then I'll let you do that also. In fact you can make a 1st time one and just give it to me next year, crossing out 1st and making it say 2nd. lol...

Thanks for the kudo's, but I couldn't have done it without all the awesome veteran burner advice that I've received from eplaya. You guy's have all given me the ideas and the know-how and I just put it together and blow the cash make it happen.

Damn I wish you were going this year!!!

Ah well, he'll be a stealth virgin, even without a reward.

[Captain Goddammit]

Ah well, he'll be a stealth virgin, even without a reward.

What ever happened to "Where's My Fucking Gift?"

[kowtow]

Ah well, he'll be a stealth virgin, even without a reward.

What ever happened to "Where's My Fucking Gift?"

Ya where the fuck is my gift? lol...

[gaminwench]

patience, grasshopper.

[theCryptofishist]

Ah well, he'll be a stealth virgin, even without a reward.

What ever happened to "Where's My Fucking Gift?"

Stealth Virgins know better. They shadow DPW when they go through the routine.


(That joke belongs to a whole previous Burningman era...)

[--Ever--]

Sorry to hijack, figure it's a similar question:

Our 10 year old inverter is on it's last leg. We use it to run this 150ft LED rope off a battery.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008L2 ... UTF8&psc=1

I can just go out and buy a recommended one on Amazon, but I'm curious if there's anything in particular I should consider for this particular application? IE, maybe some inverters draw more/less power, and I trust the LED rope doesn't pull much, so there's no sense in over-drawing the battery.

Thanks for any suggestions.

[FossaFerox]

Sorry to hijack, figure it's a similar question:

Our 10 year old inverter is on it's last leg. We use it to run this 150ft LED rope off a battery.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008L2 ... UTF8&psc=1

I can just go out and buy a recommended one on Amazon, but I'm curious if there's anything in particular I should consider for this particular application? IE, maybe some inverters draw more/less power, and I trust the LED rope doesn't pull much, so there's no sense in over-drawing the battery.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Look at the cord that came with the rope, the brick along its length should say something like (110 V - 120 V 0.7A INPUT || 12V 6A OUTPUT) somewhere on it. That's what matters.

Quick primer, I don't know your level of knowledge so I apologize tremendously if I'm oversimplifying. Not trying to be condescending, trying to be helpful:

There are two types of electrical current, alternating and direct. Alternating is what you find coming out of the wall of your home or any other outlet. Direct is what you find coming out of a battery. Rectifiers let you switch from AC to DC, while inverters let you switch from DC to AC. Both involve losing some power.

Still with me?

Your inverter lets you turn your vehicles DC power into AC power so you can plug in that rope light. HOWEVER, that little black box on its length is a switching power supply, basically a very complicated rectifier. In short, you're going from DC, to AC, back to DC. This is unnecessary.

How do I know this for certain? All LED's run on DC power.

If you can find out what power you need and how much of it (the listed OUTPUT which should be on the box on the cord), you can run it straight off batteries (about 10 minutes of cutting, soldering, and heat shrinking may be involved, pays to be knowledgeable and have access to a multimeter) and skip the inverter all together.

If you don't know anyone with a soldering iron and some basic electronics knowledge, feel free to just replace the inverter and go with what's familiar. In that case, you don't need a very large inverter. 100 watts is plenty if all you're running is one of those rope lights (81 watts per rope, plus a safety margin so you aren't taxing the inverter too hard during use). I have a Whistler inverter that I'm quite fond of and they aren't terrible expensive. Good luck!

[--Ever--]

Sorry to hijack, figure it's a similar question:

Our 10 year old inverter is on it's last leg. We use it to run this 150ft LED rope off a battery.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008L2 ... UTF8&psc=1

I can just go out and buy a recommended one on Amazon, but I'm curious if there's anything in particular I should consider for this particular application? IE, maybe some inverters draw more/less power, and I trust the LED rope doesn't pull much, so there's no sense in over-drawing the battery.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Look at the cord that came with the rope, the brick along its length should say something like (110 V - 120 V 0.7A INPUT || 12V 6A OUTPUT) somewhere on it. That's what matters.

Quick primer, I don't know your level of knowledge so I apologize tremendously if I'm oversimplifying. Not trying to be condescending, trying to be helpful:

There are two types of electrical current, alternating and direct. Alternating is what you find coming out of the wall of your home or any other outlet. Direct is what you find coming out of a battery. Rectifiers let you switch from AC to DC, while inverters let you switch from DC to AC. Both involve losing some power.

Still with me?

Your inverter lets you turn your vehicles DC power into AC power so you can plug in that rope light. HOWEVER, that little black box on its length is a switching power supply, basically a very complicated rectifier. In short, you're going from DC, to AC, back to DC. This is unnecessary.

How do I know this for certain? All LED's run on DC power.

If you can find out what power you need and how much of it (the listed OUTPUT which should be on the box on the cord), you can run it straight off batteries (about 10 minutes of cutting, soldering, and heat shrinking may be involved, pays to be knowledgeable and have access to a multimeter) and skip the inverter all together.

If you don't know anyone with a soldering iron and some basic electronics knowledge, feel free to just replace the inverter and go with what's familiar. In that case, you don't need a very large inverter. 100 watts is plenty if all you're running is one of those rope lights (81 watts per rope, plus a safety margin so you aren't taxing the inverter too hard during use). I have a Whistler inverter that I'm quite fond of and they aren't terrible expensive. Good luck!

Very helpful, plenty technical, perfectly simple. Thank you.

I can solder, dad's an electrical engineer. Will tinker with him Saturday, stop by the hardware store for a 100w Inverter if I break all the things.

[daft]

Its coming together, 12v deep cell, loading up a string of LEDs, with a controller for different effects, coupled to a relay that turns on when it gets dark. Have a baby buggy to attach to bike to bring the battery back for a charge hopefully every two days. Lights up a street sign, timbuktu and 1330AD. I guess I better add a volt meter to my toolbox just in case.