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Thread: Basic home made low pass amplifier for LEDs

  1. #1
    Jason_85 Newbie
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    Default Basic home made low pass amplifier for LEDs

    Hi everyone, I've joined the forums to get some help in building a simple amplifier. Basically I have 50 13k mcd LEDs (12V, about 30W) which I want to power through a simple amplifier system. The input to the amplifier will be the output from my laptop soundcard (Soundblaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio Notebook).

    I'd like to pass it through a low pass filter, and then through the amp itself. I know how to make a filter, but have no idea how to go about making an amp that will produce about 50W of power and not blow my LEDs. My knowledge of electronics is relatively limited, I took elementary electrical engineering in my undergrad but that doesn't really get me far.

    I will use a simple 12V DC power supply to drive it (either hack one up from a computer power supply or get a proper DC transformer).

    Thanks in advance for the help,
    Jason


  2. #2
    dknguyen Excellent dknguyen Excellent dknguyen Excellent dknguyen Excellent dknguyen Excellent dknguyen Excellent dknguyen Excellent dknguyen Excellent dknguyen Excellent
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    Unless I'm reading this wrong...you have 30W LEDs but want to drive them with a 50W amplifier but not blow them? 30W LEDs will by definition blow if you run more power through them. Not sure where this 50W specification came from, but if you want a 50W per LED light show you need 50W LEDs.

    30W LEDs x50 is 1500W. That is the same power as a toaster and is already pushing most wall outlets.So it's pushing even a wall outlet. A laptop battery certainly won't power a toaster for any length of time, particularily without exploding and setting on fire. Let's also not forget you have to convert the wall power for your LEDs and that isn't a 100% efficient process so you will actually get less than 1500W. So you would need a power supply rated for that much AND a wall outlet that can provide more than that (which for all intents and purposes, doesn't exist for you). At 50W per LED...forget about it unless you have some other power source.

    I'm not sure you can even find computer power supplies much more than 1000W in the first place.

    It's probably not smart to run LEDs at their max power anyways...but I don't mess around with fancy LEDs a lot so maybe they are rated more conservatively than I think they are.
    Last edited by dknguyen; 9th December 2008 at 10:07 PM.

  3. #3
    Jason_85 Newbie
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    Dec 2008
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    Sorry, my bad I should have been more clear about this. There are 50 LEDs, which can consume about 30W together. I wanted to use a 50W amp since I may want to add more lights later on, I am assuming it wouldn't be difficult to regulate the amplification with a simple variable resistor in the circuit?
    Jason

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