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Basic electronics help

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jepuskar

New Member
Hello,

Was hoping someone can help me out with this...

I bought an aquarium that comes with LED lights. On top of the aquarium are two switches, one controls one LED bar, the other controls 4 LED bars. However, in order to power the 4 LED bars, the 1st switch has to be on. So switch 1 AND switch 2 have to be on in order for the 4 LED bars to work.

I'm not happy with this setup as I want to control them seperately. The problem is there is only one plug for the lights that needs to go to a timer. So I need two plugs so I control the time they are on/off seperately.

So I've confirmed the LED's are powered by 12VDC and they pull 30mA each. I confirmed using my multimeter and a Kill-A-watt device I bought from HD. Each time I plug in a new LED bar the current draw goes up 30mA.

So I found a wall wart that outputs 12VDC and is rated for 600mA. As a test I plugged in my wall wart to the kill-a-watt device and powered one LED bar, (I did confirm it's a 12VDC output).
The (1) LED bar I powered was super bright and drawing 130mA.

So my thinking was if I provided a 12VDC source I should be good, but obviously there is something else going on here. I backed out my wiring test and returned things to normal. I took a reading from each of the 4 LED contacts and they each read 12VDC.

Their power is coming from a small PCB which I don't have a schematic so I'm guessing my problem starts there. Could they be doing some sort of current limiting or am I overlooking something basic here?? :(

Thanks for the help. (I can provide pictures if it would help someone answer)

Jason
 
LEDs are operated by regulating the current through them; not the voltage across them. Sounds that while you are mucking about you are bypassing the current regulator.
 
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