Rob From Pluto
- Feb 9, 2015
- 14
- Joined
- Feb 9, 2015
- Messages
- 14
Hi,
Me and some friends are making some LEDs for fun, we came up with a list of To Do's and split them amongst us. My To Do happens to be my weakest point- working out the power part. I think this is probably easy for people who know ohms law, i've been reading a ton but this part is confusing to me-
We are using high power LEDs- 40W RGBW (led engin brand). They are actually four LEDs in one package so we can mix them to make any color (using an LED driver). Red is powered with 8v, the others are powered with 12v.
I have it working, very bright and everything works as it should. I'm powering it with a computer ATX power supply using a constant current controller.
What i'm trying to work out is how many of these LEDs i can power using this power supply. The power supply is rated at 700 watts. My first thought was to simply divide 700 by 40watts (since the LEDs are rated at 40 watts) to get 17.5 (call it 17), meaning theoretically i should be able run 17 of these rgbw LEDs (and figure in 80% for safety).
Is this right? Someone told me that i should be doing it differently- by using the amps drawn- i.e. each channel (there are 4 channels, each color is called a channel) is held at a constant 600ma, so 600 * 4 channels (reg, green, blue and white) = 2.4 amps. The power supply's specs written on the side say it can supply 52 amps at +12v, and 52A/2.4A = 21, meaning i should be able to run 21 of these RGBW LEDs.
Which do you think is the right way to do it?
Thanks
Rob
Me and some friends are making some LEDs for fun, we came up with a list of To Do's and split them amongst us. My To Do happens to be my weakest point- working out the power part. I think this is probably easy for people who know ohms law, i've been reading a ton but this part is confusing to me-
We are using high power LEDs- 40W RGBW (led engin brand). They are actually four LEDs in one package so we can mix them to make any color (using an LED driver). Red is powered with 8v, the others are powered with 12v.
I have it working, very bright and everything works as it should. I'm powering it with a computer ATX power supply using a constant current controller.
What i'm trying to work out is how many of these LEDs i can power using this power supply. The power supply is rated at 700 watts. My first thought was to simply divide 700 by 40watts (since the LEDs are rated at 40 watts) to get 17.5 (call it 17), meaning theoretically i should be able run 17 of these rgbw LEDs (and figure in 80% for safety).
Is this right? Someone told me that i should be doing it differently- by using the amps drawn- i.e. each channel (there are 4 channels, each color is called a channel) is held at a constant 600ma, so 600 * 4 channels (reg, green, blue and white) = 2.4 amps. The power supply's specs written on the side say it can supply 52 amps at +12v, and 52A/2.4A = 21, meaning i should be able to run 21 of these RGBW LEDs.
Which do you think is the right way to do it?
Thanks
Rob