Power Supply for LEDs

[Infinity]

Ok, so I want to power LEDs controlled through a simple on/off switch. I've googled and am tired. Someone please help.

What is the best way to power the circuit. I thought about using a PC PSU, but wasn't sure how to safely wire everything together.

I'm looking at about 30 LEDs all wired seperately through independant toggles. (such as fuel pumps, ice protection, etc. - meaning each switch illuminates it's own light) Perhaps there is an easier way. I don't plan to have all LEDs illuminated at once, but I also don't want to blow the circuit in case I do.

I could power each LED seperately with a simple battery, but that seems a bit excessive in my opinion, not too mention space depriving. What would you all recommend?

P.S. I don't have the LEDs so I can't provide the volts, but can figure that out later once I figure out what power supply to use.

[Bernie]

Hi Infinity,

This will help you as well http://led.linear1.org/led.wiz you can design an LED Array and you can say how many LED's you are using in the array and tell it what voltage you will be using (Some information about the LED is required and it will design the array and tell you what resistors to use.

Kind Regards

Bernie.

[weyes]

I am using an old PC power supply and I am quite satisfied. Cabling is very easy: for powering on you have to connect a blue cable to one of the black cables. Then each red cable with the black (ground) gives +5V and each yellow cable with the ground gives +12V.

You can find a lot of video on youtube showing how to connect the blue cable to power on.

[Infinity]

What is the recommend method for connecting all those LEDs to the psu? Bus tie??? Direct???

[fsaviator]

I like to use busses. One for the positive and one for the negative. The sky is the limit though. Any connection you want can be used.

What are your LEDs for? If for backlighting, you may want to consider dimming. In that case, I would buy one of those $4 dollar dimmers on the net, connect it to the PSU via the bus, then connect the LEDs to it.

[Infinity]

Thanks guys. So group all the same color wires together (red, black, yellow) from the PSU and connect them to separate buses. Then connect the negative wire from the leds to the negative bus, the positive to the positive bus. Right so far?

Wire in the switch and resistor for each led and that should do it I think. What gauge wire should I use for the led circuits?

It's for annuciators, not backlighting, though I may consider a dimmer.

[tiburon]

[QUOTE=weyes;128901]I am using an old PC power supply and I am quite satisfied. Cabling is very easy: for powering on you have to connect a blue cable to one of the black cables. [/QUOTE

I think that should be the green wire and the black wire.

[weyes]

I think that should be the green wire and the black wire.

You're right it is the green wire: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0OKmIuNtmI&feature=related

[google2012]

Good post!