Author Topic: LED Spot hack  (Read 1048 times)

Offline aERonAUtical96

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LED Spot hack
« on: January 08, 2016, »
Posted this over on DIYC and wanted to post here as well...

Need advice. I purchased a few of these LED spots from, I believe, Lowe's 2, maybe 3 years ago. Don't know the brand. Don't have the box anymore. I usually try to keep at least 1 box and I didn't this time... not sure why. They are a simple plug into an outlet and they turn on. Each spot was a single color... red, green or blue. Tried to use them in shows using an SSR4 to control them. But the circuitry would delay the activation of the LEDs by about 70 ms. So it made it difficult to time in a sequence.

I took a multimeter and read 9 volts going from the circuitry to the LEDs. This was measured at the solder point of the wire going into the disc that holds the LEDS. I measured 3+ volts across one of the LEDs (there are 3 / spot).

So my question is... is there something that I can do to cut out/bypass the current circuitry, add in my own components to have this thing powered from a Rainbow Brain or some other 5v/12v dmx controller? As a test, could I just apply 9v from a bench PS to the wiring running into the LED disc without blowing the LEDs?

Here are some pics

Thanks

Offline chrisatpsu

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Re: LED Spot hack
« Reply #1 on: January 08, 2016, »
the 3 leds' are in series.

If you supply 12v, I'd still add a resistor to supply power to the 3 leds.
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Offline chrisatpsu

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Re: LED Spot hack
« Reply #2 on: January 08, 2016, »
If the spots are different colors (one of your spots was red, another is green, etc. etc.)  they might have different voltage requirements.
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Offline aERonAUtical96

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Re: LED Spot hack
« Reply #3 on: January 08, 2016, »
They are different colors, so I will check out the voltages. 

Would it be as simple as a 12v to Xv step down?  If I was to put it on the bench at the appropriate voltage, what resistor would I need, if any, to protect?

Offline caretaker

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Re: LED Spot hack
« Reply #4 on: January 10, 2016, »
Cant be sure but the 556T IC should be a dual 555 timer which could be the source of you 78 msec delay (preventing a spike to the LED's
Jeff Squires
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Offline chrisatpsu

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Re: LED Spot hack
« Reply #5 on: January 10, 2016, »
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Cant be sure but the 556T IC should be a dual 555 timer which could be the source of you 78 msec delay (preventing a spike to the LED's

I was thinking that plus the capacitors providing a little delay as well.
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