Simple Cabinet Led Light With Recycled Power Adaptor

Everyone has power adaptors that have no more use.

From old laptops, portable phones and all sorts of portable machines.

Don't throw them away !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Look for the 12volt and 9 volt adaptors.

We can use these as power adaptors with 12 volt led light strips.

Step 1: What Do We Need ?

An old adaptor  12 volt or less.

One or more led strips 12 volt.

Something to connect these.

Step 2: The Adaptor

An old working adaptor 12 volt or 9 volt is suitable.
Because we use led strips that need 12 volt, these will give a little less light with a 9 volt adaptor.
Even less with a 6 volt adaptor.

When you look at the data of the adaptor on the picture,
we see that the output is 9 volt 500 mA.

How do you calculate the adaptors maximum power :

9volt x 500mA = 9volt x 0,500 A = 4,5 Watt

Step 3: The Led Strip

you can buy lots of led strips, online, in an electro shop ...

just look for led strips 12 volt that you can connect easily.

With a wire at the end or as the one on the picture with two little metal pins at the end.

Remember the adaptors maximum power 4,5 Watt (500mA x 9V)

This particular led strip ( 0, 54Watt ) can be coupled, this means we can use no more than 8 strips coupled with this adaptor.

8 x 0,54 = 4,32 Watt

(To calculate this correctly we should use the resistance-value but this is more simple and safe too)

Step 4: Connecting

You can cut the wire of the adaptor at the desired length and connect it with the led strip by soldering.

Or with simple wire connectors, you can buy online, or in a shop. They cost less then a dollar for 10 pcs.

The one I used is a more advanced model, that fits the adaptors pin.

It is priced about 4 dollar. But I use these for other experiments too.

Step 5: Testing

I don't want to add a lot of difficult explanations, but we need tot test if the led light is connected the right way.
We are working with 12volt DC so the direction of the current is important.

No worries, it's very simple : the first time you plug the adaptor into a wall socket and the light is not working,
unplug it asap and no harm is done.
This means that you have to switch the connection of the wires.
Then it's easy to use a connector that has screws.
My advice : test this before connecting definetively.

Step 6: Let There Be Light !!!

This light under a raised bed of a 12 year old girl is made of 3 connected led strips like the one in the example.

Enough light to read a book and work on her computer.  And it has some character too.

The 3 led strips cost about 12 €  (4 each).  The adaptor is gratis. 

You only save 15€ but it's all about recycling.

Comments

[ewilson224]

Question....

I am doing something kind of similar. I am utilizing a 12 volt LED bulb assembly that I wanting to power with an old cordless phone charger. The LED is 12 volt and is 140 milliamps. The charger is 9 volt and 210 milliamps. Will this be enough to power this and will I need to worry about getting the milliamps down with a resistor?

[Jackal1412]

Wonderful 'ible; love the recycling aspect.

I have a quick question. Is the adapter necessary? If I were to cut the end of the adapter and identify the + and - wires, could I just connect them to the appropriate wire of the LED strips, shrink wrap them, and go?

This would make the overall project cheaper at the cost of not being able to seperate the LED's from the power adapter.

[zaksken]

the connector is not necessary, you can connect the wires any way you choose ... read the first line of connecting

but the adaptor, you need