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- #41
jammeja I was thinking about your use of a 12V 10A supply. Once you start a line at 1A you have to use the whole 12V, so you have released 12 watts no matter how you use it, and you don't have a current regulator, just a voltage regulator, so you have to control the current with a resistor. This is not too much of a problem for those LEDs that break over at 10 or more volts. There you could use a 1 Ohm 2 watt resistor, this will drop 1V or even a .47 Ohm 1 watt resistor, this will drop 1/2V for current regulation, and the regulator will drop the rest, remember it will get hot, and should be mounted to a heat sink. If the regulator drops a volt that's 1 watt of heat, if it drops 2 volts that's 2 watts and so on. This is unused, and lost power on each line. So if you want more efficency with the reds breaking at 7 volts you could get some 5 watt LEDs to go in series with the 10 watters. First thing is a 10 watt LED is just 2 of 5 watt LEDs in series to start with. So a 5 watter breaks over at around 3V and with the 7V for the 10's and 1V, (or 1/2V) for the current regulator resistor the voltage regulator does not have to drop too much wasted energy. More things to think about, and sorry but more money to spend. Start out small, just make one with that power supply, see how it works before going into production making a large system. Think about how you can use all the voltage in each line of current with the least amount of waist. Have fun with it and good luck.