I have a 13.8 20 amp power supply on hand, Would it work to power street lights, house and building lights, that kind of stuff on a HO layout?
More than likely! 20A is a decent amount of load capacity. 13.8V will probably droop closer to 12V as you load the Power Supply down, but thats still a good voltage to work with.
A few things to take into consideration:
-LEDs usually require 1.5V-2.5V. They will need a resistor in series with them to prevent the 12-13.8V from driving too much current through them.
-The same can be said about bulbs, but the allowable Voltage range of bulbs is usually a bit more varied. (aka, there are 1.5v bulbs, 5V bulbs, 6V bulbs, 12V bulbs, 14V bulbs, etc)
-Calculate to have about 75%-85% of the rated current through the bulb/LED. Lowering the operating current will prolong the life of the device while only lowering the brightness slightly (if even noticeable)
Check out the link in my sig for a quickie "For Dummies" tutorial of Basic Electricity
Dave Loman
My site: The Rusty Spike
"It's a penny for your thoughts, but you have to put your 2 cents in.... hey, someone's making a penny!"
Dave,
Can't get the site to load for "Basic elect...."
Would love to review.
pjjkg
try this: link
Heh, my bad. I worked the site into xhtml strict 1.0 valid and forgot to update the link. :)
Its fixed now!
Thanks 7793 and Dave.
Look forward to reading in depth your tutorial.
doc steve