Devices for vehicles will be designed to switch DC.
Those for use in homes are designed for AC, they will be damaged if used for DC.
Wardrobe Lights Wiring
- Thread starter Hpd
- Start date
Those for use in homes are designed for AC, they will be damaged if used for DC.
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Yes I KNOW. That's why I pointed to a device that IS designed to switch DC and could be perfectly well used in the home.
I'm not sure that anyone is disagreeing with that.
The thing that I find 'less than nice' about the arrangement is unnecessarily leaving a power supply powered 24/7, when it will probably only be needed for a minute or two once or twice per day. Whilst the power consumption might be trivial, I would prefer not to have things that can go wrong (theoretically, even 'burst into flames'), particularly if they are 'hidden away', unnecessarily permanently powered - and that's without considering the 'life expectancy' of the PSU.
Kind Regards, John
IIRC some SMPSUs shut down when unloaded, and do not power up when the load is connected - they need the supply to be cycled.
But I may not be RC.
But I may not be RC.
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I don't disagree with that at all. I merely point out that switching the 12V DC side is perfectly feasible if the OP decided that was what he wished to do, for whatever reason.
It seems that we are all agreed about that.
In context, the main difference between a car and what we are talking about is that the former is powered by a battery and/or alternator (neither of which mind if the entire load switches backwards and forwards between zero and something finite), whereas the OP's LEDs will (presumably) be fed via some sort of SMPSU. As BAS has suggested, I think that some of the latter (particularly if they have stated 'minimum load') probably do 'shut down' if the load is completely removed. If that happens (literally), it's hard to see how they could start up again when a load was reapplied - since, if they were not generating any ELV, they would not be able to know when the load reappeared.
Kind Regards, John
The only SMPS that I know of that have a minimum load are those cheap nasty things sold for halogen lights with HF AC output, and even those start up when the correct load is applied, or the ones I have played with do. The DC output ones typically of the wall wort type have no minimum load and you can measure their output voltage on no load.
I basically followed the diagram that Flameport drew. I got everything from TLC. The switches are all on the 240v side so the driver isn't left permanently on
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