Club 80-90 Forums

I'm in the process of fitting some Ikea Dioder LED lights to my van.
http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/70119425" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
They will be wired up to my leisure battery.
My question is, will I need a regulator or anything else so they work reliably.

not much info on the Iowa site. Is it 12v or 240v. It might have info on the power supply about power input.

They are a 240v set with an in-line transformer to 12v.
Would it be best to cut the 3 pin plug, and use the transformer or cut both off and just wire to leisure batt?
Are there any issues using LED's like this, direct to 12v, or do I need a regulator or the like?
Thanks for any help

You shouldn't need the transformer at all. It should just wire up straight to the battery. The lights should take the slightly higher voltage the battery will initially put out and will dim as the battery gets flatter (just like a torch). The transformer sounds like it takes the 240 AC voltage and converts it to 12 volts DC which is the same as what your battery puts out. Actually your battery when fully charged will probably put out somewhere between 12 and 14 volts but the lights should handle that ok.

Most LED's are very tolerant to small changes in voltage the excepetion being some high power LED's such as 12V Luxeon LED' lighting modules which are supposed to have a current regulator to limit current. Even these should be OK on the 12V leisure battery unless the ZIG charger is used (which pumps out 13.4 volts) in which case Luxeon LED's will over current slightly and this reduces the life expectancy and light output rather than blowing them (so to speak). Not sure which LED technology your modules use but since the power supply is delivering 12V then, same as Slobbo, I would simply connect them to the leisure battery and not worry too much about it. Your only other option is to use them on 240V using an invertor but I wouldn't bother.

There are too many presumptions being made here, whilst I agree with the general conclusion that they are 12Volts and so SHOULD work with a 12V DC battery, are we absolutely sure that this is what they need to work. Personally, I would see if I could get to look at the transformer to check the output sticker and see if it says DC and has shows two parallel straigt lines and does not say v.ac and show two wavey lines indicating alternating current output. I once had a similar experience with a set of Christmas Tree lights and a 12volt transformer which was definately volts AC.
Martin

Always wise to check the PSU but bear in mind if the module is designed to run at 12V then it will run on 12V DC or 12V AC, only difference will be that on AC they are switching on and off 50 times a second and usually to keep the cost of the product low. Lighting modules that use Luxeon LEDs sometimes use a high frequency pulse mode output to squeeze more light out of the LED in which case try them on 240V and 12V DC and compare the brightness.

Many thanks for all your replies. This is what is printed on the cover of the transformer:-
LED power supply
TYPE: SLT5-12VS
Prim.: 220-240Vac, 50Hz
Sec.: 12Vdc, Max 0,42A 0,5-5W
Looks like leisure battery will be OK. I was probably a bit over cautious, not wanting to blow them.
Thank you all for your help.

Yours are Standard LED's so no problem with fitting to the battery, Luxeons would draw a much higher current.

I love it when a plan comes together!

just as well they are dc. coz you would have a whale of a time getting ac from a battery

Nahh, just keep swapping the connections around really quickly!

I use Ikea Dioders in mine - look at the photos in my garage if you want to see them in action.

Throw away the transformer and connect direct to the battery (via a switch).
They run on 12V DC, so are perfect for this application.

LEDs only pass current one way, so if you connected them to 12V AC (though god knows were you would find such a source), they would only be on half the time!

High Peaker wrote:I use Ikea Dioders in mine - look at the photos in my garage if you want to see them in action.

Throw away the transformer and connect direct to the battery (via a switch).
They run on 12V DC, so are perfect for this application.

LEDs only pass current one way, so if you connected them to 12V AC (though god knows were you would find such a source), they would only be on half the time!

correct! Used on some cheaper led lighting modules where they can't be arsed to supply DC and keep costs down but LED's will quite happily run on AC or DC as long as the manufacturers spec is observed.

but LED's will quite happily run on AC or DC

They last longer as well, due to the fact they switched off some of the time.