SparkFun Forums

[goballstate]

Hey, can someone tell me what the voltage and total current draw are for the fairy lights? They work great on the batteries, but I would like to turn them on and off using a micro, and need to know what the parameters are. Thank you.

[goballstate]

OK, I'm still hoping to know what the power consumption is for these LEDs, but I've got a fun little project for them. Seems to be working, but I am currently using one 2n3904 per strip as I don't know how much current they consume, so I don't want to put two or more per transistor (which works, but seems to be a hair dimmer, so maybe 2 is too many?). I'll post my work to the projects forum, it's kinda cool to control these little lights via a micro.

Right now, I've got a 3v on the strips, but am curious to know how tolerant they are to more voltage? Also, using a transistor per strip allows a lot of customization, but is overkill honestly. If someone has a datasheet or something, that would help.

[Valen]

You should have a multimeter anyway as part of your toolset. Go measure it.

[paulvha]

There are MANY, MANY different Fairy lights in the world. They differ voltage and power consumption. I expect the only way to find out the one you have is to connect a DC (Milli) ampere meter serial between the lights and supply. Nearly every (cheap) general purpose multimeter could do the job. It is about the current (mA) , the voltage (3V in your case) should not be changed without a applying a resistor in serial. And for the right resistor to apply, you need to know the current anyway.