Simple LED driver

This model is a means of driving and dimming your LED’s.

By changing (or switch off) the light intensity of the LED in different ways, you get different colors and effects. This is the main secret of the lamps I have posted this year.

It’s the simplest way I could think of to make this driver/ dimmer :-).

Basically it’s just a case with 3 potentiometers and 3 transistors (or FET can also be used like a BUZ11)

that dims the voltage. This is a follow up part for the adjustable LED base: 

https://pinshape.com/items/403...

.

If you have your LED’s and the right resistor (I have talked about in

https://pinshape.com/items/403...

) you can make this driver case. I included a schematic for connecting the parts. Because it’s so simple, I didn’t even make a PCB, but soldered the parts directly together on the potentiometers themselves. The transistor is only needed to handle the current and it’s cheaper than buying a 5W potentiometer.

The 15K resistor is just a limiter so the potentiometer has a better range. If the range does not work for you because the LED is already at max level when the potentiometer shaft is only at 50%, than you can replace this resistor with a 50K potentiometer to “fine tune” it.

Than you need a case to hold the parts together and I kept it very simple. There is a main housing end 2 different type of baseplates. One has extra mounting options. Also the one with external mounting option has a build in cable tie. The basic one without the external mounting options does not have this cable tie option but slots for cable ties. In the photos the white case is the one with build in cable ties

I also made a knob. It fits the potentiometers I used. Please see the photo for the dimensions.

This driver works on a USB charger, but I also use 12V adapters with an LM7805. This 12V solution has a great disadvantage, because you waste a lot of energy in the form of heat (and a LM7805,100nF &33nF capacitor) :-). So my advice is to buy a cheap 2.1A USB charger.

The goal of this driver is to make it cheap. Do you have 3 50 potentiometers? Use them then. Do you not have this transistor but A BUZZ11 or an IRFZ44N? use those. That is wat it will keep it cheap. The more parts you have to buy, the more expensive it will get :-).

Maybe I will make a PWM driven driver in the future, but only if people ask me