Optocouplers in place of LED's

[Russell James]

I intend on making a "LED" bar graph for both home and car stereo
using 100mm or 300mm Cold Cathode Fluro Lamps (CCFL) in place of the
LED's. Using a LM3915 (or ZL3915 - Jaycar Australia Product Code) IC,
I can directly controll 10 LED's easily with a 3 to 25vDC supply and a
small amount of auxilary components.

However what I am having difficulty with is figureing out a way of
making an optocoupler controll the CCFL inverter supply's as they draw
500 - 600mA's (for 300mm CCFL's).

If anyone can/will help, please let me know.

 

[Stefan Heinzmann]

I intend on making a "LED" bar graph for both home and car stereo
using 100mm or 300mm Cold Cathode Fluro Lamps (CCFL) in place of the
LED's. Using a LM3915 (or ZL3915 - Jaycar Australia Product Code) IC,
I can directly controll 10 LED's easily with a 3 to 25vDC supply and a
small amount of auxilary components.

However what I am having difficulty with is figureing out a way of
making an optocoupler controll the CCFL inverter supply's as they draw
500 - 600mA's (for 300mm CCFL's).

If anyone can/will help, please let me know.

It might be easiest to use solid state relays instead of the optocouplers.