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Underpowering a RGB LED controller to achieve lower voltage output?

seanspotatobusiness

Sep 11, 2012
193
Joined
Sep 11, 2012
Messages
193
I have a project for which I'd like to use one of these remote controls and receivers. They accept 12 v and use this to power RGB LEDs on strips. However I don't want to power LEDs on strips; I want to power some RGB LEDs in parallel which means I need to drop the voltage considerably (to 2.8-3.8 v). I was wondering whether I could do this simply by reducing the input voltage? According to the webpage above, the receiver uses a 5 v regulator which presumably powers all the electronics with 12 v then being passed to the LEDs by mosfets (the red output is actually 8-9 v).

If I supply, say, 4 v, how would the voltage regulator handle that?
 

Gryd3

Jun 25, 2014
4,098
Joined
Jun 25, 2014
Messages
4,098
I have a project for which I'd like to use one of these remote controls and receivers. They accept 12 v and use this to power RGB LEDs on strips. However I don't want to power LEDs on strips; I want to power some RGB LEDs in parallel which means I need to drop the voltage considerably (to 2.8-3.8 v). I was wondering whether I could do this simply by reducing the input voltage? According to the webpage above, the receiver uses a 5 v regulator which presumably powers all the electronics with 12 v then being passed to the LEDs by mosfets (the red output is actually 8-9 v).

If I supply, say, 4 v, how would the voltage regulator handle that?
You need to at least supply enough voltage to properly run the logic in the the device. You run the risk of damaging equipment my over/under supplying the voltage or current.
Take it apart and see how it is designed to make sure you can alter the input voltage
 
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