philthyy 0 Posted May 24, 2011 Report Share Posted May 24, 2011 I am currently attending college for an associates degree in electrical engineering and was hoping for some help on one of my school projects. I am building a ring counter using a standard TTL IC (I forget the number on the chip just now) and I want to use it to control some Hobbyking LED strips I am installing on my Parkzone Stryker. The problem is that the LED strips need 12 volts and my IC only puts out 5 volts. So I was thinking of using the output from the IC to control a transistor to switch the 12 volts to the LEDs. Would this work, and if so do I need to limit the voltage/current from the IC to the transistor? And what transistor should I use? Thanks! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Mr.RC-Cam 129 Posted May 24, 2011 Report Share Posted May 24, 2011 You shouldn't have any problems finding online details on how to use a transistor to act as a switch. For example, it is a common thing to do when interfacing high current hardware to a microcontroller. This should get you started: http://www.ermicro.com/blog/?p=423 The transistor you select should be rated for the worst case load current. A common-as-dirt 2N2222 (PN22222, 2N2222A, etc.) is a fine choice if the expected load current is under 500mA. You didn't say what current the LED strip needed, but I suspect it is not much. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
philthyy 0 Posted May 25, 2011 Author Report Share Posted May 25, 2011 Thanks! That is an awesome site! My LED strip has 60 LEDs on it. It is from Hobbyking and they rate them at 400mA. I will be running two strips initially, and later adding two more strips. My ring counter has four outputs, and I would like to have a full LED strip on each output. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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