I was wondering how could i power my IR LED strips using a PSU from a computer.  has anyone done this? does a Power supply from a computer regulate how much power to put into the LED lights or do i need resistors or something else?

Any help or reference points would be very much appreciated.

you can, most PC PSU has 12V and 5V, but they do not regulate how much power delivered to LED. One solution is to use LM317 constant current regulator, but if you intend to put more than 6 LEDs in serie, 12V with LM317 is OK, but you probably won’t be able to drive more than 6 because of the forward voltage of LED’s

Also, if you PC PSU, you need to short two pins to make PSU stay “turned on”. The two pins on an ATX type PSU are black and green, but DO IT AT YOUR OWN RISK, best way is to google PC PSU hack or something like that.

i am using one of those 5 meter reels from enviromental lights, theres a ton of LED’s on them. definitely way more than 6, so what do u suggest i do?

i would like a way that when my table goes into sleep mode that the lights go into sleep mode as well, therefore my thinking was to connect the LED lights to the power supply. if u have any suggestions that would be great

many thanks

generally speaking you can get ready made direct plug in LED strip kits for computers. If youre going about it by yourself though you will need to make sure the LEDs are correctly driven otherwise they will fail.

cityguru, in that case, you don’t need anything, just hook it up to the 12V, most PC PSU can supply enough current to power up one 5m LED strip and these strips are designed to take 12V, it has resistors built in already.