Who's good with electical wiring and currents and voltage and stuff...

[Wake]

I'm trying to create a diorama that uses these beacon lights and want to figure out a way to power from a standard 110v wall socket.

Beacon lights

Can anyone help me?

 

[Mr. EcKo]

PM DarkPassenger, he's a union electrician

 

[Wake]

Thank you sir!

 

[Wake]

Shoot.... darkpassenger doesnt come up in PM... is that his exact user name?

 

[Spook_Nukem]

Any 12v DC power supply should work fine. If you have an old computer laying around you could just pull the PSU from it since they will all convert 120 vac to 12 vdc but it will most likely be a much larger supply than what you need.

Honestly even a simple plug in adapter like this should power several of those lights.
[ame]https://www.amazon.com/Adapter-Input-120VAC-output-12VDC/dp/B00144E76Y/[/ame]

 

[Mr. EcKo]

Shoot.... darkpassenger doesnt come up in PM... is that his exact user name?

https://www.sideshowcollectors.com/forums/member.php?u=8607

 

[Wake]

Any 12v DC power supply should work fine. If you have an old computer laying around you could just pull the PSU from it since they will all convert 120 vac to 12 vdc but it will most likely be a much larger supply than what you need.

Honestly even a simple plug in adapter like this should power several of those lights.
https://www.amazon.com/Adapter-Input-120VAC-output-12VDC/dp/B00144E76Y/

So what I just twist the wires onto the adapter wires? No inverter or anything needed?

 

[Spook_Nukem]

So what I just twist the wires onto the adapter wires? No inverter or anything needed?

The plug in component actually houses the transformer that does the step down and voltage conversion. The previous link I supplied is a generic replacement 12 vdc adapter for many household electronic devices (cordless phone bases, routers, modems, battery chargers, etc). The round hollow pin plug end of that particular adapter would supply 12 vdc at up to 750 mA of current draw. The beacon lights will work with a 3-12 vdc but it doesn't mention their current draw.

Now knowing the specifics of your diorama you could splice directly into the wiring of your lights or you could buy a compatible socket and make your power supply unplug from the base. Looking at the youtube videos they wire in a momentary switch between the green and black wires so they can change light patterns simply by pressing a button. Depending on how bright you actually want the lights to be you can wire a resistor in line with you supply voltage to drop the voltage down to 9 volts.

Actually that adapter wasn't well reviewed this one has better reviews and is actually shipped by Amazon.
[ame="https://www.amazon.com/Wall-Adapter-Power-Supply-12VDC/dp/B006GEPUYA/"]Wall-Adapter-Power-Supply-12VDC[/ame]

If you piggy-back this with something else for a total of $25 you can get is shipped for free.

 

[Wake]

The plug in component actually houses the transformer that does the step down and voltage conversion. The previous link I supplied is a generic replacement 12 vdc adapter for many household electronic devices (cordless phone bases, routers, modems, battery chargers, etc). The round hollow pin plug end of that particular adapter would supply 12 vdc at up to 750 mA of current draw. The beacon lights will work with a 3-12 vdc but it doesn't mention their current draw.

Now knowing the specifics of your diorama you could splice directly into the wiring of your lights or you could buy a compatible socket and make your power supply unplug from the base. Looking at the youtube videos they wire in a momentary switch between the green and black wires so they can change light patterns simply by pressing a button. Depending on how bright you actually want the lights to be you can wire a resistor in line with you supply voltage to drop the voltage down to 9 volts.

Actually that adapter wasn't well reviewed this one has better reviews and is actually shipped by Amazon.
Wall-Adapter-Power-Supply-12VDC

If you piggy-back this with something else for a total of $25 you can get is shipped for free.

Thanks for the explanation...

suppose if I wanted to run two of these beacon lights and this strobe light unit in the same diorama...

https://www.rcplanet.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=RAM42&click=106800RAM42

Can I power it with one adapter if I attach all the wires together?

 

[Spook_Nukem]

Thanks for the explanation...

suppose if I wanted to run two of these beacon lights and this strobe light unit in the same diorama...

https://www.rcplanet.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=RAM42&click=106800RAM42

Can I power it with one adapter if I attach all the wires together?

The beacons require a minium of 3 volts with a 12 volt maximum voltage. The strobe requires 9 volts to run so you will probably want to run the whole system at 9 volts DC if your planning to use a single source power supply. The only problem is sizing how big a supply you need current wise. Neither of the links really provide any information as to what amperage is required at the listed voltages. The link for the strobes state they will last four hours using a 9 volt alkaline battery which provides some information but not quite enough considering you plan on using a constant regulated power supply. The strobes should draw more power than the beacon lights considering they are actual u-tubes and not LEDs.

If were aiming for a 9 volt circuit instead of 12 you could use these adapters instead, depending on the total system load (amps).

[ame="https://www.amazon.com/Buffalo-DV9-500-500mA-Supply-Receiver/dp/B0013L28YQ/ref=sr_1_4?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1352428268&sr=1-4&keywords=9+vdc+regulated+power+supply"]9 vdc 500mA power supply[/ame]

[ame="https://www.amazon.com/9V-DC-Power-Adapter-Supply/dp/B004LX146Q/ref=sr_1_5?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1352428268&sr=1-5&keywords=9+vdc+regulated+power+supply"]9 vdc 1A regulated power supply[/ame]

[ame="https://www.amazon.com/Power-Adapter-2-1mm-Regulated-Supply/dp/B006QZ7EKW/ref=sr_1_12?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1352428268&sr=1-12&keywords=9+vdc+regulated+power+supply"]9 vdc 1.5A regulated power supply[/ame]