# 12v ac to 12v dc conversion



## Dalork (Apr 19, 2014)

Hi all,

I have no idea how best to do this and need some help please, I have a 12vac / 100w (240v-12v) garden light power supply and 5x 12vdc (10w) LED garden floodlights. Is there a converter I can buy to rectify the 12v ac to output 12v dc? Is there some way to use this power supply safely for these led lights.

any help would be fantastic.


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## RetroTechie (Apr 20, 2014)

Dalork said:


> I have a 12vac / 100w (240v-12v) garden light power supply


AC -> AC, chances are that's just a transformer (+ a fuse and maybe a line filter and/or switch). Came with a set of incandescent / halogen lights, right?

You'd need a bridge rectifier, electrolytic capacitor, and voltage regulator IC (a 7812 for example) to turn that into a stable 12V DC. None of those are expensive, but chances are a ready-made AC -> 12V DC regulated power supply is cheap, smaller and more efficient than that. Btw:



> and 5x 12vdc (10w) LED garden floodlights.


Is that 5 LEDs, 12V DC / 10W *each*, or 5 LEDs, 12V DC and 10W in total? (so 2W per LED)


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## Dalork (Apr 20, 2014)

No it didn't come with any lights, I have a similar set-up I did my backyard to give lighting to BBQ and eat/entertain. Except the LED floodlights I bought operate on 12vac (think they run on both ac/dc). He wants to do the same thing and me wire it up for him but the difference is the LED lights he got seem to be dc only.

This is the transformer http://www.tortech.com.au/toroidal-...-transformer/100-watt-outdoor-transformer-12v

The LED flood lights are 12v dc 10w each unit and there is 5 of them. They look like this http://image.dhgate.com/albu_267684637_00-1.0x0/cheap-10w-led-floodlight-flood-light-landscape.jpg


I'd like to buy a device to correct the voltage or if it's not hard and someone is willing to instruct me on what and how to solder together to fix it. If not maybe just get him a different transformer 240Vac to 12Vdc, just trying to save him money and maybe learn a little myself lol.


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## Conte (Apr 28, 2014)

You need a 10 amp Bridge Rectifier.

It will be clearly labeled, two pins with ~ for the AC input. Doesn't matter which pin.
Then two pins will say + and -. Those will be DC out to the lights.

The filter cap should be optional.
You won't be able to regulate it with a 7812. There is no need to anyway.


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