# Tortoise with LEDs power question



## txdyna65 (Aug 17, 2012)

I have 19 tortoises wired to switches and adding a red and green LED to each. I only have 10 done so far and I currently have one 500ma power source for it all. So far everything is running good and staying lit but I still have 9 more sets of LEDs to wire. Is this enough power for all the LEDs and tortoises? I read on the package with the LEDs that they take 20ma each, so 19 lit at one time will be 380ma. Im not sure if there will be enough power left over to switch the tortoises and I cant find out what they are drawing at stall. 

Pic of the switch panel before I started adding LEDs
Thanks for any help


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## NIMT (Jan 6, 2011)

You should be fine, worst case senario, up the transformer if it doesn't work.


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## txdyna65 (Aug 17, 2012)

I have a 750ma power source I could use, will this be too much power for the tortoises or LEDs? I see on the circuitron site they have the 500ma power source as the recommended power. I guess I could split it up and use both power sources, but I was saving the 750 for something else


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## NIMT (Jan 6, 2011)

You really can run them off of just about anything I ran them off of a 5amp supply. They will only take what they need and you shouldn't have any issues.


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## iamwhiteshadow (Jan 22, 2013)

Power pack voltage is a constant, you will fry things that are under the output voltage and things will run slow or not at all if over the output voltage but amperage can be over drawn. IE if you have a 12 V DC power pack you can draw up to 1 amp but it will start to over heat if you drew more. This is some what a rule in this area. I have had power packs start on fire from over amping them so if you stay under the amp draw ratting you should be fine. Another thing to understand is you wont be useing all the LEDs and switch motors all at once so you'll only draw what is on at any given time and switch motors are momentary on devices so even if you only have a 1 amp power pack you can have a ton of stuff on it as not all will be on all at once. I hope I explained that well enough.


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## NIMT (Jan 6, 2011)

iamwhiteshadow,
Have you ever worked with or wired Tortoise SM's? The way they are designed is not like a normal motor. They have stall motors in them. You can apply power to them and when it reaches the end of the rotation, it will just draw a very small amount of power. They are power limiting in design so it really doesn't matter how much power you give them they will only use a small amount. 
You can hook them up to a car battery with 600amps or a AA battery with millamps and they will only draw what they need.


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

txdyna65 said:


> I have 19 tortoises wired to switches and adding a red and green LED to each. I only have 10 done so far and I currently have one 500ma power source for it all. So far everything is running good and staying lit but I still have 9 more sets of LEDs to wire. Is this enough power for all the LEDs and tortoises? I read on the package with the LEDs that they take 20ma each, so 19 lit at one time will be 380ma. Im not sure if there will be enough power left over to switch the tortoises and I cant find out what they are drawing at stall.


You don't have to run LED's at the full 20ma, running them at 10ma will yield almost as much light with half the power consumption.


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## iamwhiteshadow (Jan 22, 2013)

I haven't used the motors in question all I was pointing out was that Amperage draw is dependant on the device you have in draw. You can have 100 devices connected it doesn't matter unless there drawing to much amperage. If you over draw for a long period of time the power pack will fail, burn out, or sometimes start on fire. I stated that if you have 100 things connected and your only useing one or two there should be no problem unless they're drawing power all the time then you need to know what that power will add up to in amperage (As he did with the LEDs he has running) so you dont over draw. that was the point I was making. If he has 100 motors drawing amperage all the time then yes he has to consider his power source. Thanks for pointing out that they are a stall type device it clears up that question and to that I say add up that combined amperage draw and consider the power amperage ratting of the power pack from that.


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## txdyna65 (Aug 17, 2012)

gunrunnerjohn said:


> You don't have to run LED's at the full 20ma, running them at 10ma will yield almost as much light with half the power consumption.


Ok you have my attention John, how would I run them at 10ma?
They are very bright as it is, especially with that SS panel I made lol


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## NIMT (Jan 6, 2011)

Give us a quick sketch on how you have things wired.


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

Easy as pie, you just have to add series resistance. As Sean says, a sketch of what you have now would be real useful.


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## txdyna65 (Aug 17, 2012)

Well I cant draw, this is the best sketch I can come up with lol


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## NIMT (Jan 6, 2011)

Kenny, 
Perfect Diagram.

Because your driving threw the LED it might not work, but you can try to put a 1k ohm (one of the ones that i sent you) inline with the led's, if the switch machine runs to slow then you'll need to axe that idea.


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## txdyna65 (Aug 17, 2012)

Thanks Sean, I'll give it a try. Im assuming by inline, like I have in the pic below?


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## NIMT (Jan 6, 2011)

Yep you got it!:thumbsup:


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