Made some progress, finally!
Project 3 is complete: five 10-watt bulbs running from the bench power supply, minus the three I blew by turning the voltage up too far.
This is a short post with a simple mission - to inform all (three) of you of my success in completing Project 3: LED Lighting.
Following on from what I learned last week, I have indeed discovered that I’m able to run at least five 10-watt bulbs without expending my maximum current.
Setting the power supply to exactly 12.0 volts results in a current draw of 4.04 amps. This suggests to me that I can probably add a sixth (or maybe even seventh) bulb before it’s too much - but I only have five bulb holders, so that particular experiment will need to wait.
As you might imagine, they’re not as bright as the 50-watt bulbs, but the ability to spread multiple bulbs across a wider area may be of some benefit. Like I mentioned before, it’s a case balancing your requirements, and using the correct tool for the job.
The only other thing to mention is the fact that I managed to blow the first three bulbs I hooked up. Impressed with my ability to command more than one bulb at a time, I set about adjusting the voltage on my power supply, but I must have turned it too high as one moment I was bathed in light, and the next sunk into darkness.
I would like to try hooking them up in series to see if that makes any difference, but for now, I’m happy with this outcome.