• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Build Electronic Circuits

Build Electronic Circuits

Electronics explained in a simple way

  • Start Learning
    • Basic Electronics
    • Digital Electronics
    • Circuits
    • Practical Skills
      • Printed Circuit Boards
    • Microcontrollers
      • Arduino
    • Maker Lifestyle
      • Podcast
    • Academy
  • About Me
  • Blog
  • Academy
  • Contact
You are here: Home / Mail Archive / 12V can break your circuit

12V can break your circuit

March 4, 2019 By Øyvind Nydal Dahl 3 Comments

screenshot-touch-ledMore than 15 years ago, I was sitting in the basement of my parents’ house.

A friend and I were soldering LEDs.

The smell of melted solder was surrounding us, and Eminem’s album “The Marshall Matters LP” was pumping from the speakers.

We were really enjoying ourselves.

I didn’t know much electronics.

But I had found a schematic diagram that showed how to build a running light strip with LEDs.

“Russetiden” was only a couple of weeks away.

It is a tradition in Norway where those who are graduating high school celebrate.

Usually by driving around the city in a red car or a bus for 17 days straight.

We had to get the LED strip to work by then!

It was going to attach to the roof inside of our bus to make it look really cool.

In the basement, we tested the circuit with a 9V battery and everything seemed to work just fine.

The day before the festive time, I was going to install the LED strip in the bus.

…but there was one thing I had forgotten to think about:

Power supply.

In the bus, there was only a 12V output.

Since 12V is not THAT much more than 9V, I figure it would probably work.

So, I connected the 12V to the LED strip…

A bright light in all the LEDs lit up, then some smoke came up and it died.

“NOOOOO!”

We had spent several weeks on this, now I had destroyed it in a couple of seconds.

…

What I learned from that was that it is smart to stick with the specified voltage. Even though 12V is just a little bit more than 9V, it was enough to ruin the circuit.

If I only had some basic knowledge about Ohm’s law, resistors and LEDs, I could have avoided it.

Very simple stuff, but when you don’t know it, it can destroy the project you’ve put so much time into.

Do you have a good understanding of how resistors, LEDs, and currents work?

If not, I really recommend checking out the Ohmify membership. You’ll learn the theory that you will actually need, and you’ll get to practice building lots of cool circuits.

For example a robot, a music player, or a kitchen timer. Learn more here:

https://ohmify.com/join/

Keep On Soldering!
Oyvind @ build-electronic-circuits.com

Filed Under: Mail Archive

Reader Interactions

Comments


  1. Liam Duddy says

    January 12, 2016

    Hi,

    I’ve tried three times to give you me email address but I still don’t get a link in my email and checked all spam.

    Any suggestions?

    Many thanks.

    Reply

    • admin says

      January 14, 2016

      Hi,

      Not sure why that happened, but I’ve added you manually now. Let me know if it doesn’t work.

      Cheers!
      Oyvind

      Reply

  2. Debbyanne Southwell says

    September 12, 2019

    I am new to electronics but love the led light ideas and would love to learn some electronics to put in home made displays I make from craft items and have even glued and pulled apart old technology to see how it works. the displays are in milk boxes and I also have made the old technology into like shop front dummy ones. I found that I wanted to make things glow, like tea candles I am using at the moment and fake lamps I make myself. Can I use the circuit boards from old technology like a d link router, s d card reader, analogue old style radio and a electronic kit for a door bell and connect these all together without the actual devices as they are now dummies? I am learning a little through my husband as he knows how to do a lot of electronics but I want to learn for myself, just concerned of fire hazards due to the boxes being glued and painted and they cannot hold too many big items as I found out trying to glue and gaffa tape technology. Sorry so long but been trying to make my hobby boxes more realistic. If you can help I would much appreciate it.
    kind Regards,
    Debbyanne Southwell

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Search:

Footer

Topics

  • Basic Electronics
  • Digital Electronics
  • Circuits
  • Practical Skills
  • Microcontrollers
  • Maker Lifestyle
  • Newsletter Archive

Social:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Products

  • Electronics Course
  • Other Products

Copyright © 2022 · Ohmify AS · Terms and Conditions · Privacy Policy