Re: 12v vacuum cleaner

For the record USB power is 5V not 12V locally I have found adaptors that stick into a cigarette lighter socket and has a USB socket on the front. New retail price is $15. Last week I picked up a travel mug at the second hand store which contained a heater. Closer examination revealed the cigarette plug was actually an adaptor with a USB socket in the end.

For those who like to do their own thing. Do not connect LED lighting directly to your 12V battery. The normal charge / discharge cycling result in voltage swings that will shorten the life of the LED lights considerably. You need a regulated power supply. Every desk top computer has a bolt in box you can adapt as a great power supply. Most of these desk top power supplys are around 250 – 300 watts, so a 500 – 600 watt inverter will drive them.

The benefit being a computer supply will provide a rock steady ripple free source of both 5V and 12V at better than 10 Amps

I just cannibalized one supply that listed the 12V at 14A and the 5V at 22 amps. Just perfect for many projects.

Incidentally the bargain stores have many versions of low cost battery powered LED lights all of which use 3 batteries. 3X 1.5V = 4.5 volts so these lights will run on the 5V supply used in a desktop computer.

Considering how many computers are being junked and replaced with laptops there must be a whole lot of perfectly good power supplies you can salvage from the dumpster. Sounds like an opportunity for a DIY person to relight their place with low cost bargain store LED lights powered by a repurposed computer power supply giving stable regulated voltage.