Input on CFL to LED driver conversion.

Archive Old Forums
1

I stumbled upon a working magsafe adapter in need of maintenance while taking out the thrash yesterday, and then it struck me as I scavenged some CFL for components for a totally different project.

The control circuits in CFL should be fairly standardized, right? To the best of my knowledge a CFL driver is pretty similar to a LED driver in regards to components, apart from the actual function which is inverted. Hence I figured it should be fairly strait forward to convert one to drive some 5-10W LEDs. It would save me buckets of cash since I plan on converting most of my home to run off car batteries and a few hundred watts of solar panels this summer. :slight_smile:

Since I’m yet to finish my PCB mill, I’m looking into accomplish this hack using the old PCB without having to do any major rework. Figured one could cut a few traces here and there and add a few bridges etc, looked around but haven’t found any instructables on this particular approach. Anyone done something similar?

2

They have very little in common. A CFL needs a low current high voltage supply. An LED needs a low voltage, high current, constant current supply.

/mike

3

Uh, so a CFL driver is not similar to an electronic ballast? I was pretty sure it was. Did some digging and found a circuit showing a mod of a flourecent tube fixture to handle LEDs. The list of components contained in the base of a CFL is pretty similar as well. But yeah, I agree the function is different, which I also mentioned. :slight_smile: