Powering 40 Bulbs in a Dollshouse

Using Arduino LEDs and Multiplexing
#1

Hi

I am wondering if anyone knows of a way to power 40ish 12Volt bulbs from an Arduino?

My wife has a large dolls house and all the bulbs are 12Volt. She wants to be able to turn them on/off as she pleases. I figure an Arduino Mega could easily do this. I have rigged up a basic design (with realistic candle flicker by turning bulbs on/off randomly) and everything seemed to be going well. Then I realised that the bulbs in the dolls house are all 12v.

In a perfect world there would be a shield that I could place on top of the Mega board, run a 12v power supply too it and off I go.

Does anyone else have any solutions or know of anything that could step up the voltage?

Thanks in advance!

#2

You could just use a mosfet to control the 12v lights with the 5v signal...

#3

Do you know what type bulb is used, or how much current it draws? A TPIC6B595 shift register might work.

#4

david_2018:
Do you know what type bulb is used, or how much current it draws? A TPIC6B595 shift register might work.

Just what I was thinking. :grinning:

#5

run a 12v power supply too it and off I go.

Is your power supply AC or DC? The bulbs will run on either, but switching AC is more difficult, so you may need to include a rectifier if the supply is AC.

As mentioned, the current draw of each bulb is an important factor in designing a circuit, and I doubt that data is provided with the bulbs, so please measure one using a multimeter.

#6

Most AC light bulbs will work in DC just fine...

#7