This 5A power supply is a beefy enough for your high-power applications.  The fact that it is a switching supply means it's a lot smaller and much lighter weight than a linear supply that uses a transformer.

Features

It can supply 12V DC up to 5 Amps, running from 110V or 220V power.  The included plugis for US/Canada/Japan but you can use any plug adapter for your country, or just replace the cable altogether.   The output connects to a 2.1mm DC plug. The green indicator light lets you know it's working.  This baby is UL approved! 

These power supplies are great for people who want to power LED strips or strands, or a lot of motors for things like robots or a "build-your-own" desktop CNC machine project.   It can be better to use a separate supply like this one than to try and modify an ATX (i.e. Personal Computer) power supply.  The reason is because the a PC power supply has both 12V and 5V outputs and, surprisingly, it is known to be unstable across different current draws, except if you are using the 5V supply heavily as well.  So, don't mess around with jerry-rigging a PC supply when you can get this 12V 5A power supply instead!

Technical Details

  • 12V up to 5A output
  • 110V-220V input
  • Includes 2-prong for US/Canada/Japan - for other countries use a basic plug adapter.
  • 110cm (42in) long cable
  • 2.5mm output plug, but will also work with 2.1mm
  • Body size: 11.5cm (4.3in) x 5 cm (2in) x 2.5 (1in) cm
  • Weight: 9.2oz / 260g UL

Tutorial for Beginners

All small power supplies are the "switching" type.  You might be wondering what this means.  In the old days, the most common way to make a DC power supply was to use a transformer, a bridge rectifier (diodes connected in a certain way) and some additional electronics to 1) create a DC voltage (i.e. get rid of the high-voltage AC sine wave that is at the wall socket and turn it into a flat, single low-voltage value) , 2) change the value from 100-240 VAC to something much lower that electronic circuits can handle without getting fried and 3) filter out some of the electrical noise that comes into the outlet.  It's a great way to make a power supply and was widely used for many years, however, the down side is the more current you need, the larger the transformer has to be.  Even the smallest transformer can be quite heavy and bulky.  The solution?  Make your power supply the "switching" type that has a much smaller transformer. 

Switching power supplies use capacitors and inductors to store energy and timed electronics to harvest the energy from these devices in a way that gives you a rock-steady DC voltage.  You can find lots of tutorials about these power supplies on the internet if you would like to learn more about them.  Sensitive circuits may react to the frequency it switches at (usally in the kHz range), however, these supplies are perfect for digital and non-critical applications.

Wondering how to figure out if one 5A supply will work for your RGB LED application?  Adafruit has a great tutorial at this link: LED Tutorial.

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12V 5A Switching Power Supply - UL Approved

  • $24.99