Electronics gurus: need help w/ powering up LED strip running on 5v
 

Hi all,

I want to hook up my bike trailer with some flashing LEDs, and ran across this cool rope setup from Superbrightleds.com that would be pretty ideal...except for the wacky power requirements.

My questions relate to the power system, specifically, how to get 5v to the light strip? The controller requires 12v, but that's pretty easy to serve up with a readily available AA battery pack setup, but 5v to the lights?

I dunno why the system requires two separate power supplies, but short another system, I'm ok running two batteries; they are going in a trailer, so portage ain't a problem.

Any ideas as to what my options are here? AA battery pack converter? C cells? Single

It would be a lot easier to feed the LEDs 6v; possible without fragging them?

It looks, according to the specs, the lights draw max 2.4a; that's a lot, right? How big would this battery need to be get decent run time, say 2 - 3hrs?

I see there are device chargers (e.g. IPhone) that put out 5v via USB, but they seem to flow about 1a or less. Would you think that would work?

Anyway, lots of questions, so any tips, insights, and suggestions appreciated!

Actually, scrap this, guys, as I found a more suitable system in the form of a wheel well lights kit on eBay that's fully 12v, more finished and refined, and costs less than what I was looking at earlier. That's great, huh?!

Anyway, I think I have this planned out pretty well, and I'll just post a quick followup thread to let y'all know how the trailer LED project went.

Thanks.