I have a non unique problem that I was hoping to solve myself, but I've apparently used up all my 'free' time on Circuit Design and I lack the necessary knowledge to continue doing so.
A new LED IR illuminator I purchased to light up the front yard is 18W- 12V, 1.5A consumed. It requires a DC power supply; the little housing for the circuit board can accommodate another circuit entirely and easily, once the proper header is added.
To reiterate, the voltage coming in is 12 volts, AC. Just because I've been asked that several times.
Currently I found an old salvaged bridge rectifier, I added a 25V 400uF cap, and attached that to the input. That gives me about 16V DC out, pretty well filtered, but still not ideal. Adding a power resistor to bleed off the extra 4V is a lot of wasted heat but, in the winter, would certainly keep the box from freezing.
I, in all of my free quarantine time, was trying to apply the formulas for a capacitor divider as I wouldn't necessarily have to contend with all of the wasted energy. But here's where I failed- not having a fundamental grasp on these concepts (and my time experimenting and learning circuit lab) I didn't get far enough to do anything worthwhile.
So, without going out and buying a buck/boost converter (which I do know are quite cheap) and having to add a bridge rectifier to it anyway to convert to DC, what other options do I have for putting together a 12V converter without wasting some 25% of the energy as heat.
Thank you much-
Photos of the (input to the LED light)
https://imgur.com/a/DwVXWJUThe little IC that is custom made for CCTV lights- pretty cool.
edit: Threads I've looked at:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/beginners/ac-voltage-drop-transformer-vs-capacitor-which-is-best/msg1417662/#msg1417662https://www.eevblog.com/forum/beginners/dps3003-power-supply-acdc-converter-output-filter/msg2074579/#msg2074579https://www.eevblog.com/forum/beginners/voltage-regulators-what-am-i-doing-wrong/msg408743/#msg408743https://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/capacitor/capacitive-voltage-divider.htmlhttps://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/395422/how-can-i-reduce-the-rms-value-for-a-bridge-rectifier