Electronic – Constant Current LED Driver with Raspberry Pi Zero W

ledled-driverraspberry pi

I have a 12 V DC source that I'm wanting to run a Raspberry Pi Zero and a couple of 3 W IR LEDs. I'm not using the Pi to control the LEDs in any way. The LEDs are just to provide lighting at night for a camera running on the Pi.

I have a cc/cv buck converter to run constant current to the LEDs at 1600 mA. If I limit the output voltage to 5 V, could I run the Raspberry Pi off the same buck converter? Or do I need to do this in 2 parts with one converter to reduce 12 V to 5 V for the Pi, then run another separate converter to keep the constant current for the LEDs?

Best Answer

Aside from various possible disaster scenarios, the Raspberry Pi power consumption varies widely perhaps from 0.4 to 1.5W. That would cause the light output from your IR LEDs to vary considerably, so I don't think it's a good idea.

I suggest running both converters from the 12V input rather than chaining them, for better efficiency.