Leaderboard

also I can see no 0.1uf decoupling capacitors on the input and output of the regulator, this wont help the stability either in my opinion, Velleman kit or not!!!

true, but thermal runaway exists! temp goes up, output voltage goes up, lights blow, then no current being drawn so temp returns back to normal, so does the voltage, nothing to show what happened as everything looks innocent! Those regulators do not fail SAFE! they fail UNSAFE and blow up what is connected to it that's my 2p worth

Yes,you guys have verified my suspicions,the psu board maybe ok for motors but not good enough for LEDs.it maybe a week or 2 but I will let you know what happens with my tests.thanks all again.love your input.

Yes, but the larger the difference between the input voltage and the output voltage, the more heat the voltage regulator is going to chuck out and the greater the chance of it failing altogether. That's the point I was making. Stick with a 9 volt transformer and a decent heatsink on the voltage regulator and it should be fine.

I can only go by what is said, yes it might be a PSU issue, hence why I asked about the battery box, over volting an LED will drive the current so high and blow it, I would get a set of fairy/xmas lights, fancy flashing sequences, and check the input voltage, switched mode might be 100 to 240 volts, and pick up a mains take off from the PSU, nice if you can find a set that will take 48 volts, but best to keep what ever was designed to light the things up by the manufacturer, and control the supply to that, simple relay from the lighting circuit, ect, but thats just my opinion.