I made a "shop lamp" out of an LED strip and power supply. When I plug it in there is a 1-2 second delay before the lights are powered up. Do some transformers have a shorter delay than others?
Electrical – Delay when powering LED light strip
electricalledlighting
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You won't be able to shock yourself with 12v, but you can shock yourself with whatever power supply you find that'll do 5A at 12v. Assuming you'll only use one strip at 6a just grab a laptop power supply (I'd recommend this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812203037) - that way you really don't need to worry about whatever engineering decisions went into building that laptop power supply.
If you cleanly splice the wires, you won't have any issues. Solder them correctly, twisting them to have a mechanical connection and soldering to have an electrical connection.. then heat shrink it.
The LEDs will not give off enough heat to catch on fire or burn your bed, ever.
This project could easily be the fusion of 2 well engineered products to do something cool without any risks! Have fun!
You can get any number of configurations of AA battery holders. Mouser Electronics, an online electronics distributor has a whole page of them in their catalogue at AA Cell Holders Page from types that can accommodate 1 cell all the way up to 10 cells. Here are a few representative pictures of the ones available.
These are available with solder tabs, wire pigtails or snap fitting connections.
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Best Answer
The more 'electronic' a power supply, the longer it takes to start up. I had this nuisance in my pantry, where I only need light for a few seconds, so I don't want to wait another few seconds every time. I also have a VERY high current demand from a lot of LEDs in total.
I used a sealed lead acid battery on a trickle charger, and a relays. Battery is on common. NO is connected to LEDs. NC to a trickle charger.
Yeah. I'll have to replace the battery when it goes out. Beats waiting for a power supply to ramp up.
Long term, I think I'm going to make a service grade (100-400A) 12/24/48v DC bus for the house, with capacitors for buffering.
You might try a very simple 120vAC to 12vAC transformer (assuming thats your LED's voltage) with a rectifier and capacitor in some enclosure. You're building electrics at that point, so test, and include fuses, etc.