Could someone check I'm heading in the right direction?

drakky

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can anyone just make sure I'm doing this right, board 1 of 3 partially done didn't want to go too far and find I've not got things right
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this little box contains all the 5v stuff , small fm transmitter , Pi network switch, DR4 and a little amplifier for audio

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AAH

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The board 1 looks good and neat. It's hard to guess wire size but that would be my only concern with your connections between the power supplies and the fuse distributions. Once you start connecting pigtails or cable ends to the dmx boards things will get somewhat less tidy. In order to keep things tidy I'd think about rotating the 2 dmx boards 90 degrees and putting the fuses above them. If rotating then make sure you have enough room to get into the dmx sockets.
 

drakky

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The board 1 looks good and neat. It's hard to guess wire size but that would be my only concern with your connections between the power supplies and the fuse distributions. Once you start connecting pigtails or cable ends to the dmx boards things will get somewhat less tidy. In order to keep things tidy I'd think about rotating the 2 dmx boards 90 degrees and putting the fuses above them. If rotating then make sure you have enough room to get into the dmx sockets.
thanks Alan , any yellow crimped wires are rated at 50 amps , any blue crimped are rated at 25 amps and the red crimps are either 10 amp or the 18 awg pig tails, and that's the exact reason the 27ch boards are orientated that way as you can't plug the dmx leads in , and also it makes it easier to connect the pig tails, I did have it laid out the way you said originally but when I placed the board in the box I couldn't plug the ethernet leads into the left 1
 

drakky

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What size are the power wires?
50 (10 awg) amp from supply 2 to fuse boxes , 25 amp (14 awg) supply 1 to dmx boards, 10 amp or 18 awg pigtails , or have I read the tables incorrectly David?
 

David_AVD

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50A for the 10 AWG looks right, but I thought 14 AWG was 20A and 18 AWG was about 8A.

Probably fine over the short runs you have there. :)
 

drakky

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the
50A for the 10 AWG looks right, but I thought 14 AWG was 20A and 18 AWG was about 8A.

Probably fine over the short runs you have there. :)
the label on the roll said 25 amp , and the 18 awg is just the pigtails wire, the 10 amp wire is the other wire from the output of the 27ch board into the fuse holder
 

AAH

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I'd still think about rotating 90 degrees and maybe staggering the boards so that you can get the cat5 (Rj45) leads into both boards. I hope that it was just a terminology thing when you said ethernet cables as they are dmx cables using cat5 or cat6 cable with RJ45 connectors. The same cables as used for internet but very different signal and voltages.
 

drakky

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I'd still think about rotating 90 degrees and maybe staggering the boards so that you can get the cat5 (Rj45) leads into both boards. I hope that it was just a terminology thing when you said ethernet cables as they are dmx cables using cat5 or cat6 cable with RJ45 connectors. The same cables as used for internet but very different signal and voltages.
yes sorry I just call them that as they are the same cable , can I ask why you think I should rotate the boards though?
 

AAH

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When you add the 9 (or more) pigtails to each board you'll end up with a neater looking build. At the moment you've got 1 there and you're going to end up with 18 if all the lights are rgb.
 

videoman3857

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The extra wire coming out of the boards to the fuse holders and back to the pigtails are going to bulk that area up too.
That will make a very cumbersome and untidy area. - Not that anyone is going to see it.
Keeping the wire neat and tidy is a feat in itself, but it makes good house keeping and it's easier to fault find.
 

videoman3857

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Have you tested all your pigtails ?
I would - learnt early in the piece and burnt out a mosfett ? . Black three legged component that makes the lights blink
Before you connect them to the boards check:
Continuity of the wire.
Check the channels match up. - I have connected red to find green lights up.
Most importantly of all check there are no shorts in either the pigtail heads (that's what happened to me) - and or your soldering.
I know its a pain.
I do it with everything I do.
I also use colour coded bootlace terminals on all my pigtails that use screw terminals.
A) they stop you getting stray wires shorting.
B) Solder bulks up the wire a bit, BUT it can melt under high amperage draws. - then you cant remove the darn wire.
 

drakky

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Have you tested all your pigtails ?
I would - learnt early in the piece and burnt out a mosfett ? . Black three legged component that makes the lights blink
Before you connect them to the boards check:
Continuity of the wire.
Check the channels match up. - I have connected red to find green lights up.
Most importantly of all check there are no shorts in either the pigtail heads (that's what happened to me) - and or your soldering.
I know its a pain.
I do it with everything I do.
I also use colour coded bootlace terminals on all my pigtails that use screw terminals.
A) they stop you getting stray wires shorting.
B) Solder bulks up the wire a bit, BUT it can melt under high amperage draws. - then you cant remove the darn wire.
Thanks Videoman, I've tested all the 3 pin pigtails for this box , yet to do the 4 pin , I've had 2 of the 3 pin ones incorrectly wired which seems strange as I presumed they'd be made by a machine so how could they be wrong ? but they were, the +ve swapped with the signal wire in both , but I will buzz all the 4 pin ones before hooking them up
 

AAH

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Thanks Videoman, I've tested all the 3 pin pigtails for this box , yet to do the 4 pin , I've had 2 of the 3 pin ones incorrectly wired which seems strange as I presumed they'd be made by a machine so how could they be wrong ? but they were, the +ve swapped with the signal wire in both , but I will buzz all the 4 pin ones before hooking them up
Pigtails are assembled manually. There's a video of the process at
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRoUjo9EcKQ

It's up to the operator to ensure the correct orientation and there's not much room to play with. I also assumed that the process would be automatic but Felix at ScottLed shot the above video for me to show how it's done.
 

drakky

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virtually finished the 2nd box, probably not the way most do things but not enough room for the fuse boxes so I used inline fuses (3amp) , anyone see any problems I might have?
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