A little help please.

[Streetrodder]

I was putting my Mega Tree up and while testing it I noticed 2 strnads were not working so I checked and 2 of my wires were loose (ground wires on the lights). I unplugged the power supply and re-installed the 2 loose wires and everything went haywire from there. I now have lights lighting up about 1/4 of the strand properly then half of the strand flickering and the last 1/4 not lighting at all. I have unplugged the sockets on the p12r and the lights unplugged are off but the others still will not work properly. I did not change anything from last year didn't even unplug everything from the controller and it was all working great last night except those 2 strings. Anyone have any ideas what I have done? The lights are about 2 meters away from the controller.

 

[Kaden]

I had this issue when i was testing lights once, it turns out i didn't have enough ground wire to handle the current, which messed up the data signal (2811 pixels)

 

[garyjac1]

This sounds for all the world like a non-continuous data ground. Make sure all the power supplies V- points are connected to a common point (each other in series via V-). Do NOT connect this ground to power supply GND.

 

[dannyp]

I posted this in another topic last night but I have had no response yet. Do you think this is the same issue? I don't understand how the grounds are connected together but NOT to the GND on the PS.




[SIZE=78%] I don't think I understand how to hook up the power supply's using 3 PSUs. In the attached picture (sorry but I couldn't make it clearer), I have -

4 x 100 pixel Technicolour strings (in fact I have 11 but that complicates the picture).
Each string is treated as separate universes and is connected to its own output on the P12r. The P12 R is supplying + N and data. One side of the P12 R is getting power from PS1 and the other side is getting power from PS2. I have the Negatives connected between PS1 and PS2.

At the top of the matrix I have another power supply (PS3) and I am using this to inject just power at the top of each string (shown as a red dot on the diagram). I am injecting both + and Negative into each string. You will see that most strings are injected from 1 power cable that runs from the PS3 and then splits to supply 2 strings. This is for both the + and negative. I then have the Negative from PS3 running back to PS1 and 2 so that all the Negatives are connected.

When I turn on the matrix, some lights flicker, some don't turn on at all and some randomly light up in multiple colours. Even when I started disconnecting the lights from the P12R, they still keep lighting up until I have disconnected the last output. I couldn't work out how the lights still lite up when they were unplugged from the P12R, but Im now thinking its forming a circuit by the way I have connected power.

Reading through the 101 manual, I cant find this exact setup but Fast Eddy does say not to connect the + between power supplies, but I'm thinking that this is exactly what I have done even though PS1 and PS2 are going through the P12R. Am I right and if so can someone tell me where I have gone wrong and how to fix it?[/SIZE]

 

[garyjac1]

OK, on your P12R lower board, there is a connector referred to as K1 in the manual. The ground point on this connector is the signal (data) ground. You must have a wire connecting this point to V- on each power supply, in effect tying them all to the same grounding point on that board. A thin wire running from ground on K1 to a nearby PS and then daisy chain another wire to the next PS AND a thin wire up to your third PS V- as well. All those V- points must be one reference or you get jabber in the data.The other thing might be that you are sending the data too far without either a null pixel or two, or the j1sys ethcongateway devices(which work really well, I might add)

 

[Streetrodder]

I removed all my connetions and used a different power supply I had as a back up and then reattached everything and it was still not working properly. So just for grins and giggles I filpped all of the dip switches to the up position and and plugged it up and let it boot up and then unplugged it again put all of the switches down (operating position) and everything is working great! It might have been a ground issue but I did not see anything loose or touching anywhere it is not supposed to, but thanks again for everyones help and support.

 

[dannyp]

OK, on your P12R lower board, there is a connector referred to as K1 in the manual. The ground point on this connector is the signal (data) ground. You must have a wire connecting this point to V- on each power supply, in effect tying them all to the same grounding point on that board. A thin wire running from ground on K1 to a nearby PS and then daisy chain another wire to the next PS AND a thin wire up to your third PS V- as well. All those V- points must be one reference or you get jabber in the data.The other thing might be that you are sending the data too far without either a null pixel or two, or the j1sys ethcongateway devices(which work really well, I might add)

So i already have a wire running from Ps1 to Ps2 to PS3. So just to be clear I just have to now run a wire from PS1 Ground (or -v) to the K1 connector on the lower board of the P12R?

I don't think its a null pixel issue as the most the lights are away from the board is 3metres for the longest and 1 metre for the shortest.