Another Melbournian

[Eizziljam]

Okay I've revising this thread as last year it didn't happen. This year it's going to happen!
I've ordered a falcon and I'm now working out what else i need to do. My friend who I will be working with has most experience with 12v lights so we've decided on that. I think I've got xlights down pat and I watched a helpful you tube video about connecting lights to the falcon etc.
My biggest question is about power supplies and power injection.
I've done a search on here and see lots of links to power supplies - and i kind of get what you need however i haven't been able to find these answers:

• -Can i expect that a power supply will come with a plug to plug into my wall? - like to actually power it up
• -I understand that you need to power inject every 80-100 12v pixels however does that mean you need a new power supply each time or do you power inject and connect it back to the initial power supply?
• -If that's the case how do you do that? Do you have to cut the wires and then we wire the data and ground back then insert the power injection wire? Ive watched a few power injection videos but they just seem to talk about it and don't show you how to do the whole thing - (like for complete newbies to wiring and power like me).
• What is the general limit for power supplies? do people usually have a different power supply for each element in their display?

Thanks so much for everyone's help, I promise I'm not just asking on here without doing my own research and reading the manuals and the posts on here! Once i get the hang of this I'll be the first one to put my hand up to help others!

 

[bpratt]

12v power supply that plugs in to a wall ? ... one of those Dell server power supplies, 750-1200w ones are available, that you plug a cable in to it from the wall.

However you need to get one of those cards that plug in to it... pretty cheap though, around $US10-15 each plus shipping.

PI (Power Injection) can be done with the same power supply, as it is just providing the same power much further along the string... usually you have 18 guage wires between your pixels, so will end up with the voltage dropping progressively along the string. You just use the same power supply, but feed the power from the PSU further along, often with thicker wires to feed it.
The other proviso is that your power supply is grunty enough to provide sufficient power for all your pixels.


Some just splice the PI straight in, some cut the positive line and feed the power in from there, but leaving the negative and data wires intact.


You need to buy a power supply with plenty of spare overhead for your display elements.

You need to work out what brightness you want, 100% or just 30% as most run their lights at. If it is 30% brightness you want, then get a psu that will power all your pixels at least 50-60% brightness... i.e. don't make the psu work its guts out.