Bugger! Blown power supplies

Habbosrus

Habbosrus

Back again
Joined
Dec 5, 2012
Messages
758
Location
Swansea, NSW
Got my tree up this afternoon and testing was going well :D , until........ one side of the tree stopped working :'( . I checked the fuses on my e6804 first, all good. I then checked my inline fuses on my cables. I didn't really think it wouldn't be them, only to look at my power supplies to realise the led on one of them was out. No worries, I bought a spare. Hooked it up and all systems go - woohoo! Then just as I was about to end testing for this evening, back to earth with a thud. Another power supply for a different element stopped working. I only bought one spare because everything has been done on a shoestring budget. I just emailed Ray in the hope he can help. I guess it's all part of experiencing the CLAP first hand. Hopefully the rest continue to work. Fingers crossed ::)
Note to self - save up and buy some mean well's for next year.
 
Yeah, the first one that went was just over 50% load at full white (got a sparky friend to double check for me as it's my first year) and the second that went was only supplying power to one element as I haven't finished putting up the other items yet. It would have been drawing very little (20 x 2811 pixels only). I erred on the side of caution as this is my first year and I read some of the horror stories others have suffered. I should have erred a little more and saved up for the mean wells this year.
Both had worked in testing a number of times previously. I was testing again tonight after getting the tree set up outside for the first time.
 
Lessons learned from last year resulted in me even having backups for my Mean Wells.

You never know when a Murphy moment will strike.
 
Short of calculating what the load is expected to be on the PSU, based on the qty and type of lights, is there any way to see the actual load being used on the PSU, just to confirm? I'm not a sparky, but I do have a clamp multimeter that can read AC and DC. Is it a case of throwing the clamps around the DC cables and trying to read the levels with an all white sequence?
 
I am using 7 total psu's , so I had ordered 2 backups myself, and one of the PSU's wasn't working right out of the box, so 1 back up already gone,...for fear that I wouldn't get them from Ray in time...I ordered 4 more from a supplier in NewYork...they were about 10 bucks a piece more, which is 50% of the original, but shipping was negligible, and they'll be here tomorrow.
 
burner said:
I'm not a sparky, but I do have a clamp multimeter that can read AC and DC. Is it a case of throwing the clamps around the DC cables and trying to read the levels with an all white sequence?
Click to expand...

With the clamp meter, you need to put it around just the positive or negative wire, both not both at once.

EDIT: Fixed silly spulling irror!
 
I'm sure David means "not both". If you go around both the negative and positive at the same time you always end up with a zero reading. Most DC clamp meters have a zero button on them which has to be pressed to zero the display as a slight offset is pretty normal.

David_AVD said:
burner said:
I'm not a sparky, but I do have a clamp multimeter that can read AC and DC. Is it a case of throwing the clamps around the DC cables and trying to read the levels with an all white sequence?
Click to expand...

With the clamp meter, you need to put it around just the positive or negative wire, both both at once.
Click to expand...
 
Yep, I read it that way too. I've been using the clamp meter on site testing each of the phases in each building, to see what's been sucking the juice (about $10k of power bills in a few months!). I'll give it a bash tonight or tomorrow. I calculated around 250-270watts per PSU (350watt rating). I ended up using 6 * 12v PSU's and have pushed power out of each PSU to 2 channels each of the P12R. The 5v PSU I have is pushing power only to 150 2811 string pixels.

This will probably be a safe calculation for anyone else, ie 1 * PSU to 2 channels of 170pixels (30 LED's/m and 10pix/m).
 
You would need to be careful with the loads if you are getting close to the rating of the supply as the instantaneous current draw at first turn on (lights) is higher than the constant on. (Much like pushing a car or similar, it is hard to start it moving but gets easier once moving :eek:). And as in sequencing lights are going on and off all the time, you need to give yourself plenty of leeway.
 
Reality is you pay for what you get and not all power supplies are created equal. Thats why i only now use Meanwell HRP power supplies, because without power you dont have a show.
 
Fasteddy said:
Reality is you pay for what you get and not all power supplies are created equal. Thats why i only now use Meanwell HRP power supplies, because without power you don't have a show.
Click to expand...

But Eddy, you didn't actually have a show last year? :)
 
Kane said:
Fasteddy said:
Reality is you pay for what you get and not all power supplies are created equal. Thats why i only now use Meanwell HRP power supplies, because without power you don't have a show.
Click to expand...

But Eddy, you didn't actually have a show last year? :)
Click to expand...

I had many shows just not at my house and over a million people would have seen it ;) :D

Buit I did enjoy the break from the traffic at home last year. But even before then i had already made the move to meanwell power supplies

The Meanwell HRP would be an overkill for most but is worth the extra money for important installations
 
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