Connecting ACL Mk2 strobes

[AAH]

The attached document is primarily to suit the ACL Mk2 strobes purchased in the 2015 bulk buy but most of the theory suits all of the ACL strobes. Wiring/drawing conventions I used were black for negative/0V and red for positive. For mains I've used blue and brown to match Australia's wiring colours used for extension lead Neutral and Line/Active wires.
There's connection drawings for 5V DC, 12V DC, relay connections and AC connections.

 

[DrNeutron]

Great writeup Alan.

 

[djgra79]

Thanks once again Alan for helping to organise the strobes. As I don't have a 5v PSU (I have a few 12v) I'll need a buck converter - is there a preferred type to use? If you have a link that would be great, thanks.

 

[AussiePhil]

Morning Alan,

One point about the >5 drawings... you should show the 5V supplies as being permanently powered either as AC-DC convertors or as DC-DC convertors.

Testing by some of the US guys on powering the DC-DC 5V buck convertors from the 12V controllers showed the buck DC-DC convertors spiking to at least 7v which is bad.

Cheers
Phil

 

[David_AVD]

Testing by some of the US guys on powering the DC-DC 5V buck convertors from the 12V controllers showed the buck DC-DC convertors spiking to at least 7v which is bad.

I wonder if that was with a load or not?

You could probably clamp those spikes with a zener diode if they are brief and don't contain a lot of energy.

 

[AAH]

I drew the drawings as generic drawings for the most part but I definitely wouldn't be attempting to turn on and off a buck converter with the output of a dc dimmer. Aside from the possibility of overshoot to 7V as people seem to have measured the inrush current of a buck converter is quite likely to kill the mosfet output given enough attempts to do it.