Could you Use a 24 volt power supply with a voltage regulator?

[53strands]

I want to send data and power through an ethernet cable, but as I've seen before, the voltage drops like crazy after around 6 meters. Could I use a 24 volt power supply and just have a voltage regulator set to 12 volts before the power is sent to a strand? (Obviously just running the power through the regulator, not data)

 

[Grozzy]

You could but it comes down to the amps required to drive the pixels and the cost of the regulator/step down.
Personally I would just run AC out to a PS and controller (or differential receiver) in the yard.

 

[AussiePhil]

Yes you can run DC-DC convertor just before a strand.... not just a voltage regulator though as i suspect your thinking this simplistically.

Pixel power down network cable is in no way best practice despite some high profile people saying otherwise over the years.

Ultimately more details required i'd say

 

[Mark_M]

Is there a reason behind using Ethernet cable over a thicker 3 core cable?


Ethernet cable is fairly thin.
Sure, POE (Power Over Ethernet) exists and the IEEE 802.3at power variant goes to 25w.
25w @12v is around 2A of current. Guessing from the current draw of my own 12v pixels, that means you would get a 100 nodes in a cable.

POE is 48v, higher voltage means the current can be lower over the cable and less voltage drop. So over the ethernet cable the max current for 48v at 25w is 0.5A. A converter at the ends takes it to 12v at 2A in ideal physics land.

The standards for 802.3at POE go to a max of 0.5A (250mA a conductor) so it doesn't melt the cable.


There is more POE standards that go to 100W of power, but that requires at least Cat6A cable (look at the prices).
Not worth the effort, thicker cable for the job is easier and cheaper.

 

[Kent]

For my setup I've opted for 24V Meanwell supplies + Falcon F48v4 located in the garage, with combos of remote smart receiver + DC/DC converter to drop the 24V to 5V for my pixels. Whilst the data for the will go over the Cat5 cable, the 24V goes over a mixture of 6mm & 4mm DC solar cable that I had access to.

In any case, I mention this as the DC/DC I'm using may be of interest to you (output is adjustable, so could do 12V instead of 5V):

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Cheap, and so far runs OK, however I cannot attest to the longevity just yet...

 

[TerryK]

To add a bit, yes but likely not very practical. If you're using 4 pair cable (most likely in today's world), a single core would handle the data as it is very low current thus leaving 7 for the + and -. So probably 3 for + and 4 for -. Running the conductors in parallel would up the current capacity of course. In to out as others mentioned is Watts; can't get more out that what is put in. Efficiency/loss of the converter/regulator needs factored in as well.

I would not rule it out but the yes or no would depend upon power requirements of what you are attempting to power.

 

[MichaelF5]

the DC to DC converter is a great idea, if you could get them small enough you'd have much more compact distro boxes

 

[Iain]

If you only need a couple of amps you could make your own with a to-220 regulator. I’ve never tried it but this regulator claims 3A. They’re small and cheap. The most efficient method though is probably minimising the voltage drop to begin with.

 

[darylc]

it's all good until your DC-DC converter fails and pushes 24v into your 5v pixels... I lost a _lot_ of pixels one year due to failed DC-DC converters

 

[David_AVD]

I've only had one DC-DC converter fail and it went no ( or very low? ) output.

The ones feeding my 5V tube lights are Mean Well DIN rail mount type.

The better units will likely have some sort of protection against excessive output voltage.

Those little boards for a couple of dollars would likely have zero protection.

I must get back to testing my crowbar over voltage add-on board.

 

[battle79]

I use 3 core 1.5mm flex cable, exactly what is used for electrical extension leads. I just put DC connectors on it rather than electrical plugs. Also all my 240v leads are white and all DC ones are grey or black, just so I know at a glance. Power injection I use figure 8 speaker wire, with the conductor size determined by the distance it needs to run. My star at the top of my 8mtr tree uses a 3 core 2.5mm flex for power and data, and a 3mm fig8 cable to provide power injection. Total cable run is ~16mtrs (also one null pixel along the way that I'm not sure was required, but put in for good measure)

 

[battle79]

Didn't actually make my original point in previous post. IMO, I wouldn't want to put any extra hardware at the top of my tree, as it's inaccessible once setup, and is baked all day long by the sun. I have several large 48V DC 3000w supplies that I look at every year and consider going the DC-DC route, but it so far has never made sense to me. If I was starting from scratch, maybe I might consider it more seriously than I do now.

 

[i13]

I do have DC-DC convertors in my setup but I haven't tried them with an Ethernet cable. I use 31V supplies because I already had them running traditional LED strings in the display. IMO yes, DC-DC convertors do work but I only use them where it makes sense to do so. I think it only makes sense to use them for small display items that don't already have a 12V power supply nearby. If you have more pixels then you may as well add a dedicated 12V power supply for them. I also agree about the output voltage going too high. I have not had any pixels damaged but when I measured with a multimeter, a DC-DC convertor's output voltage increased very slightly when it was under load. I'd advise against trying to combat voltage drop by increasing the supplied voltage if you're powering with a DC-DC convertor and I'd be careful not to connect more pixels than the DC-DC convertor can support.

I also question why you would set the convertor's output to 12V unless you're using strips or modules. If you're using nodes and a DC-DC convertor, you may as well use 5V nodes. Although the current output (which determines the number of pixels that you can power through the DC-DC convertor) is generally the same at any voltage, 5V nodes use less power than 12V nodes. IMO the voltage drop downside of 5V doesn't apply here. The DC-DC convertor allows you to eliminate the voltage drop between the power supply and first pixel. In addition to this, you're not going to run many pixels from a single DC-DC convertor so you shouldn't have many problems with voltage drop along the string of pixels. For example, I can't see you needing more than one injection point if it is a 5A DC-DC convertor.