Dumb question about Dumb nodes... no pun intended...

nutz4lights

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Hey all,

Starting last year, I incorporated a decent mix of 2811 pixels and dumb nodes/elements in my display. For the "dumb" stuff, I ran everything off of DC15 or DC30 controllers from AAH, which are awesome. I had four of the DC30 controllers, all of which were used to power 100 count bullet-style pixels, one per set of outputs. My question is... I fully understand power injection on the 2811 stuff that I run... but I'm curious if there is a way to run multiple strings off of one output from a standard DC controller... For instance... I have an oak tree and right now I am using a single DC30 controller to light up 10 strings of the 100 count dumb nodes in that one tree... could I put 20 strings of the 100 count dumb nodes in that tree and use power injection somehow?

The 100 count strings draw around 2.4A each with white on...

This question would probably be applicable to the 27 channel controllers from Ray Wu, etc... hence I chose to post it here instead of in AAH's sub-forum.

One last note that is DC30-specific is that I replaced the 10A stock fuse with the max 30A fuse. 10 outputs drawing maximum of 2.4A each is 24A total.

Thanks!

-Louie in Melbourne (Florida!)
 

scamper

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I am sure someone will have come up with a solution to this, But power injecting won't help the total switching current of the controller.
You will be limited to the max current of the controller on each output, so you could hook up enough strings to take it up to the limit on each output then just control them all as one output in you software, if that is what you want to do.
But if someone has come up with a high current switch that you can run from the controller, then that would be the way to go.
 

AAH

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Someone else may pop in further info as I'm just passing through. The Ray Wu 27 channel boards are great but under engineered. They have 15A power connectors on them for the incoming power and the tracks/planes for carrying the power aren't especially heavy. The mosfets used are quite happy switching 5A each but the biggest limitiation is actually that the input connectors are really only good for 15A continuous current. You can mod the board to bump the current up if you want to make the effort.
 

nutz4lights

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Thanks for the replies guys. So, Alan, maybe a DMX36 would be a smarter choice for me? Looks like four zones of 30A each... with 36 channels, is it safe to assume that one could run twelve RGB outputs in four zones, so three outputs per zone, which is 10A per output? That might allow four several strings to be run off of one output? Could these be run in parallel or do they have to be run in series? I would think that voltage drop would become and issue with running in series (one string after another).
 

nutz4lights

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Ahhhh... power amplifiers... I actually bought one of those to use on our kitchen RGB project (which hasn't materialized into anything yet), so I have some of them around here somewhere... Let me see if I might have this right before I go and screw up any strings or controllers... (commence horrible text diagram drawing)...

pixel controller output > DC30 controller (with 12V power supply A) > output #1 (out of 10) > RGB power amplifier (with 12V power supply B) > four 100 count RGB strings connected in one long string (which draw 2.4A each on white)

That Ray controller say 10A/channel in the title but then 4A/channel in the description.

-Louie
 

nutz4lights

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So it looks like I could run multiple RGB amplifiers out of one output from the DC30... still Googling... anybody ever do something like that out of a 27 channel Ray controller or the DC controllers from Alan?

-Louie
 

BundyRoy

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I realise the amplifier is not a high cost item but does it have an inbuilt fuse. What happens if there is a short downstream of the amplifier.
 
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