Falcon Controller

[TerryK]

i'm wanting to go with 12v to possibly have less power injection for the setup, with the controller, its rated for 1024 pixels per port, i doubt that...

The use of 12 Volt pixels does not necessarily mean less power injection. Factors to consider are the number of pixels, their drive level, where can an injection point physically be connected, and type of pixel (resistor or regulated, string or strip). While a Falcon can have that many pixels on a port it generally makes the controller struggle to maintain them. Most individuals I think keep the number of pixels on a port quite lower. I target 500 plus or minus for the F4s I use.

 

[i13]

You can't have 1024 pixels per output without power injection, even with 12V. Voltage drop will happen within the strings of pixels. The included power supply can't support 16 strings of 1024 pixels either because that's too many pixels for it. You'd need to use additional power supplies and inject power in order to use the F16's full capacity.

I also question whether 1024 pixels per output is a good idea. Assuming you're not using an expansion board, if you exceed 680 pixels on any output, the frame rate for the whole controller will start to drop below 40 frames per second. It'll drop to 20 frames per second if one of the ports has 1024 pixels. I'd expect that this will only matter if your sequences are created and played at 40 frames per second. Another problem with large numbers of pixels on a controller port is that if a pixel near the controller fails, all of the pixels after it can stop working until you replace the one that failed.

One way to reduce the required number of injection points is to buy pixel strings with thicker cables but you still can't get 1024 without injecting.