I need help - Controllers, CAT5 cables, power supplies, etc

[mjroennebeck]

I need some help. this is my first year doing shows. I've purchased everything I need except for the Ethernet cables. I have a few questions in regards to power and Ethernet. I'm running a K32 newest version to two K16V5 newest versions and a Falcon32 newest version.I have a 20 foot mega tree, a garage door matrix, a 4x4 window matrix, 3 singing trees, multiple medium size candy canes, 4 arches, 4 seed pixel pipe matrixs, 2 piller matrixs, outline around the entire front house/roof/windows three 5 ft trees, 8 mini trees, a 46 in snow flake and roughly 10 smaller snowflakes.

1. how many more controllers do you suggest I need? what ones?
2. what's the best CAT cable to run to these to ensure I don't loose data?
3. how do I power everything? is it all powered from the individual power supplies?
4. do I need a CAT splitter
5. What wattage power supplies do I need to purchase

I'm new and apologize if these questions are stupid

 

[merryoncherry]

Most of these questions will become simple math once you answer a few other questions...

For each of the items above, how many pixels do they have, and what kind of pixels did you get?
Are these props assembled? After they're assembled you'll know how many ports they'll take ... add that up, and that will be a factor in how many controllers and PSUs you need...
Same question about the controllers - do you just have boards? Or are they assembled in enclosures ...
Final question - do you have a picture of your house and where these things will go? When you install it all, you'll want to locate the controllers so that the cables to the network, power, all the props are convenient to run... and that the numbers work out. Sometimes it's just easier to adjust the number of controllers so that the layout works.

1. Let's figure out how many ports you need and where they have to be, then this becomes clear.
2. Any CAT 5 or 6 cable will be fine, although most of us hate CCA, and some of the cable has a jacket that is not great outdoors in the cold.
3. It goes from A/C plugs on your house to DC power supplies ... to keep it simple let's consider the case where those are in the same enclosure with the controllers, since the controllers you list support that. The controller will supply power to each connected string of pixels
4. An ethernet switch will probably make your life easier, but let's talk about the placement question too.
5. When we add up the pixels and know what kind of controller enclosure you have, it'll be a lot easier to suggest power supplies... One approach that works would be a Mean Well per group of ports on the controller, but you can also get larger / more efficient / different brand of PSUs if you like.