Injecting 24v

[wazsxr]

I've done a search of this forum (and tried hitting up Google) however I cannot seem to find an answer to what I thought was going to be a simple setup. I have my F16V3 running quite happily with some 12V pixel displays, I wanted to step things up this year with a large tree. I thought I'd be smart and run 24v due to the large number of pixels to try and get around the unavoidable voltage drop. I ordered some LED strips (WS2814 24v) and a new 24v power supply.
This is where I'm not sure I've gone wrong and hoping someone can help me. I've wired the GND and Dat (Not the +ve) a from the Falcon up to the strip, then I've injected the 24V +ve and -ve at the start of the strip to power everything. The first 5 pixels light up but dim and flicker. If I remove the -ve wire from the controller they get bright and stop flickering.
How do I inject 24V whilst giving the pixels the required data and -ve? Or have I misunderstood how this all works and need to go back to 12V strips? Thank you in advance, any help is much appreciated.

 

[uncledan]

Hopefully someone smarter than me chimes in. No reason it shouldn't work. I run a lot of props like this with no issues

 

[Katekate]

what you have done should work.

 

[MikeKrebs]

maybe a picture of how you did it will explain why it isn't working?

 

[wazsxr]

I thought so as well but unfortunately it isn't working. I thought the issue may be because the both the controller -ve and the 24v -ve are on the same line which might be causing some sort of issue with the voltage at the strip and mixing up the data line, but if you've done the same @uncledan then I guess not. I've plugged a 12v strip into the same output just to be sure and it is cycling through the RGB just fine.

 

[wazsxr]

@MikeKrebs, if it helps I'm more than happy to. The white cable at the top (or right of this picture) goes to the 24V power supply:

 

[uncledan]

Not sure how you're power injecting but if using 3-3-3 T's pull the data pin on the 24v power injection side of the T. Caused me issues in the past. I'm grasping at straws, this should work

 

[Pavle]

I'm certainly not an expert on power or this particular configuration, but what gauge wire are you using for the GND?
I would try doubling or trippling it just to see if that makes any difference.

 

[wazsxr]

Not sure how you're power injecting but if using 3-3-3 T's pull the data pin on the 24v power injection side of the T. Caused me issues in the past. I'm grasping at straws, this should work

I've posted a pic but it's waiting on a moderator. It's a T but it's a power injector T so no data on the injection side. Please keep bringing the straws out, I'm happy to try anything right now, I don't want to have to can the 24v power supply and strips!

 

[Pavle]

I've posted a pic but it's waiting on a moderator. It's a T but it's a power injector T so no data on the injection side. Please keep bringing the straws out, I'm happy to try anything right now, I don't want to have to can the 24v power supply and strips!

have you got a multimeter? Have you tested continuity on the T? Probably a handy check.
Also take a measurement at power supply ouput and then again after each connection point - it's just a sanity check thats all

 

[wazsxr]

I'm certainly not an expert on power or this particular configuration, but what gauge wire are you using for the GND?
I would try doubling or trippling it just to see if that makes any difference.

I'm only running it over about 1m at this stage, I'm hoping that gauge of the wire isn't coming into play... yet.

 

[wazsxr]

have you got a multimeter? Have you tested continuity on the T? Probably a handy check.
Also take a measurement at power supply ouput and then again after each connection point - it's just a sanity check thats all

Good idea, I checked it all when I first wired it up and it checked out but haven't checked after it's hooked up and running. I'll do this now and report back.

 

[uncledan]

I've plugged a 12v strip into the same output just to be sure and it is cycling through the RGB just fine.

If you've plugged in 12v strip and injected with 12v using same power injection T, wiring etc it points to something on the string. Also note running an RGB test pattern from the board is different than sending data from xlights/fpp etc. Becomes a process of elimination at this point

 

[wazsxr]

I just hooked up the 12v strip straight to the port, no need to inject. I was making sure it wasn't the port for that test.
So all the wires seem to be hooked up to where they should be, there is 24v at the strip and data wire checked out for continuity. I did try hooking it up to 12v to see what it would do (turned off the 24v injection) and it did light up but still didn't react to any tests I put down the line, which isn't a surprise since I was giving it half the juice it needs.
I did note that it was lighting up in sections of 6 instead of individual pixels though which is a bit of a concern as I've seen the strips that have 6 pixels per WS281X chip. It might be time to rethink the tree.

 

[Kent]

The 24V seed pixels I've played with have the power for each six LEDs in series, but the data still goes through each individual pixel, so whilst you must cut them after every 6th LED, you still get individual LED control. Not sure if your strip is configured the same way.
In your initial post you mentioned 5 LEDs partially lighting which made me think perhaps you're dealing with a cut in the wrong place, but in the post above you mentioned 6 light up at 12V, so perhaps not.