Mega tree advice required

not really just thought it would be easier. less power supplies required. Also planning raspberry pi. not sure what controller
 
would have thought it the opposite, need higher wattage supplies for 5v but some people seem to swear by it, Everything I have at the moment is 12v so not sure about 5v setups
 
MrX said:
would have thought it the opposite, need higher wattage supplies for 5v but some people seem to swear by it, Everything I have at the moment is 12v so not sure about 5v setups
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Yep higher wattage, but that is relevant as the voltage is lower so the total draw on the ac side is less. also you have less "wastage" in 5v as all led's run on around 2v so when you have 12v supplying them you have to get rid of the rest of the voltage via a dropping resistor.
It has been an ongoing debate, but I use 5v for all my bullet nodes and 12v for my strips.
 
[QUOTE="scamper, post: 98381, member: 22285"
It has been an ongoing debate, .[/QUOTE]
heh yea, I know... I know better than to get deep into this type of debate :)
 
Pixels, whether 5 volts or 12 volts, use the same amount of current. Power (wattage) = current x voltage. 12 volt pixels require more power than 5 volt pixels from the power supply (about 2.4 times as much power). The debate is always over how much of a pain power injection is since 5 volt requires power injection every 50 nodes versus 12 volt only every 100. I have but one exterior outlet to power my show so I have opted for 5 volt pixels. It keeps total power low enough that I can run 5,000 pixels with associated controllers and power supplies from this one, 20 amp (120 volt) duplex outlet. Running the extra cable for power injection is not that big a deal, in my opinion.
 
I must admit I have not yet considered the wattage from the supply side of the transformer. I don't have that many pixels to worry about that. Will be about 2k in one location so not really an issue yet. Where do you source 5v supplies that powerful? I've found some nice 12 volt options that are quite cheap, I'm using ones from old servers but they don't have any 5v to speak of.
 
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