Mega Tree - Power Supply Sanity Check

[Chrisekert]

Hi Team- Just finished pushing pixels for new tree - 24 Strings of 50 12 V Pixels ( 2 strings per port on falcon). Currently building Falcon box with Meanwell RSP 500W Power supply. Curious if anyone else has similar size tree on 1 power supply? I have run the numbers on Mega Tree Calculator and says it makes the numbers. Thanks

 

[Notenoughlights]

Seems to add up to me. You may find 30% to be bright enough at night due to how dense pixels are in a mega tree, too bright and it gets hard to look at.
I don't know if the Falcon controllers have dual power inputs to split up the load across 2 banks, an option could be to run 2 500W units in the event that it runs at 100% due to bad data or a faulty pixel etc.

 

[Chrisekert]

Hi - Thanks for reply - Yep we were considering 30% and its only few meters to the road. Was trying to avoid running 2 500W's but if we have to we will.

 

[Notenoughlights]

Hi - Thanks for reply - Yep we were considering 30% and its only few meters to the road. Was trying to avoid running 2 500W's but if we have to we will.

You will get away without two, it was for a worst case scenario get out of jail free card, in the event a pixel failed and data corrupted (has happened to me, 1/3 of the tree went full brightness). The worst that will happen is the power supply will shut down on over-power and possibly power cycle until the load is removed, or the pixels drop in brightness.

 

[AAH]

24 strings of 50 is 1200 pixels. 1200 pixels at 55mA each is 66A. 66A at 12V is 792W. At 40% brightness you will have a maximum load of about 320W.
Regardless of whether you plan on running at 100% or 25% the power supply/s and cabling should be rated to a 100% load.
I personally would run it off 2 500W supplies or at least 2 400W power supplies knowing that you wouldn't be running at 100% white in all likelihood.
As far as running 1200 pixels off 1 power supply it's actually very comfortable to do with a 5V 400W 80A power supply. You can go out to 1400 5V pixels off 1 of them easily. I have 1200 on my current tree off 1.

 

[Chrisekert]

Thanks All - have ordered another power supply, at least if I have a PS fail this year can always drop back to 1 to get out of trouble.