Multiple Power supplies questions

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Gooliez

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So some of these question will probably sound like obvious answers, I'm pretty sure i know the answer, but best to ask instead of blowing things up in my first year.
my setup is currently made up of 3 x baldrick 8 controllers. currently i have 2 x meanwell 350's and 2 x generic 400's in stock and will definitely need to order more going by using Pixelmapr as a guide ( even though it may not be accurate, it'll give me some ballpark idea)


1. can you connect multiple power supplies to the Controller boards. All videos i've watched show 1 supply, where the positive and negatives get split to both sides of the controller. so can i connect 1 supply to one side and the second to the other. Or even 4 power supplies? or is it a "i need LARGER power supplies. Can there be too large of a power supply ?

2. ( subquestion to 1) If so, can these power supplies be mixed and matched, eg brands / Wattages?

3. lets say i have a port and the full 750 pixels used, I power balance at the start and end of the string ( lets just say it's a giant ring) then theres not enough power getting to the middle of the string. Would i be better off using a separate power supply to inject OR run a new line from the power supply that's connected to the original controller?

4. 1 Big PSU or multiple Small - more beneficial / price / ease of wiring

i'm sure there's more questions, but this is whats coming to mind so far
 
What kind of pixels and what voltage?

1. Splitting a board into multiple smaller PSUs is pretty common. The number is limited by the comtroller board, which will have terminals for groups of (generally) 4 or 8. The small PSUs are popular because they're cheap, but you can use whatever. Use a common ground. Mixed brands, wattages are OK (if confusing). Most boards allow mixed voltages even.

As far as whether a PSU can be too big, I think once it is big enough to power more than one controller enclosure it might be too big, though a few people do that successfully.

3. Almost always easier to run from the same PSU. Like a thick wire from PSU to prop, then branch out. The Baldrick has 7.5A fuses, if you use 8-10mA pixels like 12V seeds you would be good at 750.

4. Something like that.
 
Another Question

"The Baldrick Board has two 30amp power inputs (5-24v DC)"
i'm using 12v pixels, is there any gain by using a 24v Power supply instead of a 12v ?

and you can't use a 24V to power inject directly to a 12v string
 
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Let's take off the table anything you could do with expensive load sharing PSUs. Then yes, 2 is the limit for attatching to the Baldrick 8. As circled.

In rounded-off numbers, an LRS-350-12 puts out 30A and the board takes 4x7.5=30A. Nicely balanced. 7.5A will run a lot of pixels. And 7.5A is a lot more than pixel wire and standard extensions can take.

But, let's say you want to run more pixels than that. All of your options cost money.

More PSUs that load share, or bigger PSUs, cost a lot of money compared to LRS-350s. Long runs of thick copper wire cost money. More efficient pixels cost more money (maybe 5-10 cents more each) (except seeds) but 7.5A will run 750 of them.

At some point, $70 for another controller board sounds pretty reasonable, as it doubles the power available, doubles the pixels, allows you to get closer to the props and saves wire, etc. If you are loading up the ports heavily, that board is costing $.01-$.03 per pixel, all the other things cost more and are more hassle.

Every time I run the numbers (given the low-hassle way I do things), I come to the conclusion that more controllers for more pixels is the best thing.

24V does not help, because good luck finding pixels that meet other performance dimensions.
 
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