Pixlite 16 questions

[BWhit]

Hi All,

I was asking a few questions about starting a pixel tree and the pixlite 16 was suggested as a possible option to me. It looks like a really good controller but I just have a few questions before possibly buying one.

Does it currently support WS2812B strips? Has anyone tried these strips with the pixlite?

I noticed in another thread that the pixlite connectors had been tested with the smaller ray wu connectors, has anyone succesfully tried the larger 15mm connectors.

Is the plug and play able to provide power to 240 pixel strips for each output or will I need extra power supplies?

 

[Devo]

Hi,
To answer your questions:


- Yes it supports ws2812b pixel strip (that strip uses ws2811 chips). We have successfully used a PixLite 16 to control 50m of ws2812b pixel strip (30 LEDs/m) using only 4 data injection points and 2 x 350W 5v PSU's.
- Don't know if the 15mm connectors would match, we don't have any to test and aren't currently aware of anyone else having tried them. We do also sell the mating connectors complete with tinned ends though.
-The PixLite P+P controller currently uses an internal 350W PSU, which is sufficient to power 16 of our 5m length 50 node pixel strings. If you are planning on using pixel strip, typically you will need to power inject along it using an additional power source(s).

 

[tmarshal61]

Hi,


I have a couple of the PixLite16 controllers. I bought the DIY boards so, I put it in my own enclosure with my own pigtails. I actually inadvertently ordered a couple different sized pigtails. I just made my own adapters...no big deal. I used one PixLite16 powered by a 15W 5VDC power supply in conjunction with two 350W power supplies for driving the lights. I had jumping arches made with WS2812b 30 LED/m pixel strips. I cut the 150 pixel strips in half and used 75 pixels per arch injecting power between each one. It worked very well. Very bright and very white whites. I did not power the controller with my 350W power supplies but ran the power directly to my lights. I did not hook up the V+ outputs coming out of the controller outputs to my lights. I only used the data and ground outputs. The pixel strip power was run separately via 12AWG landscape wire. With the PixLite, you can run up to 340 pixels on each of the 16 outputs, (8 outputs per bank rated at 30A per bank). Each 150 pixel strip is about 36W or 7.2A. If you ran only two strips, (or 300) pixels per output, that would be about 1153W or 230A which is way beyond the 60A total rated output. So, I opted to bypass the pixlite and run my power directly to the lights.


This was my very first lighting attempt, but the PixLight was a breeze to configure and use. I don't have any experience with other controllers to compare it to, but I am very happy with it.