Power Injection

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Lindsayr

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Sep 30, 2023
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Good Morning,

Just wanting to test my knowledge on power injection which I have avoided today but after learning bit more about it at the Brisbane Mini, looking to give it a go this year with some of my bigger props.

F16V4 is the controller with standard 12v Pixels across the board. Generally running at 30-40% brightness.

Is this correct:-
  • Two power supplies in box with controller.
  • Power from controller could power first 200 pixels.
  • Cut positive after 200 pixels. Ground and Data remain intact.
  • Second box with secondary power supply to provide power injection.
  • Single fused output from this secondary power supply could then run to split out to inject at pixel 300, 500, and 700. This would be 18AWG cable.

Is this correct? Am I missing anything?

Thanks

Lindsay
 

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I don't use 18 AWG wire as a reference. Google tells me that 18 AWG is about the equivalent of 0.75mm2 which has a typical rating of about 7.5A (10A per mm2). American Wire Gauge 18 is something like 0.75mm2. The Chinese equivalent, Approximate Wire Gauge is commonly more like 0.4mm2.

IF you assumed that the first 200 pixels were going to be 5A based on the fuse rating on Falcon boards. This current can be fudged up or down depending on the brightness. IF the first 200 are 5A then the following 500 would be 12.5A. IF you are using 0.75mm2 wire from the power supply and branching off about pixel 300 to power the rest then that first section of wire is being used at double it's rated current. IF you had 3 runs of 0.75mm2 wire from the power supply through 5A or 7.5A fuses out to the 3 injection points then all the cable is adequately rated and the pixels will be powered.
 
What do you mean by "standard 12V pixels"? Resistor pixels? And Power Supplies, you are thinking 350W? Distance? (Sorry, just checking assumptions in case someone else comes across this post later.)

(What you are describing will work (give or take distance, which you didn't specify) but for the most common 12V resistor or GS pixels it is overkill at 100% and you're saying 40%.)
 
merryoncherry said:
What do you mean by "standard 12V pixels"? Resistor pixels? And Power Supplies, you are thinking 350W? Distance? (Sorry, just checking assumptions in case someone else comes across this post later.)

(What you are describing will work (give or take distance, which you didn't specify) but for the most common 12V resistor or GS pixels it is overkill at 100% and you're saying 40%.)
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Thanks for clarification. I think they are resistor pixels. They are 12v pixels from lightitupleds. Power is 0.6W per pixel.

Distance I am looking within 5m from the power supply. There are 2 x 350w power supplies on the 16 port controller. Looking at around 1200w power supply to be used for power injection which will probably at this stage be for power injection of around 2400 pixels across 6 props.
 
Lindsayr said:
Thanks for clarification. I think they are resistor pixels. They are 12v pixels from lightitupleds. Power is 0.6W per pixel.

Distance I am looking within 5m from the power supply. There are 2 x 350w power supplies on the 16 port controller. Looking at around 1200w power supply to be used for power injection which will probably at this stage be for power injection of around 2400 pixels across 6 props.
Click to expand...
Hi LIndsay...Most pixels @12V these days run at around 0.3-0.4W per pixel a few years back they were around 0.5W...I have always worked on 0.5W in my calculations when power injection and power supplies required to power the amount of pixels I have had...you can easily power 1000-1200 12V resistor pixels with a 12V Meanwell 350W power supply running at 30% brightness these days without issues...as how many times do folk have FULL WHITE in their shows so at 30% Brightness working on say 0.4W a pixel at FULL WHITE= 30% x0.4/100= 0.12W ....1000 pixels at this power is is around 120Watts...@12VDC ...I do like to "Over Engineer" in my show so I know I can push more and test @ 100% Brightness ...but as most folk run their shows at 30-40% brightness working on 0.4-0.5W per pixel is totally fine in my books in my opinion...other folk may push more but to prevent any issues this is how I run my show.
 
Love those answers, because they remind me of 2021 when I really overbuilt... I believed a pixel took .6W and only did 100/port. They do not use .6W despite the tag! The resistor ones take .3W if they are right up against the PSU and getting the full 12V and at 100%; if they are a bit away (as they will be with the pixel wire between nodes) they take .25W average. (If you said you are running them at 40% that's .1W, but I do love my 100%). This will change your calculations dramatically. I often run 350 off one port and can do 100% without anything bad happening. (My definition of "bad happening" is they' won't do it again and again because a 5A fuse popped, if they were a bit dim because they were starved of voltage/current that's still good with me.)

Short story long, I got too lazy to make PSU boxes. I get 350-400 per port at 100% on 12V resistor, so at 5m I just use another controller port for data and power if a prop is 700+ pixels.

But there are so many things that will lead to a successful show, if you want to do 40% and PI, have fun!
 
Yep, second year for me. I have a few larger props (600-700 pixels) this year that I was going to spread across the controller but thought it might be good to play with power injection instead. Maybe I am better to push them in the first instance as I could run one pixel per port and it will work fine but be very non efficient or push it to work out what it is really capable of.
 
paullyxmas76 said:
Hi LIndsay...Most pixels @12V these days run at around 0.3-0.4W per pixel a few years back they were around 0.5W...I have always worked on 0.5W in my calculations when power injection and power supplies required to power the amount of pixels I have had...you can easily power 1000-1200 12V resistor pixels with a 12V Meanwell 350W power supply running at 30% brightness these days without issues...as how many times do folk have FULL WHITE in their shows so at 30% Brightness working on say 0.4W a pixel at FULL WHITE= 30% x0.4/100= 0.12W ....1000 pixels at this power is is around 120Watts...@12VDC ...I do like to "Over Engineer" in my show so I know I can push more and test @ 100% Brightness ...but as most folk run their shows at 30-40% brightness working on 0.4-0.5W per pixel is totally fine in my books in my opinion...other folk may push more but to prevent any issues this is how I run my show.
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Thanks Paul. I have definitely been going on the very safe side but i am sure it is increasing the cost for me dramatically so probably should get better at calculating consumption to load up power supplies and controllers more
 
According to this discussion I have also over engineered my mega tree and other props being added for this year
Which is nothing new for me
Since supplies for the projects have already been bought that just gives me plenty of room to add additional pixels and higher density props for next year
Just another way of looking at things
As is mentioned here many times, and is very true
There are multiple ways to achieve your desired results
Just depends on which one works for you
 
Why not build the first controller box with larger power supplies to start? This reduces a lot of needless adjustments with additional boxes and power supplies.
 
For me it is more a matter that I can not power 600-700 pixels from one port on the controller. I would need to spread it across multiple ports which is what i do now. But wanting to get away from that for bigger props.
 
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