Power supplies

[mjroennebeck]

Ok I got my cat cable and all my power supplies. You all helped out a lot. The next question is... How the heck do I power my power supplies? Do I need to make a power cable that runs from an outlet to the +- and ground symbols on the power supply?

 

[Katekate]

what kind of power supply is it?

 

[mjroennebeck]

I have a few mean well and some Chinese versions

 

[Skymaster]

Do I need to make a power cable that runs from an outlet to the +- and ground symbols on the power supply?

Two points.

1. You do NOT connect your mains to the + and - terminals, that will result in very big bangs and letting the smoke out. That are there output terminals where your 5/12V DC comes out. You connect the mains to the LNE terminals. In AU that would be
Brown to L,
blue to N and
Green/Yellow to E.....

In the US it's
Black to L,
white to N and
green to E

2. Always get someone qualified to check your work. At best of you screw it up, you'll break some equipment. At worst, you burn your house down or kill someone. Many AU states prohibit someone unlicensed doing the mains work, and it can void your home insurance.

 

[Indigogyre]

At this point I would HIGHLY recomend reading the 101 manual.

AusChristmasLighting 101

This article is just a summary of the information available in the downloadable PDF version of the AusChristmasLighting 101 manual, a guide for getting started (or stepping up a level) in Christmas lighting.

auschristmaslighting.com

 

[RolyT]

I highly recommend you don’t go any further in plugging stuff in until you have done a lot more research and learning as this question sounds DANGEROUS. If you haven’t read the 101 manual then please do so. There are also some very basic “how to plug stuff in” guides on the Baldrick site and a similar video here (for clarity this will need to modified to match whatever controller you have).

There are so many of these videos out there, so please go and watch them before you go any further on putting stuff together. Just watching these will n doubt lead to more questions which you should ask here.

I have no electrical ability at all but spent months reading and watching stuff before I purchased anything and managed to get my initial set up working quite easily without killing myself or burning my house down. I still ask lots of questions here but usually only if I cant find the information elsewhere ..

Don't want to come off like a dick, but want you to be safe