Power Supply

Noel Richards

Noel Richards

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Dec 16, 2016
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Just wandering looking at buying some power supplies for the system I am building up question is when I check out the specs you have different specs is it better just to buy the 12v 350w so you have more W than you need, also I read at power injection my mega tree will start of with 8 strips off 50 lights made up of 4 sets of 100 lights will I need to inject power after 2 and can I run that injection off of 1 of the spare outlets on the power supply.


This is the PS I'm looking at - https://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/12V-350W-switch-mode-power-supply-LED-power-driver-AC90-260V-input-DC12V-350W-output-constant/701799_1948832565.html?spm=2114.12010612.0.0.Zp2YbT


Noel
 
Noel,

I am running a 20 x 33 pixel 2811 strip mega tree and have 3 x 350w power supplies providing power and multiple power injection for this.

:) :)
 
i have a 36 string - 60 (5v) per string mega tree.


have three 320w-5v supplies running it, including a f16v2


inject at the bottom of every string. ran flawlessly on the power side.


I had some data corruption, but that was an entirely different issue.
 
Noel Richards said:
Just wandering looking at buying some power supplies for the system I am building up question is when I check out the specs you have different specs is it better just to buy the 12v 350w so you have more W than you need, also I read at power injection my mega tree will start of with 8 strips off 50 lights made up of 4 sets of 100 lights will I need to inject power after 2 and can I run that injection off of 1 of the spare outlets on the power supply.


This is the PS I'm looking at - https://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/12V-350W-switch-mode-power-supply-LED-power-driver-AC90-260V-input-DC12V-350W-output-constant/701799_1948832565.html?spm=2114.12010612.0.0.Zp2YbT


Noel
Click to expand...


Can you tell us more about your pixels/controller/setup? At a guess, you're using something like this https://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/DC12V-input-12mm-WS2811-pixel-node-100pcs-a-string-IP68-rated/701799_735790044.html?spm=2114.12010612.0.0.X2FgXK
If so, 400 nodes working consumption is only 120W. If you are running 4 sets of 100 nodes out of 4 ports on a controller, it should be fine without injection, as long as distance to nodes from controller isn't too great.
 
Habbosrus said:
Noel Richards said:
Just wandering looking at buying some power supplies for the system I am building up question is when I check out the specs you have different specs is it better just to buy the 12v 350w so you have more W than you need, also I read at power injection my mega tree will start of with 8 strips off 50 lights made up of 4 sets of 100 lights will I need to inject power after 2 and can I run that injection off of 1 of the spare outlets on the power supply.


This is the PS I'm looking at - https://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/12V-350W-switch-mode-power-supply-LED-power-driver-AC90-260V-input-DC12V-350W-output-constant/701799_1948832565.html?spm=2114.12010612.0.0.Zp2YbT


These are the 1's I have and looking at a set of 50 5v for a star on top, as for controllers looking at the fv16v3 or the scandevice 682 not sure which, at the moment my longest wire run will be around 20 meters.


Noel
Click to expand...


Can you tell us more about your pixels/controller/setup? At a guess, you're using something like this https://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/DC12V-input-12mm-WS2811-pixel-node-100pcs-a-string-IP68-rated/701799_735790044.html?spm=2114.12010612.0.0.X2FgXK
If so, 400 nodes working consumption is only 120W. If you are running 4 sets of 100 nodes out of 4 ports on a controller, it should be fine without injection, as long as distance to nodes from controller isn't too great.
Click to expand...
 
Make sure you only load up the power supply to approx. 80 to 85% for those power supplies. So the max load I would apply to these is 300 watts to a cheap 350watt power supply
 
Is there a reason you're changing from 12v on tree to 5v on star? Just curious. If you standardise with 12v, you may find it a little easier when starting out. You'd be able to run all from one power supply too, if you wanted. 470 nodes x .3W would only be 141W. Just an observation
 
Habbosrus said:
Is there a reason you're changing from 12v on tree to 5v on star? Just curious. If you standardise with 12v, you may find it a little easier when starting out. You'd be able to run all from one power supply too, if you wanted. 470 nodes x .3W would only be 141W. Just an observation
Click to expand...


Only that I have a frame from an old display I had which died at xmas so looking that only a 50 pixel light string will fit it and they are 5 Volts.
 
Fasteddy said:
Make sure you only load up the power supply to approx. 80 to 85% for those power supplies. So the max load I would apply to these is 300 watts to a cheap 350watt power supply
Click to expand...
When working out how much power you need on a psu do you calculate the watts or the amperage?
 
heathwithnoteeth said:
watts is volts x amps
Click to expand...
Maybe I should rephrase. Say my lights consume 15w per 50 at 3A. How would I work out the power supply requirements?
 
here's my (rough) spreadsheet I used to work out power supply requirements.
Make sure you read the comments on each of the headings (hover mouse over them) to see what they mean.
Enter your details in the green boxes only.
 

Attachments

  • power.xls
    12 KB · Views: 51
My Mega tree is 36 stings of 12v WS2811. Each string is 47 nodes and is wired in zig zag so each continuous length is 96 pixels. This is wired from the input end of each continuous string only no power injection at all and is running off a 500w 12v power supply and ran perfectly fine all season.


You don't need to use multiple small power supplies, you can just use 1 large power supply as long as you are not at the limit of the listed rating. As Eddy has stated 80% - 85% is a good number, I think mine is a little more than 85% but I never fully tested while it was running I will be testing it this year though to make sure.
 
and there's always the option of lowering the brightness and thus reducing current draw, handy if close to the 80-85% limit.


I had my strips at 60% (via controller) and they were still very bright 8)
 
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