Question or answer? You decide.

Run the drivers on the 12v and inject 5v into the light strings.
The boards only switch the negative, so it will work fine.
 
I'm not sure how i would wire it like that, i've never used strings, this is for regular 1 watt rgb led (the ones with the star base. not very bright but useful for what i need.
 
Sorry, work pulled me out of town for a few days. I can wire them up either way (separate +/- pads for each channel on the led). Though i'm looking for high power leds that have all of the positive connected internally (saves lots of soldering). So far the dm-series controllers are the only ones that work, just not with the LEDs that require <5 volts. The dm-series controllers are set up as common positive.
 
All I do is run 2 power supplies.
The 12v supply, aside from running all of my 12v lights, it runs my controllers.
The positive and negative are run to the controller.
Then you hook all of the negative wires from your led's to the controller. (RGB) however, you hook the positive wire to the 12v power supply. you run a common earth, ie. hook the earths together on both power supplies.
as the controller is only switching the negative and both supplies are a common earth, It all works fine.
This can be done for any, like I am also using Big W lights which are 27v, so if my controller isn't rated to that high, I can do the same and run the controller on 12v.
There is a post on the forum in wiki somewhere that gives a wiring diagram but I can't find it.
Ask in chat, maybe someone can help you find it.
 
That sound worth looking into, thanks for saying, i'll look for it in the wiki. It sounds similar to another page of info that was showing how to use two atx power supplies to make 24v to supply 24v leds by combining the grounds.. Thanks
 
Making 24v on a ATX is a bit different, as you use the +12v as positive and -12v as negative giving 24v. as well you can use + and - 5v to get 10 or any other combination to give you around 8 different voltages.
This is just supplying the strings and controllers with the voltage they need and switching the negative on the LED's.
 
Ain't it marvellous how sometimes Forum threads take on a life of their own !!


We started talking about DMX controllers... and now we are talking about cathodes and anodes and actually, I haven't got a clue what this is about now !!!


Grow baby grow !!! Its going to be an interesting life !! :D
 
Oh really... we were talking positive and negative, now you want to get technical and throw in anode and cathode.... where will this end...
next you will tell me that electrons actually go from the negative to the positive...
 
When i originally hijacked this thread i was asking if anyone knows of similar led drivers to the dm- series drivers that the op mentioned. I've used several of the dm-series drivers, but was hoping someone knows of other similar drivers (with dmx, 3, and hopefully 4 channels) that can power 3-5v high power LEDs. Combining two power supplies sounds like a good way to do it (thanks scamper), but if i can do it without the additional power supply it would be far bette rather than adding more cost and complexity of combining two power supply units, since i was hoping to have a few dozen of these LEDs

There's an instructable on combining two ATX supplies to get 24v (and other volts combos) at

http://www.instructables.com/id/Two-ATX-PSU-One-juiced-24-V-DC-PSU/

the comments section gets pretty detailed, over my head mostly.
 
If you don't want to use two actual power supply, you can derive the lower voltage using a step-down converter.

A 12V -> 5V @ 3A converter can be got on eBay for a few dollars.
 
BundyRoy said:
I have no idea if this is even relevant but if you multiply the number you came up with * 3 and then add 4 you get the other number. I figure it can't be a coincidence with that many sets of numbers.

eg. 11*3+4=37

Got no idea of the relevance, just saying.

Might help if have to do any more though.
Click to expand...

Scamper, did you end having to use this pattern for the rest or did you find an easier/correct way. Just wondering if the reason behind determining the board address was ever determined.
 
The number you set the board to with the programmer, is actually the RGB or pixel number.
so setting 1 is the first 3 channels.
2 is 4 to 6 etc. (at least I think so, I still need to set it up, There may be a ch 0 so everything moves up by 3)
So I reset all the boards to channel numbers and then worked out the dmx address separately, so I could program the sequences.
Which I haven't done yet, so will find out in the next few weeks.
 
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