Questions about the 2811DC15/30 Board

[BundyRoy]

Alan,

This might be a dumb question as I don't have the greatest of understanding of how these things work yet. But here goes anyway.

I was looking on your website today and noticed the board has the data in and data out ports. Does this mean that if I needed to put a null pixel in to get more range from the smart pixel controller to the first pixel in the string I could use your pcb to do this as well as having the side benefit of having what would have been a null pixel actually controlling some light strings.

I'm not sure if there would ever be a set up where this could be a benefit but is it possible.

Hopefully I have described it well enough for you to understand what I was thinking.

 

[AAH]

That has me a bit confuzzled but that could just be a side effect of me having a bit of brain fade today. OMG it's cold in my shed. Well it may not be as cold as some people experience but I hate the cold.
I'll try to explain how you could run the board and how it can act as a easy to connect null pixel. For normal operation you could just chop dead centre in the middle of a 5m 2811 strip for instance. Connect the gnd, data, +ve to the 2 terminals. Connect 5V,12V, 24V, whatever to the power terminals and connect your dumb rgb floods up for instance and job is done.
If for instance you have some 2811 strip around 1 window, a couple of rgb floods working as wall washers or something and then you have another window 5m away with further 2811 strip running around it then you could do exactly as above but also connect the 5V or 12V that powers the strip directly to the D.Inr D.Out terminals and you have power injected and effectively reduced the need for a null pixel.
I hope that clarified things a bit and didn't confuzzle you

 

[fasteddy]

Because each chip regenerates the signal then i would tend to think that the scenario you are asking about should work as I would think it should be similar to just a pixel IC regenerating the signal

 

[BundyRoy]

Thanks Alan/Eddy for the response. Sounds like it can do what I tried to say but I will give an example just to be sure. In my case I have a pixlite 16. I plan to have the pixlite 16 down one end of the verandah running a 2d pixel tree and some pixel strip arches. Say I wanted to run some more pixels up the other end of the verandah 10m away from the pixlite 16.

Could I put the 2811DC15 5m away from the pixlite 16 and then have the pixel strip with the first pixel 5m away from the 2811dc15 whilst having my old dumb bigw strings (MFC removed) running off the 2811DC15.

The other thing that just came to mind whilst working my brain around this scenario is that the pixel strip runs on 12V dc and my bigw strings run on 27V dc. Is this an issue or can the 2811dc15 outputs run on the 27V whilst regenerating the 12V signal and passing it down the line.

 

[fasteddy]

Could I put the 2811DC15 5m away from the pixlite 16 and then have the pixel strip with the first pixel 5m away from the 2811dc15 whilst having my old dumb bigw strings (MFC removed) running off the 2811DC15.

You should happily get 5 metres from the 2811, so this scenario is a perfect example on how you would use this

 

[Habbosrus]

Thanks Alan/Eddy for the response. Sounds like it can do what I tried to say but I will give an example just to be sure. In my case I have a pixlite 16. I plan to have the pixlite 16 down one end of the verandah running a 2d pixel tree and some pixel strip arches. Say I wanted to run some more pixels up the other end of the verandah 10m away from the pixlite 16.

Could I put the 2811DC15 5m away from the pixlite 16 and then have the pixel strip with the first pixel 5m away from the 2811dc15 whilst having my old dumb bigw strings (MFC removed) running off the 2811DC15.

The other thing that just came to mind whilst working my brain around this scenario is that the pixel strip runs on 12V dc and my bigw strings run on 27V dc. Is this an issue or can the 2811dc15 outputs run on the 27V whilst regenerating the 12V signal and passing it down the line.

The 2811dc can happily run your Big W strings in the way you have mentioned. This is exactly how I used mine last year. I used a 27v ps from Ray and wound it up a little. I too was a little unsure at first but it works fantastically well.

 

[BundyRoy]

Thanks Steve/Eddy.

A little off the original topic but when you hook up the bigw lights to the 2811dc15 can you still use the 10m or so of lead wire that is on the bigw lights between where you cut off the mfc and the first led. Or is there too much voltage drop. I figure/hope it should be okay as it worked before but just wanted to check. The extra distance between the controller and the first light really comes in handy when setting the lights out.

 

[Habbosrus]

I changed the lead wire for some slightly heavier gauge wire. From the 2811dc15 to first BigW light was 6 metres. I ran 3 sets of (600) BigW lights this way. 1 x multi coloured fairy & 2 x icicles. I didn't notice any drop. I was surprised that the last light was just as bright as the first.
This will give you an idea of the span. The arch looking things are the multi coloured fairy lights

 

[fasteddy]

when you hook up the bigw lights to the 2811dc15 can you still use the 10m or so of lead wire that is on the bigw lights between where you cut off the mfc and the first led. Or is there too much voltage drop.

If the lights came with that cable then there should be no issue because it ran before with that cable. What you need to ensure is that your power supply for the 2811dc15 is not to far away. The fact that you are using 27 volts for the bigw lights means that voltage drop should not be a big issue in this type of installation and also the bigW lights draw very little current, so there is a bit you can get away with

 

[BundyRoy]

Thanks again Steve/Eddy. It was good to be reminded it is the distance from the power supply to lights, not controller to lights that I need to check. Am planning on having the power supply adjacent to board anyway (ordered the 27V psu from Ray yesterday. Luckily my lights order hadn't been sent so could just add it in.)

Now sorry for the double up on a question , but I just want to be sure as when I make assumptions I seem to frequently make the wrong assumption. The 2811DC15 can be used to run 27V LED outputs whilst regenerating the 12V data input and passing it on to the next 12V pixel 5m downstream of the controller. This means the 12V Din to Dout connectors are a separate circuit (at least in terms of power) to the 15 27V powered outputs. I know you said it was okay (perfect example) before Eddy but just wanted to double check this part was okay as I had a couple of questions in the one post before.

 

[fasteddy]

The 2811DC15 can be used to run 27V LED outputs whilst regenerating the 12V data input and passing it on to the next 12V pixel 5m downstream of the controller. This means the 12V Din to Dout connectors are a separate circuit (at least in terms of power) to the 15 27V powered outputs.

this is correct they are isolated from eathother

 

[BundyRoy]

Another question. I now have a 2811DC30 in my possession. I'm not sure I have enough gear to use all 30 outputs yet. As discussed earlier I plan to have some strip downstream of the 2811DC30. Do I have to allow for 30 pixels in my sequencing regardless of how many I use on the 2811dc30 or do I just allow for the outputs used. I use LOR if that makes any difference.

I figure I have to allow for all 30 and just not turn the unused ones on in the sequencing but I just wanted to check.

 

[Habbosrus]

G'day Bundy, it's only 10 pixels, not 30. 2811dc30 takes the place of 10 pixels or 30 channels. You need to allow for all of them in your sequencing.

 

[BundyRoy]

Thanks Habbosrus. Got my pixels and channels mixed up.

 

[BundyRoy]

Got my 2811DC30 up and running last night for the first time. Had pixels coming into it and coming out of it as well as running some bigW led strings (controllers cut off) off the other outputs. So all good, thanks Alan.

Now this got me thinking about trying to maximise my usage with the bigW lights and the channels. I have the bigW lights using 2 channels. So that is one wire in the v+ and one in two of the adjacent channels. This leaves one spare.

Can I plug one part of the next bigW string in this channel and the other in the first channel of the next output. If so where do I put the third wire that goes in the v+. If all v+ are common this will not be a problem but if they are turned on with each specific output then I can't see how it could be done.

Not too stressed if I only get to use 2 of the three channels on each output but thought I would check to see if I could utilise the lot.

Is there a problem with having more than one light in the same v+ connector.

Thanks