RGB 2811 strips and signal issues

yzguy96

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Sep 24, 2012
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Hi,
I had my whole house working fine until I moved all my equipement in the basement. Now the lights hooked up on my second power supply twinkle instead of displaying a solid color. So if its solid green then the lights twinkle green with some blue. It was too late to troubleshoot last night so do I need to concentrate on the data signal or is this more of a power issue? Just want a game plan so I can troubleshoot after work today. Maybe slow speed of the pixels?
 

yzguy96

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Yes I increased distance to first pixel but also added another null pixel...tjebpower supplies are grounded together.
 

yzguy96

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When I use the e1.31 tool and set everything to green the second power supply light are green but flicker a little blue. When I reconnect my roof then they flicker all different colors so the roof must be shorted? I also changed the data cable running up to the second floor (second power supply lights) which seemed to help a little?
 

BrianJ

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Not sure what your distances are from the controllers to first pixel or from power supplies to strip, I would chaeck voltage at the strip to verify that you have enough power to run everything. Remember that when dealing with low voltage, voltage drop on the wires can become an issue
 

yzguy96

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distance from controller to first pixel is about 30ft or so but i have 2 null pixels. my first floor which is seperate power supply looks like it works fine but second floor on seperate power supply is where im getting weird twinkling and colors? They are grounded together and I ran a volt meter to first pixel and get 12 v and upstairs to first pixel on second power supply 12 volts....maybe an issue with the data wire? its cat5 using 2 wires?
 

yzguy96

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only use one color of the cat 5? I thought doubling it would make it thicker and keep a better signal....so instead of using blue and white blue use just blue?
 

yzguy96

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ok i will try that...although i do not know if that will fix all my problems...i stuck that cat 5 after i was having issues thinking the data cable was bad cause I was getting flickering. wish me luck :) any other advice if its not the data cable? I am going to run a new cat5 and only use one wire...if i am getting 12 volts still from the power then it will still be a data issue? Also on one of my power splitters i did notice a drop to 11.89...would that affect the strip?
 

yzguy96

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my data run from 1st floor to 2nd is maybe 15ft...would i need a null pixel? if so then a null pixel wouldnt work with just the data wire hooked up to the pixel? I need power to the pixel too?
 

Kaden

Pixels! I need more pixels!
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Gold Coast
yzguy96 said:
my data run from 1st floor to 2nd is maybe 15ft...would i need a null pixel? if so then a null pixel wouldnt work with just the data wire hooked up to the pixel? I need power to the pixel too?


Yes, the null pixel needs power too.
 

yzguy96

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ok do you think i may need one for that long of a run? it was working before but dont know if something introduced a new data issue. cat5 is good to use for data outdoors in this application?
 

mick8248

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Now that you have increased the distance to your strips you may need to change the data rate speed of your controller. What rate are you running them at now?
 
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