verify voltage inputs

BrianJ

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Hi, Just hooking up my P12R and I need to add a second power supply. I have a the first five volt supply feeding the logic board at K1 five volt and ground as well as the output board at P00. The second power supply is feeding the output board at P13. I am pretty sure this is right but just want to verify before I power it up.

Thanks to fasteddy for the manual. it makes it so much easier.
 

AussiePhil

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Hi, Just hooking up my P12R and I need to add a second power supply. I have a the first five volt supply feeding the logic board at K1 five volt and ground as well as the output board at P00. The second power supply is feeding the output board at P13. I am pretty sure this is right but just want to verify before I power it up.

Thanks to fasteddy for the manual. it makes it so much easier.
Actually that's against what the manual says. I'm fairly certain that inputting power to K1 should be from a separate supply to the pixel supply. (i own quite a few of these)
P13 can be used to provide shared 5v to the board with the jumpers in place as per Option 1 or Option 3
Otherwise option two requires a separate supply.

thanks for this post, just realized i've made my own dumb mistake wiring board power in....for years :)
 

BrianJ

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Thanks for the reply Phil. I tested the way I explained in the post and everything works great.

Cheers, Brian
 

AussiePhil

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Thanks for the reply Phil. I tested the way I explained in the post and everything works great.

Cheers, Brian
Thanks for the update Brian, glad it's working.

I'll expand further on my answer for the benefit of others that may read this though as there are some nuances that can trap people.
The K1 connector has 5 pins and looking towards it from the top, left to right they are
+V - This is directly connected to positive on the P13 input, the risk is that if this is connected to external power not via P13 that pixels plugged into that side can result in excess current on the board tracks
VI - This is the input into the HV ->5v regulator that is onboard
VO - This is the 5v output from the regulator
+5v - This is an external 5v input, this input is isolated from the other inputs and can use the same 5v PSU driving your pixels
Gnd - same ground as anywhere else on the board

The board with the ethernet module connected to a switch draws around 240mA on the 5v input, however there is minimal capacitance on the 5v input for the board to stay running in the event of a transient dip down to 3v or less, this is the same no matter the power input btw.
When running from a SMPS powering the pixels at the same time then there is a possibility that you will experience this from a poor/cheap SMPS.
This is the reason I have always run all my controllers that provide separate board power as an option not just the ECG series from there own xx->5v convertors.
Yes it's a little extra cabling and a few dollars in equipment but for me at least provides peace of mind the controllers are getting clean 5v.

Ultimately most people have just connected up to whatever supply is running the pixels and do not experience issues so most of the above is general knowledge sharing on how the board power section is set up for the ECG12 series.

Cheers
Phil
 
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