VERY beginner, information for PSU for electrician

Samante

New elf
Joined
Dec 18, 2020
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11
Hi everyone,

As stated, I am very new at all of this and live in a cyclone prone area of FNQ. I have been reading and watching videos about this for about 10 months. My first foray into pixels this year is going to be small - I have 400 5v lights, a DMX18 from Hanson Electronics and a MeanWell LRS-350-5 300W PSU. The issue I have is that the PSU came without a power cord, which I wasn't expecting. My husband has contacted an electrician to get it wired up, but apparently the electrician "has questions" and needs to talk to me about it.

I'm planning on storing my control box inside of my garage and having the props (two matrixes on columns and a shooting star) on the front facade of my house. There will be three strands at the moment to connect to the PSU and controller. Can anyone help me with any further information I may have to tell the electrician so that I can get my little baby system powered up?

Thank you so much! :)
 

Freman

Uh Oh Elf
Generous elf
Joined
Aug 9, 2021
Messages
118
Hi Samante,

It's very common for these power supplies to not come with flex installed. I'm not sure what questions your electrician might have but it's a relatively simple thing.

Does your meanwell come with a piece of plastic to cover the terminals?
How far is it from where you plan to store your controller and the lights?

You should probably have your power supply in an enclosure (or at least cover the terminals).
Beyond the electrical safety of the terminals on the meanwell, if the distance is too long from your controller to your pixels you might find the voltage drop on 5v is too much.
 

Samante

New elf
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Dec 18, 2020
Messages
11
Hi Freman,

Thank you for your reply! The mean well has a clear piece of plastic over the terminals, yes. I was planning on keeping it all together in a clear box inside my garage for this year, and look at getting a proper enclosure for next year. The lights would be a maximum of 5m away from the PSU and controller. Do you think that is too much?

Unfortunately, the only thing my late father who was an electrician taught me about these sorts of things was to not touch it. I'm slowly building up my confidence! :)

Thank you again!
 

Tasmoken

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Dec 28, 2020
Messages
14
My son set up his ….. (our) three d printer and have a look at what the psu is but it is 24 volt unit😵💫
 

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Freman

Uh Oh Elf
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Thank you for your reply! The mean well has a clear piece of plastic over the terminals, yes. I was planning on keeping it all together in a clear box inside my garage for this year, and look at getting a proper enclosure for next year. The lights would be a maximum of 5m away from the PSU and controller. Do you think that is too much?
Shouldn't be too bad for voltage drop, worst case scenario you can adjust the PSU up to 5.5v to take up some of the drop, you can do that fairly safely once the power is connected.

By all means, if you don't feel comfortable doing it, get a sparky to do it, this is not the stuff you want to be shy around or make mistakes with, the results can be disastrous. Sorry to say your father did you a disservice (it's like telling teens not to have sex lol).

While he's wiring it up have him adjust the output voltage to 5.5v (it's just a trim pot on the power supply), this won't harm the LEDs and should make up for any voltage drop, you can confirm this yourself by throwing a multimeter across the wires where your leds are, if it drops too far below 5v still (or your lights are off colour)

edit: removed any suggestion of going above 5.5v as it's kinda super situation specific.
 
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Kartman

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Cairns
Which part of FNQ? I am in Cairns and if you are near there I can show you what I did
 

i13

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Jul 5, 2013
Messages
1,172
My biggest concern here is that the DMX18 is not a pixel controller. You can't use it to control pixels. It controls dumb RGB and single-polarity traditional LED strings.

I wouldn't recommend turning up the power supply too much. A half volt might be okay but I wouldn't push the limit. The reason for this is that pixels are powered and running even when the signal tells them to be off. The voltage drop only happens when current is flowing so you'll be exposing the pixels to the full voltage of the power supply when they are off. If you do increase the voltage, make sure that the controller can also handle it. My preferred method to handle voltage drop is to reduce the drop that happens. You can do this by doubling the power wires, using thicker cable, lowering the maximum brightness of the pixels and/or shortening the length of wire between the pixels and power supply. First thing's first: Let's see whether voltage drop ends up being a problem before trying to solve it.

Apologies if I haven't really answered the initial question but I think these points needed to be raised.
 
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Samante

New elf
Joined
Dec 18, 2020
Messages
11
Shouldn't be too bad for voltage drop, worst case scenario you can adjust the PSU up to 5.5v to take up some of the drop, you can do that fairly safely once the power is connected.

By all means, if you don't feel comfortable doing it, get a sparky to do it, this is not the stuff you want to be shy around or make mistakes with, the results can be disastrous. Sorry to say your father did you a disservice (it's like telling teens not to have sex lol).

While he's wiring it up have him adjust the output voltage to 5.5v (it's just a trim pot on the power supply), this won't harm the LEDs and should make up for any voltage drop, you can confirm this yourself by throwing a multimeter across the wires where your leds are, if it drops too far below 5v still (or your lights are off colour)

edit: removed any suggestion of going above 5.5v as it's kinda super situation specific.
Thanks Freeman. I'll ask the sparky about whether we could bump it up to 5.5v. I've realised after reading i13's post that I must have ordered the wrong controller the other night when I was distracted, so I've still got a ways to go before I can even try to make this work.
 

Samante

New elf
Joined
Dec 18, 2020
Messages
11
My biggest concern here is that the DMX18 is not a pixel controller. You can't use it to control pixels. It controls dumb RGB and single-polarity traditional LED strings.

I wouldn't recommend turning up the power supply too much. A half volt might be okay but I wouldn't push the limit. The reason for this is that pixels are powered and running even when the signal tells them to be off. The voltage drop only happens when current is flowing so you'll be exposing the pixels to the full voltage of the power supply when they are off. If you do increase the voltage, make sure that the controller can also handle it. My preferred method to handle voltage drop is to reduce the drop that happens. You can do this by doubling the power wires, using thicker cable, lowering the maximum brightness of the pixels and/or shortening the length of wire between the pixels and power supply. First thing's first: Let's see whether voltage drop ends up being a problem before trying to solve it.

Apologies if I haven't really answered the initial question but I think these points needed to be raised.
Hi i13!

You're right - I've mucked up the controller situation! I was overwhelmed and got distracted by children, clicked the wrong one and now it's on it's way to me. I do have lots of traditional LED strings but I know from talking to you earlier in the year that they're not all suitable to be used this way. Now I can't even remember what sort of controller I was even thinking of getting. To be honest, it's all becoming a bit much! I think it would help to be able to learn hands on for this. That's how I learnt theatre lighting and sound when I was thrown in the deep end.
Which part of FNQ? I am in Cairns and if you are near there I can show you what I did
I'm in Cairns too! (Well, Gordonvale) I have big dreams and little practical understanding, so I'd love to see what others have done. If you're offering, I'd love to visit!
 

TANSA

Sparky with Blinky Lights ;-)
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Dec 9, 2019
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177
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Bentley Park
@Samante
Welcome to the mad Christmas lighting madness
I’m in Edmonton area, and happy to help with knowledge if I can.
Good to see you are getting a sparky to do the 240 side, always better to de safe.
Don’t bump the 5v to high as they are only rated to about 6v and depending on your supply output you may not have to bump it up.
 

i13

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Joined
Jul 5, 2013
Messages
1,172
As a general rule, the DMX18 will control traditional LED strings that have more than two wires between the blinker unit and first LED OR that don't have a blinker unit. If you don't have any lights for it, I would be surprised if Hanson Electronics doesn't let you exchange the unused DMX18. The traditional LED strings typically require somewhere around 30V DC.
 

HertzSwift

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Sep 16, 2019
Messages
89
Location
Perth
Bunnings are getting into the pixel game, perhaps if it's becoming over-whelming (Trust me I've been there I know whats that's like!) They are selling these trees this year, they are plug and play. They are indoor use only, but with some work, silicone, heatshrink, could possily get them to work outside.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mt_jUdF3mBw


I think they look pretty great for $99, few of those on the front lawn, it'd look nice, and if you want to take the hobby to the next level, you could always modify them to work with a more pro controller once you expand your knowledge.
 

AussieDoug

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Dec 1, 2012
Messages
376
I spent 20 minutes trying to find this tree at Bunnings last night.
Saw it on display and had to have it straight away.
 

Indigogyre

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Jun 26, 2021
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Darn you Bunnings! I keep searching the US big box stores for something similar.
 

Notenoughlights

400,000+ twinkly lights
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Oct 16, 2016
Messages
641
Location
Christchurch, New Zealand
Bunnings are getting into the pixel game, perhaps if it's becoming over-whelming (Trust me I've been there I know whats that's like!) They are selling these trees this year, they are plug and play. They are indoor use only, but with some work, silicone, heatshrink, could possily get them to work outside.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mt_jUdF3mBw


I think they look pretty great for $99, few of those on the front lawn, it'd look nice, and if you want to take the hobby to the next level, you could always modify them to work with a more pro controller once you expand your knowledge.

Very easy to get working with a standard controller, it does need to be able to run 400kHZ though (WLED works well) all you need to do its attach V+ D - to the controller and it's away.
 
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