Mark_M
Annoying Elf
Come into the live chat.
Why all the ports on a controller…
- Thread starter BrianZ
- Start date
BrianZ
Full time elf
- Thread starter
- #17
Lol. That’s cool, thanks. Unfortunately, I can’t right now. But I’d like to pick this back up tomorrow. Let me give you my setup: I plan on running about 800 icicle lights from my F4v3 controller, a power distro. board, 1 350w power supply and go up to 50% max, but will keep it around 30% brightness. I’ll have to put the controller build on one end of the roof, in the garage, and chain the pixels together from one port so I don’t have to add 20-30ft cable extension from another port, make sense? Am I thinking about this correctly? Can I use the same PSU to power inject as well? I then plan to extend out to smart receivers from the F4.
Your power supply will be your limiter. My 12 volt regulated pixel use 0.36 watts at 50% brightness white. The power supply is 350 watts but I do not think you should max out the power supply so if you take 80% of that which is 280 watts divide that by 0.36 watts/ pixel leaves you with 777 pixels. Inject power where needed.
BrianZ
Full time elf
- Thread starter
- #19
Ok, thank you. I will be right around that mark for the icicles. Would I be able to power inject with the same supply or should I use a separate one? And can I chain all the icicles from one port? Be sure if not, I’ll have to run long extension cables from another port.
merryoncherry
Senior elf
Well, with 750 regulated pixels (spread over 10m/30'?) you can either:
Run long extension cables
Run long PI wires.
Run A/C and put in a diff receiver
With icicles, I did use smart receivers due to the high power per pixel (and I run 100%), but that wasn't bad for me because I took the porch roof apart and put power outlets and cables and enclosures up in the void.
Run long extension cables
Run long PI wires.
Run A/C and put in a diff receiver
With icicles, I did use smart receivers due to the high power per pixel (and I run 100%), but that wasn't bad for me because I took the porch roof apart and put power outlets and cables and enclosures up in the void.
merryoncherry
Senior elf
You can run 750 pixels off one port on some controllers, including the F4V3.
You can run 750 regulated pixels off one 350W 12V PSU, though will possibly not hold 100% white indefinitely, especially in warm environments. At 50% you should be fine. The trick is safe application of fuses, while maintaining clean data. (Icicles are not as bad in this regard because the power and data wires are relatively short.)
You seem to be hung up a bit on whether you want the PSU in the controller to be that one PSU, leaving very little power for the other ports, or if you want to do something else. This is a matter of preference, where you can conveniently locate things, if there is room in the enclosure of the F4 and whether it would stay cool with a bigger PSU, etc., or whether another box should be added, and whether that would go near the F4 or far from it. I would say what would work well in your physical space would drive the design decision.
While it's tempting to cram as many pixels onto a controller as possible, this mentality comes from believing that the controller ports are a very "scarce resource" and that other things (PI wire, time, etc.) are cheap. I have lots of controller ports, price them in my mind at $20-$25 each, and my time is valuable, so I don't have that many pixels per port... sometimes as many as 300-400, but on average 140 (not counting empty ports). I'm also a bad planner and like flexibility, so I don't invest in a detailed wiring and power scheme in advance, I just run extensions to controller ports.
You can run 750 regulated pixels off one 350W 12V PSU, though will possibly not hold 100% white indefinitely, especially in warm environments. At 50% you should be fine. The trick is safe application of fuses, while maintaining clean data. (Icicles are not as bad in this regard because the power and data wires are relatively short.)
You seem to be hung up a bit on whether you want the PSU in the controller to be that one PSU, leaving very little power for the other ports, or if you want to do something else. This is a matter of preference, where you can conveniently locate things, if there is room in the enclosure of the F4 and whether it would stay cool with a bigger PSU, etc., or whether another box should be added, and whether that would go near the F4 or far from it. I would say what would work well in your physical space would drive the design decision.
While it's tempting to cram as many pixels onto a controller as possible, this mentality comes from believing that the controller ports are a very "scarce resource" and that other things (PI wire, time, etc.) are cheap. I have lots of controller ports, price them in my mind at $20-$25 each, and my time is valuable, so I don't have that many pixels per port... sometimes as many as 300-400, but on average 140 (not counting empty ports). I'm also a bad planner and like flexibility, so I don't invest in a detailed wiring and power scheme in advance, I just run extensions to controller ports.
merryoncherry
Senior elf
So you want to put the controller in the garage, and run the icicles from one end. What else are you going to run from that F4 and where are those props located?
BrianZ
Full time elf
- Thread starter
- #25
That’s correct. I’d like to use ports, 2,3 and 4 for other props. But then that would require another power supply in my box. So, I think the best course would be to extend out to diff. receiver builds and use ports 2,3 and 4 for those props. Am I on the right track?
merryoncherry
Senior elf
Wondering. The other thing you could do is put the F4 elsewhere and run the icicles on a diff receiver. That means the 4 ports on the F4 still have power to run stuff, and it could be put in a more convenient location, leaving just a PSU/receiver combo near the icicles, with the icicle data and PI wire coming out.
merryoncherry
Senior elf
Option 1: Use the F4 and its PSU to run the icicles. Diff ports from the F4 could go elsewhere. Or just add a controller for things elsewhere. Using the other ports on the F4 may be more trouble than it's worth
Option 2: Put the F4 wherever you want, and use a diff from it to run the icicles. Keeping the F4 ports free for something a bit more balanced in power usage per port, and allowing the F4 to be placed elsewhere.
You might want to split the data on the icicles. 750-800 is more pixels than the F4 will support to run full frame rate. Running a second data connection to the middle of the icicles would fix it, and not take that much more wire.
merryoncherry
Senior elf
Yes, especially depending on the PSU :-D
Yes