Will this work or am i missing something

[Bartjet]

Hello to the experts out here. I have another question below is what I am looking at doing, Just wondering if this would work. or am I missing something. Simple explanation is 4 power supplies with fuse blocks, lights powered directly from the fuse blocks both V+ and V-. controller powered from 1 of the fuse blocks, data from controller to beginning of string, ground from each port connected to fuse ground of respective PS.

 

[TANSA]

That is basically how I do my tree but I have 1 PSU going to a fuse block and use 1 fuse to do 1 set of pixels. 1 strand is very low power when running at 30% brightness

 

[Bartjet]

Yeah, each psu goes to a fuse block, then the fuse block distributes to 1 set of pixels, like you said, my main concern was in the V- side. I have the V- of the port on the controller going to the V- on the fuse block and not all the way out to the pixels. And each port is going to a different power supply fuse block. Was not sure if that would cause a problem or if I needed to connect all of the V- fuse blocks together.
I am not using the V+ on the ports of the controller at all, just data and V-. Data from the controller and V+/- from 1 fuse, then each additional fuse is power injection between 2 sets except for the last one at the end of every 6 sets.

 

[uncledan]

V- and data need to connect from the output of the controller to the first pixel. V- connected to every connection for data and power injection. Data needs a return path back to the controller with V- connection. Your wiring might work but not recommended. Might have some data issues.

 

[scamper]

As a matter of coarse I connect all v- together.
What you need to think about is v- is a reference. What I mean by that is that v+ is only a differential to the v- line. So as an example if say the v- line referenced to earth was 1v and v+ was 6v the potential difference is 5v which is fine, until you connect more power supplies and things like data. The data could come from the controller where the power supply v- is actually 2v with reference to ground and the v+ is 7v. in this case the power is fine, but now the data at 1v peak to peak is fine in reference to it's own power line, but is 0v in reference to the first supply.
Please note these numbers are exaggerated for ease of understanding

 

[TANSA]

The easy way is to loop all the PSU -VE's together this gives everything a common reference point.
This helps in so many other ways.
I have 5V and 12V lights and DMX off one controller and I just loop 1 -VE to all the different PSU's.
This way the controller only does the light loads of 1 or 2 strands of pixels and the bigger ones go straight from the PSU for the high current.

 

[Bartjet]

Ok, so if I loop all the v- together it should be ok with the power supplies.

Uncledan said i also need to connect the V- from the port to the first pixel but based on the aspect of V- being a reference wouldn't connecting the port to the V- block and having the first pixel also connected to the V- block do the same thing?

Just trying to get a better understanding before I blow something up. Thanks again for everyone's help.

 

[scamper]

Ok, so if I loop all the v- together it should be ok with the power supplies.

Uncledan said i also need to connect the V- from the port to the first pixel but based on the aspect of V- being a reference wouldn't connecting the port to the V- block and having the first pixel also connected to the V- block do the same thing?

Just trying to get a better understanding before I blow something up. Thanks again for everyone's help.

If you connect all the v- together it should be fine. Just don't skimp on the wire size. A lot of people think that the v+ needs to be big to handle the current load, but power is a loop, so v- needs to be just as big

 

[Bartjet]

All 14 gauge wire for the runs and 6 gauge between the fuse blocks and the power supply