Wiring set up for ws2811 strips

Porsche

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Hi Guys, Ive just bought my 1st lot of WS2811 strips 12v.
I was under the impression they were 3 pin, 12v, data and Gnd.
When I recieved these I noticed an extra Gnd wire (so 4 wire in total) at the start of the strip and at the end. That extra Gnd wire is wired into a small plug with the data wire.
Im a little confused now!!!!
So in a ECG P2. its got G-C-D-V, with the 2811 Im assuming we dont need a clock connection to go into the P2?
Im just taking a guess now, but do I hook up the 2 bare wires V & Gnd from the strip direct to the power supply, and the other Gnd wire and Data wire from the strip to the P2??
Or have I got this all around thee wrong way.
Ive attached a pic
Thanks
 

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harrison0550

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Porsche said:
Hi Guys, Ive just bought my 1st lot of WS2811 strips 12v.
I was under the impression they were 3 pin, 12v, data and Gnd.
When I recieved these I noticed an extra Gnd wire (so 4 wire in total) at the start of the strip and at the end. That extra Gnd wire is wired into a small plug with the data wire.
Im a little confused now!!!!
So in a ECG P2. its got G-C-D-V, with the 2811 Im assuming we dont need a clock connection to go into the P2?
Im just taking a guess now, but do I hook up the 2 bare wires V & Gnd from the strip direct to the power supply, and the other Gnd wire and Data wire from the strip to the P2??
Or have I got this all around thee wrong way.
Ive attached a pic
Thanks


The extra ground wire is just that extra. Its used for power injection or like you indicated running it to the P2 output.
You are correct there is no clock wire on the 2811 pixels.


"Im just taking a guess now, but do I hook up the 2 bare wires V & Gnd from the strip direct to the power supply, and the other Gnd wire and Data wire from the strip to the P2??"

That is good guess cause that is exactly what you want to do. Dont let that 2nd ground wire throw you off its just the same ground wire split.
 

kane

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What Andy has said is exactly right.

The dead giveaway when looking at that strip is that you could see there were only 3 pins, but one of them has two wires connected to them (the black ground wire).. So if you were powering your strip from your controller (eg from a pixad8 or p12r), you could cut the second wire off.. But for a P2, given that you'll want to power the strip directly, you can use this second wire for that.
 

Porsche

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Awesome, thanks Gents. So If I hook up the 2 bare wires (V and Gnd) direct to the power supply. That'll give power to the strip.
And then hook up the other Gnd and Data to the P2. Im all sweet?
Once again Im guessing now, But the data and Gnd wire is all thats needed to come from the P2.
I did read somewhere on here that its not good to try power the strip from the P2's power, so If I hook up like above Im powering the strip independently and just drawing data from the P2?
Just confirming Im understanding this correctly.
Im drawing power direct from the power supply and only data from the P2?
 

fasteddy

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Andy_Harrison said:
No problem. I'm bored so I photo shopped it up for ya......

ecg%20p2%20%20hookup.jpg




Eddy also has a great pic here by FastEddy..........

p2%20wiring.JPG

Nice Andy, between those 2 pictures it should make it a lot clearer for those using the P2 for the first time,
 

Bill Ellick

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So true Eddy.
P2 users can print out that picture and post it on the wall over their workbench for reference! :D
 

Greg.Ca

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Jan 1, 2013
Messages
92
My question is regarding hooking up the negative(s) of the power supply(s) together.

For my project, I am using only 5VDC strips. I plan on having 2 P12R's, 24 WS2811 150 pixel strips and 8 separate 350 watt 5VDC power supplies powering all the strips AND the two P12R's. Since each strip can use 11.5 amps each, all the strips need to be powered INDEPENDENTLY from the P12R's as the output of each P12R has only a 7.5 amp fuse and cannot power the strips directly from the P12R.

I am going to run only two wires from the P12R (data and ground) to each strip and two wires )5V+ and 5V-) from the power supply to each strip.

My question is whether or not to connect together ALL the negatives from ALL the power supplies together?
What are the implications of having ALL of the negatives from ALL of the power supplies tied together? Any issues??

I also plan tying the negatives going to BOTH of the P12R's all together.

All the strips, power supplies and P12R's will have all of the negatives tied to the same point with everything having the same 'ground' reference.

Since the strip has the ground (-5VDC) from the P12R and the ground (-5VDC) from the power supply tied to the same place on the strip, it just makes sense to tie the negatives from all the power supplies together anyways? Am I missing anything? --Greg--
 

fasteddy

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What your missing is the resistance of each cable. The reaon we connect the ground at the strip is because we are trying to give the same ground potential between different grounds connected, if you just connect up at the power supply then by the time you add the cable run then the resistnace level has changed on that run and thus the ground potential will change. Connecting the grounds at the power supplies is not what is needed here, it is connecting at the strip and at each injection point that is required for due to different resistance created by different cable runs.
 
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