Would like help on best place to order meanwell power supplies for australia.

Old Salt

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The reason Meanwell power supplies are used is their high efficiency of up to 98%. Some of the knockoffs have efficiencies of less than 85%. That extra power is converted to heat. I've used both. Meanwell PSUs pay for themselves in power savings within six months of always on use. For Christmas lighting, that's not as important. What is important is getting rid of the extra heat from the knock-offs in an enclosure, especially near and south of the equator.
 

Notenoughlights

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If you're brave, you could even use server power supplies, they do require a bit of extra work but they're usually cheap second hand and can supply huge power levels. Assuming you plan to use 12V lights.
 

Dreamin

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Honestly I would just buy the knock-off meanwell supplies, they cost half as much as you can have a spare on the shelf - http://www.hansonelectronics.com.au/product/power-supply-s-400-12/
Bought one of them and it lasted 10 minutes before dying. Not sure what caused it's death :( there were no faults in my wiring, and it was only powering 400 pixels at 30% on a differential receiver so not even tasking it. I put a new meanwell in and it's just done a months work without fault. Bought a couple of meanwells off mouser, not buying the cheap ones again to be honest, not worth the hassle. The mouser meanwell was great priced and free delivery to AU, only took a week Fedex. :)
 

Azzfish

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If you're brave, you could even use server power supplies, they do require a bit of extra work but they're usually cheap second hand and can supply huge power levels. Assuming you plan to use 12V lights.
Do you have any links explaining what extra work is involved and why I need to be brave
 

Old Salt

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You need to know enough about electronics to be able to test, troubleshoot, and use them. Schematics and instructions for their use can be hard or impossible to find. It's usually an SMFYOYO (So long My Friend, You're On Your Own) situation.
 

Notenoughlights

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Do you have any links explaining what extra work is involved and why I need to be brave
I don't have any guides that I know of, but there are "breakout boards" that have been created for the most popular models, these either have screw terminals or plugs on a PCB that plugs into the PSU. More uncommon ones (most likely to be found cheap) will require searching online for the pinout to enable the PSU, from there you can use a multimeter to measure postive/negative, these are usually the biggest terminals or largest pieces of copper on the PCB that sticks out from the PSU.

One of the breakout boards sold by Hanson Electronics http://www.hansonelectronics.com.au/product/psdist2/
 

BRW

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I just bought some 750 watt 12 volt HP server supplies off of ebay. Six units were $61 (USD) delivered in the US. I bought one cheap breakout board off of Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LYAI4A1/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) for $15 (USD) delivered. I bought it because it was quick and cheap, I don't like it because it is wider than the power supply. I do like the Hanson units mentioned above, they seem well thought out and include the fuse positions.

Notes:
I AM COMPLETELY NEW TO THIS, so take my info for what it is worth.
While the breakout board I bought was cheap, it gets more expensive when I add fuses. Thus the future for Hanson boards.
Most of the breakout boards for the HP server supplies are designed to be cabled to bitcoin mining boxes, they look too clumsy for my needs.
I bought the 750 watt units because they should be more than I want to put on one power supply as opposed to the 1200 watt units. 60 Amps max?
The 750 watt units appear to be a sweet spot of cheap pricing vs. size (watts).
I like that the units can swap out by unplugging power and the breakout board; no screws to undo in a box while outside.
I like that the AC power is a complete cable, there are no exposed AC contacts. I don't want to get across any AC and have not seen good covers utilized yet.
The server supplies are universal power, AC from 100-250VAC and 50-60Hz
My proposed show for this year is so small efficiency is not any issue.
In the US it is cold at Christmas so heat removal is less of an issue, you may have a different issue.

I'm pretty comfortable with power and hardware and decided to listen but ignore all the voices saying to buy genuine Meanwell. I have twice as many as i think I need for this yr. so have spares. But if they fail in service I reserve the right to change my mind. :)

I have one semi-significant concern, one of the six is noisier than the others. These are all used so there are no significant guarantees. The noisy one will be my test bench unit. For an outlay of just over $10 (USD) I'm ok with it going bad.

There are methods of starting the power supplies available on the web. I don't know which "expert" to trust, but do trust Hanson. For as cheap as his boards are including the fusing I don't choose to go DIY. His boards (PSDIST2) are about what you'd pay for a fuse block by itself.

Like I said, once I get going all of this is subject to change, but the server supplies are a cheap way to get started.

I hope this helps.
 
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AAH

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It's a tad ironic that the use of Meanwell power supplies for their high efficiencies comes up in the same thread as using 12V nodes.
If you actually look at the data sheets you'll see that Meanwell RSP, HRP, LRS series power supplies are typically 75-90% efficient with mid 80's being quite common.
12V WS2811 nodes are by definition only 40% efficient when compared to 5V nodes, 12V nodes use the exact same current to produce the same amount of light as 5V nodes with the balance of the power usage going into heat within the pixel. The fact that you are using 2.4 times the power per pixel means that you also need 2.4 times the power supplies for the same number of pixels.
12V nodes 12V x 0.055A = 0.66W/pixel
5V nodes 5V x 0.055A=0.275W/pixel
12V 400W (33A) power supply = 600 pixels at 100% white
5V 400W (80A) power supply = 1450 pixels at 100% white

<end rant>
 
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