Power Injection Question.

[Tuke]

So I get the concept. Voltage drop over "X" distance can cause glitch lights (decreased color, flickers, etc...)

I understand that power needs to be "injected" before said difference and that the power flows both ways. So if anything past say 50 bullets has an issue due to voltage drop, I need to inject power to stabilize the next 50 bullets.

What I'm unclear about is the method. Would I just cut the strand/strip at that point, connect another piece of 18G wire from the same power supply or another power supply (I've seen videos and diagrams done both ways) and then splice in to the strand/strip at the cut point?

I'm looking at a Falcon 16 controller but am unsure if it will work on the LOR software. I know people recommended not to get the 16 but for an extra 60-70 bucks I get 2-3 times as many ports for future use. I'm also a bit confused with the "Raspberry Pi". Is it necessary or could I just run the whole thing from a laptop?

Thanks in advance.

[k6ccc]

1 hour ago, Tuke said:

What I'm unclear about is the method. Would I just cut the strand/strip at that point, connect another piece of 18G wire from the same power supply or another power supply (I've seen videos and diagrams done both ways) and then splice in to the strand/strip at the cut point?

Take a look at this web page.  It does a pretty good job of explaining it with lots of drawings.  The power injection part starts about half way down the page.

https://www.doityourselfchristmas.com/wiki/index.php?title=Power_Injection

If that does not answer your question, ask for more details.

1 hour ago, Tuke said:

I'm looking at a Falcon 16 controller but am unsure if it will work on the LOR software. I know people recommended not to get the 16 but for an extra 60-70 bucks I get 2-3 times as many ports for future use.

The Falcon F16v3 is an E1.31 controller.  LOR will drive any E1.31 controller just fine.  I have eight E1.31 controllers in my show controlling about 65,000 channels.  Works just fine.  Although you likely know this, I'm going to repeat the obvious so you don't damage something.  E1.31 runs over Ethernet - NOT LOR networking.

As far as a 16 port vs multiple smaller controllers, it depends on what you need to drive.  A pixel tree with lets say 16 strings is ideal for a 16 port controller.  There are pretty short distance limitations between the controller and first pixel, so for example having a single central controller with 100 feet of wire to the first pixel is not going to work (without some extra help).

1 hour ago, Tuke said:

I'm also a bit confused with the "Raspberry Pi". Is it necessary or could I just run the whole thing from a laptop?

No Pi needed.  If you are running your show from xLights or Vixen, you have the ability to create files that can be run on Falcon Player (which can be run on either a Raspberry Pi or a BeagleBone single board computer).  For running from LOR, you run the Falcon F16v3 controller as a simple E1.31 controller.

 

[Tuke]

On 12/3/2019 at 6:29 PM, PhilMassey said:

 

Play it in Sequencer, or make a single sequence show, and play it on demand.

Thank you for the link and info. I wanted to run a 16 strand pixel tree and figured I could place the controller and power supply at the base of the pole and that would keep everything centralized so if/when I needed to inject everything would be kept to a minimal distance. I plan on using all 12V with a 30 amp, 350W power supply. I'm hoping I can get by with just the one power supply but we'll see. I've read some blogs that say one should be plenty if set up correctly while others recommend two to be safe.

Thanks again!