Steelers95 Posted June 17, 2014 Share Posted June 17, 2014 ordered a sandevices e682 pixel controller and ws2811 pixels. I plan on only using one side of the controller this year so between 6-8 separate pixel strings but Im not sure the type of power supply that I need. Can anyone help? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max-Paul Posted June 17, 2014 Share Posted June 17, 2014 What is the rated voltage of the RGB strip? That is the voltage of the power supply you need to buy. Do not mix 5V strips with a 12V supply or vice versa. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steelers95 Posted June 17, 2014 Author Share Posted June 17, 2014 there 12v, how do I know how many amps or watts the power supply needs to be though? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
james campbell Posted June 17, 2014 Share Posted June 17, 2014 I would just buy a 30 amp 360 watt power supply. this will give you room to add more pixels later. as far as power the e682, it don't take a lot, so basically if you have enough to light the pixels the board will have plenty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steelers95 Posted June 17, 2014 Author Share Posted June 17, 2014 so the only thing that will happen if there isent enough power is the lights wont light up? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jerrymac Posted June 17, 2014 Share Posted June 17, 2014 No exactly ! Insufficient power not only will result in poor color as you go down the line but can also result in unusual responses and flashing. Power needed (amp's) not only is a result of the led's them self but the distance between pixels and between the controller and the pixels as well as the size of the wire supplying power. Higher resistance will reduce the voltage available regardless of the amperage available at the source. one strip or 50 pixel string per output on the 682 would likely NOT be a problem unless the lead from the controller to the first pixel is very long. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max-Paul Posted June 18, 2014 Share Posted June 18, 2014 (edited) Good Grief,Power is voltage times current. So Power is the result of voltage and current. Now what jerrymac was eluding to is two things at once. Let me break it down. If your power supply is the right voltage but does not have enough current several things can happen. If it is a really good power supply it will have what is call current fold back and it will drop the voltage out of the power supply. This is to protect the P.S. or keep something from over heating and starting a fire. Or a cheaper P.S. could pop a fuse or it will over heat and destroy its self. The other thing that jerry was eluding to is a thing called I/R drop. This is where the wire resistance is high enough that it will cause a voltage drop. This gets worse with either distance or the more current that is drawn through the wire. One way to prevent this is to use a larger gage wire. How to determine how much power (wattage) you need. First how to find Wattage if all you have is voltage and current numbers. Take voltage and multiply it by the current. P=I*E. We just went through a long thread about this in another thread here in the E1.31 section. Will either edit and post here or do a follow up post. Read this http://forums.lightorama.com/index.php?/topic/31699-need-power-supply-help-from-the-gurusyou-know-who-you-are/ Edited June 18, 2014 by Max-Paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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