BlackwolfK9 Posted October 22, 2015 Share Posted October 22, 2015 (edited) Wanting to put pixels on 6 6 foot pvc candy canes. Any advantages or disadvantages to 5v vs 12v. Each candy cane will be no more than about 10 feet from the previous one.Each candy cane will have about 60 pixels. Edited October 22, 2015 by BlackwolfK9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Simmons Posted October 22, 2015 Share Posted October 22, 2015 (edited) I use 12V because I don't have to worry as much about voltage drop or injecting power. In your case that won't be an issue since you'll be injecting power either way. Edited October 22, 2015 by George Simmons Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlackwolfK9 Posted October 22, 2015 Author Share Posted October 22, 2015 Injecting power either way? From the chart on HolidayCoro's website I should be able to power up to 170 pixels with no power injection. Is that right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dgrant Posted October 22, 2015 Share Posted October 22, 2015 Has to do with line loss. Yes, George is correct, you'll need to inject power. If only 6 strings, you should try injection at the middle, between 3 and 4 otherwise you should consider injection between 2&3 and again at 5&6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. P Posted October 22, 2015 Share Posted October 22, 2015 (edited) Injecting power either way? From the chart on HolidayCoro's website I should be able to power up to 170 pixels with no power injection. Is that right? If you are talking about the Alphapix16 from HC then you need to go to the bottom of the page and look at the chart for the controller. It states "without" power injection one string per output and 16 strings per controller. Not sure which controller you are referring. Edited October 22, 2015 by Mr. P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
k6ccc Posted October 22, 2015 Share Posted October 22, 2015 Injecting power either way? From the chart on HolidayCoro's website I should be able to power up to 170 pixels with no power injection. Is that right? No way! If you're running 60 pixels per candy cane, I would plan on supplying power to each candy cane. That means as dgrant suggested, feed power between 1 & 2, again between 3 & 4, and lastly between 5 & 6. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Boyd Posted October 22, 2015 Share Posted October 22, 2015 I agree with all statements. If memory serves, all pixels are 5v. On the 12v ones, a drop down voltage converter is added to bring the 12v down to 5v. That converter was the problem with the Technicolor pixels a few years ago. Most of mine are 5v but it's rare that I have more than 50 pixels per run, so power injection is not an issue. I believe Jim has the answer, inject between each cane. If using the 12v, you might get away with 2 canes before injection. An easy test is to hook them up, turn them on at 100% intensity, White, and where they start to dim, that's where you need power. An excellent write up on power injection: http://www.doityourselfchristmas.com/wiki/index.php?title=Power_Injection And David's very informative video on power loss: http://blog.holidaycoro.com/2013/05/a-demonstration-of-effects-of-power.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmmienLightFan Posted October 22, 2015 Share Posted October 22, 2015 5v are generally cheaper. Injecting power between each would not be hard. You could probably do two if you use 12v though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dgrant Posted October 22, 2015 Share Posted October 22, 2015 Yes, sort of depends on how its wired. If each is on its own port off the card, then no need to inject power but if wired in series, then yes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ebuechner Posted October 23, 2015 Share Posted October 23, 2015 If you're going 10 feet between your candy canes you might need some null pixels as well. You will be fine from the controller to the first set of pixels after that you may need null pixels in between just to make sure it works right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dcroc Posted October 23, 2015 Share Posted October 23, 2015 (edited) so wait....how many 12v pixels can you run before you need to inject power? I currently run 21 feet at my longest, on a Alphpix4, with a 30 foot lead, without injecting power, which is a full strip of 5 meters plus about another meter. Edited October 23, 2015 by Dcroc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmmienLightFan Posted October 23, 2015 Share Posted October 23, 2015 Around 150 is the most you can get on 12volts. It does depend on the wire in the pixels. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dgrant Posted October 23, 2015 Share Posted October 23, 2015 I've got two pixel trees this year. One is wired, 3 strips of 50 nodes, in series and I must inject power between the 2nd and 3rd strips (P12S). The other pixel tree is on a different controller and each strip of nodes has its own universe/port coming off the card so there was no need to inject power(E682). Now I'm also running 5volt nodes to four separate 50-pixel based arches at a max of 40 feet away. My tests inside of the house with the 40 foot extensions in place, worked just fine(AlphaPix16). I'll probably make sure the extension lengths match so the brightness is the same regardless of distance from the controller. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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