Mr.B Posted December 1, 2016 Posted December 1, 2016 For power injections do I have to use the same power supply that is connected to the pixel controller? It would be easier to use another power supply since the injection is fifty feet away from the original power supply. Any reason why I should not use a separate power supply? Thanks and Happy Holidays
saxon Posted December 1, 2016 Posted December 1, 2016 4 hours ago, Mr.B said: For power injections do I have to use the same power supply that is connected to the pixel controller? It would be easier to use another power supply since the injection is fifty feet away from the original power supply. Any reason why I should not use a separate power supply? Thanks and Happy Holidays You can use a separate PS but you must sever the connection on the 12v side from the original PS. Connect your grounds from both PS's together but not the voltage. I think there are a few diagrams floating around here, maybe someone will share if you need.. ~Matt.
Steven Posted December 2, 2016 Posted December 2, 2016 It depends on the power supplies. My pixel tree uses 5v pixel strings, and I inject power after the 2nd string (of 50) in 8 sets of 3. I left the +5v path intact, and it hasn't caused any problems. Some power supplies react badly if their output voltage is driven slightly higher by another power supply, but the ones I have work in that configuration. It also helps that these is significant resistance (through the pixel strings) between the 2 power supplies.
Mr.B Posted December 6, 2016 Author Posted December 6, 2016 I have a pixie 8 controller approximately 40 feet from my front window which has approximately twenty pixels and then a ten foot extension and another twenty pixels around my door. When I rough wired the lights (twisting the bare wire together) I got the lights to work. I did not connect the power from the primary ps running the controller and use a second ps to power inject just before the window and door lights. The ground and data are connected to all. When I added the waterproof connectors the lights stopped working. Using an Ohmn meter I tested all of the connections. I have not found any issues with the wiring, Any help? Don't understand why it would work being rough wired and not now with the waterproof wiring in place. Was that a one time fluke? Thanks
k6ccc Posted December 6, 2016 Posted December 6, 2016 Sounds like when you did the permanent wiring, something got missed somewhere. Let me make sure I understand what you are doing. You have one power supply that is powering the controller only. You are running only the data and ground from the controller to the first pixel. A separate power supply is powering the pixels. That power supply should have the power and ground connected to the power and ground connections on the pixels (which would mean that the ground connection has a wire from both the local power supply and the controller). That should work. In the dumb question department, is the local power supply powered up and producing voltage?
Mr.B Posted December 6, 2016 Author Posted December 6, 2016 Yes I had 12 volts at the output of the second controller. The first pixel turned on and stayed white. I have a tee from holiday Coro that contects the incoming ground and data from the controller, adds the positive and ground from the second ps and outputs all three to the lights.
k6ccc Posted December 7, 2016 Posted December 7, 2016 That may be a failed pixel. A single pixel solid white or all pixels beyond the failed on being solid white are two of the more common failure modes. Sent from my Droid Turbo via Tapatalk, so blame any typos or spelling errors on Android
Mr.B Posted December 7, 2016 Author Posted December 7, 2016 I removed the tee for the power injection. I hard wired the power injection and now everything is working. Not sure why the tee did not work but I will get with holiday Coro for that. Bad part is while doing so, my pixie controller will not respond now. I think one of the bare wires must have touched another. Like positive to data. Tried using the reset button during power up but it still is not responding to the computer. The red light is flashing like the network is not connected.
B.Y.R.G. Posted December 7, 2016 Posted December 7, 2016 (edited) 7 minutes ago, Mr.B said: I removed the tee for the power injection. I hard wired the power injection and now everything is working. Not sure why the tee did not work but I will get with holiday Coro for that. Bad part is while doing so, my pixie controller will not respond now. I think one of the bare wires must have touched another. Like positive to data. Tried using the reset button during power up but it still is not responding to the computer. The red light is flashing like the network is not connected. I had this happen to me a couple of weeks ago with my Alphapix 4. I was switching around some connections and got that white light on my first pixel then my whole arch turned white and I though UH-OH not good. It ended up frying the output chip but was able to order it from Mouser and now it works. Kind of weird since the fuses were still good. The chip was located in a socket for ease of removal and replace. It cost me a whole $2.50 for the chip and a week downtime not too bad. Edited December 7, 2016 by B.Y.R.G.
sacleonard1 Posted November 19, 2017 Posted November 19, 2017 Mr B- were able to get your Pixie working again. I think that is what is happening to mine right now. The LED indicator is blinking like it is waiting to connect to the network, but the network cannot find it and I think I had some wires touch too.
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