Seth Hartley Posted July 6, 2008 Share Posted July 6, 2008 Just wanted to say hi. I've been lurking for the last couple years, and finally bit the bullet and got three of the 16pc assembled cards saturday night at 11! Last minute, but I'm glad I did it. I do have a few questions:I got mine without the high powered heat sinks, am I to understand that basically just limits my amps per channel to 2 instead of 8? Is it worth the extra money to get them? Maybe that's a dumb question! Lol!Anyway, I have about 100 of the target green indoor cords from last christmas and I was planning on cutting the male ends off and using the rest for my output plugs... any problems with doing this?Any suggestions for cheap input plugs? Just buy some 15 amp ext. cords and cut off the male ends? Seems like there should be a better way than that...And finally I have been looking at everyone's enclosures and I was wondering if there's anything I should stay away from, I will be looking for cheap and waterproof... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Hertig Posted July 16, 2008 Share Posted July 16, 2008 The large heat sinks dissipate more heat, and thus allow more current, so yes, the down side of not having them is each channel will handle less power. How much less, I don't know but I'm sure it is listed in the specs on the web site.The 'indoor' cords are designed for low power indoor use. Since you don't have th heat sinks, they may be good enough power wise, but they are not rated or designed for outdoor use. I will admit to using indoor cords outdoors, but only under the eaves where they are protected from damage and wetness. It really would be better not to use indoor cords outdoors where they can get stepped on or wet.Actually, the cheapest input power cords might well be the ones sold by LOR. I think they are about $4 a piece and you will be hard pressed to find a cheap extention cord for that much. Home Depot and the like tend to have replacement power cords (with bare wires on the end instead of a socket or fixture), but the cost may well be the same or more than the LOR price.For enclosures, get creative. For instance, with 7 cats I have dozens of snap lid plastic litter containers stacked up. They'd be big and tacky looking but boy would they be cheap... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmoore60 Posted July 17, 2008 Share Posted July 17, 2008 Seth,In regards to the heat sinks. You are correct with the "high power" heatsinks you can load a channel with up to 8 amps max. With the standard heatsinks, the max load per channel is 2 amps. I get all my controllers with the larger heatsink simply cause I don't know in the long run where that controller could end up in the display years down the road.However, I know in my mind I really could get by with the standard heatsink because I am moving to all LEDs. Also, from what I can tell the high power heatsink takes care of an issue of mounting the board.Just my cents on this topic.Chuck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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