one power supply - three channels

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t1000_ws2801
 
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one power supply - three channels

Post by t1000_ws2801 »

Can i connect 3 t1000 controllers and 3 ws2801 led strings to one power supply (ALITOVE 5V 60A 300W Power Supply) with 3 channels? If I connect each t1000/ws2801 pair to each channel, is there any reason that this would not work? Thank you...

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dastels
 
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Re: one power supply - three channels

Post by dastels »

As long as you don't need more that 60A you should be ok. Each ws2801 needs 60mA if it's white at full brightness. See https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-neopixel-uberguide for more information and advice on powering the strips.

Dave

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t1000_ws2801
 
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Re: one power supply - three channels

Post by t1000_ws2801 »

Thank you sir!!

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t1000_ws2801
 
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Re: one power supply - three channels

Post by t1000_ws2801 »

Just to reconfirm (I'm a little nervous about short circuiting or damaging components):

The positive wire from Controller 1, and the positive wire from LED 1, will share the same power supply positive terminal (Channel 1). Likewise, the negative wire from Controller 1, and the negative wire from LED 1, will share the same power supply negative terminal (Channel 1). Controller 2 and LED 2 will share the same positive/negative terminals associated with channel 2, and Controller 3 and LED 3 will share the same positive/negative terminals associated with channel 3. Any issues?

Not an electrical engineer by any stretch, but was just a little worried that every controller and every LED have to have their own channel (set of positive/negative terminals) on the power supply... Thanks again..

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dastels
 
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Re: one power supply - three channels

Post by dastels »

I'm not familiar with that controller, but it sounds right.

FWIW, when you say negative you should be saying ground. Negative would be something like -5v. your positive terminal is +5v and ground is 0v.

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t1000_ws2801
 
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Re: one power supply - three channels

Post by t1000_ws2801 »

Okay - by 'negative', I was referring to the somewhat confusing terminal layout of the power supply. I have already successfully hooked up live (black), neutral (white), and ground (green) power TO THE power supply (I plugged it in, green led came on, and nothing blew up). The remaining terminals on the power supply are +V +V +V on one side, and -V -V -V on the other side (not sure how they pair for 'channels').

I thought that I need to connect to a +V and a -V (which is why I was saying 'negative'). So I connected the LED +5V red wire to the leftmost +V on the power supply, and the LED Ground blue wire to the leftmost -V on the power supply. Then I connected my controller (5V and Ground) up to what I thought was a different channel (the middle +V and the middle -V), because I'm still nervous to have them share the same terminal - and the LEDs all lit up solid white. But the error light is flashing on the T1000.

The controller manual says it will flash an error if no memory card inserted (which it wasn't) or the card is blank (which it is - i assume - it's brand new - came with the controller), but I thought there was some pre-installed program which would run like 4 different modes. So making me wonder about my wiring.. I don't know,, probably should stop typing and play with it some more.. thanks again..

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dastels
 
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Re: one power supply - three channels

Post by dastels »

Ah. I checked the power supply again. I've seen that before. VERY misleadingly labelled IMO. Possibly a language/culture mismatch.

But, yes, you have it connected correctly.

I suspect that "Three sets of output Channel" simply means "Three places to connect wires" with all 5v terminals connected and all ground (ahem... "v-") terminals connected. You can check that by disconnecting the power supply from the wall and checking connectivity between pairs of V+ terminals. All the ground/V- terminals should be connected in any case.

Dave

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t1000_ws2801
 
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Re: one power supply - three channels

Post by t1000_ws2801 »

I did confirm that I can hook controller and string to the same 'channel' terminals and the lights come on without short circuiting or anything. In fact the controller wiring diagram tells you to do so (actually the LED power/ground leads plug into the controller power/ground port which also is connected to the power supply (channel 1) terminals. So that part is figured out - thank you again for the help..

Now... I have to figure out why my T1000 controller doesn't like my .led program with simple chaser animation from LEDEdit program (I doubt it's the SD Card format because it came with the controller pre-formatted with .led files - those don't work either). I put the card in, power up, and the same thing happens - solid white LEDs with error code flashing on the controller. Maybe it's the wiring? Maybe it's the file/program.. Not sure.. still figuring out..

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