Powering 8 DotStar High Density 8x8 Grids

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aecrown
 
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Powering 8 DotStar High Density 8x8 Grids

Post by aecrown »

Hi everyone,

I'm looking to run eight (8) Adafruit DotStar High Density 8x8 Grid - 64 RGB LED Pixel Matrix with an Adafruit Feather M0 Express - Designed for CircuitPython - ATSAMD21 Cortex M0, using an external battery to provide enough current. Any battery and/or splitter suggestions?

Thanks in advance

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dastels
 
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Re: Powering 8 DotStar High Density 8x8 Grids

Post by dastels »

Worst case (highest current consumption) will be nominally 20mA per LED. Each DotStar contains 2 LED, so that 60mA per DotStar. So with 512 DotStar, you'll need just over 30A if you turn all the DotStars on at full brightness white. That's the upper bound and is unlikely to be the case. What the actual current requirement will be depends entirely on how it's used: how many DotStars are lit, what colors, and how bright. You could have your code calculate the nominal current required for each display update based on color /brightness it wants to set each DotStar to, and track the highest requirement. Run that for a while to see what your maximum is. I'd fudge that a bit by adding 10 or 20 %.

I'm not sure what kind of battery you'd want to provide sustained current like that, and not have to charge it every hour. That's why NeoPixel/DotStar projects of any scale are powered by a plug-in-the-wall power supply.

See https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-dotstar-leds for more information.

Dave

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