Noob question regarding power injection

K

Kalcorn

New member
I've been reading this site for most of a year puttting a plan together in my head and changing it a hundred times or more. I figured I better draw it out now. I have a run on my house that is two verticals and a horizontal, it's 279 12v pixels long. I will have an open port on my controller, if I have to power inject this, can I take the data wire fold it back and tape it off to prevent it other problems and use it to power injection this run at the other end? I beleive I can but wanted to ask someone that is a lot smarter than I am about this.

I will try not to bother you all with too many questions as I go along...

Kevin
 
Or you could pull the pin in your pigtail. I use 2 wire 14g landscape wire for all my PI. There?s nothing to connect the data wire to anyway so I just cut it before soldering the voltage wires to the pigtail. This way the pin at the end doesn?t matter anyway.
 
Most people would say why waist a port. You can do what you are saying, but you can also just pull power from the same power supply. Rule of thumb is inject every 100 pixels if you are using 12v. With 279 total, I would inject at the 100 and 200 pixel marks and plan to add at the end if needed. Best suggestion, set it up on the ground and try is out. Then you know before you put it up.
 
Thank you for the quick replies. You confirmed what I was thinking, the controler board port connection will have power even if not transmitting data through that port. Rsegreto, you're correct I don't plan to run 100% as the viewing distance is aprox 50 feet.

I wanted to fold the data wire back so as I expand it would be easy to put that port back to transmitting data instead of power only.

First show planned to happen in 2023 with expansion for 2024.

Kevin
 
I would look into a distribution / fuse block. Falcon and some other vendors have options but this is what I use:

WUPP 12 Volt Fuse Block, Waterproof Boat Fuse Panel with LED Warning Indicator Damp-Proof Cover - 6 Circuits with Negative Bus Fuse Box for Car Marine RV Truck DC 12-24V, Fuses Included https://a.co/d/iH0xcFk

I like that because you can change the fuse size depending on the actual load. Meaning you can use the same wire for multiple PI points as long as the gauge is correct. For that check out Bill Porters presentation:

https://youtu.be/eR3QbzjpZy8

Trust me, in the future you?re gonna want that controller port to run actual pixels as you expand. Might as well design with that in mind now.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I third that: power inject directly off the power supply. But it's not about wasting a port. It's that if you ever have a water or a broken pixel and it causes a power/ground short, most power supplies have circuitry built in that can handle that. But your $100+ controller, not so much. The fuses address that same potential problem.
 
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