I want to run 50 meters of ws2813 leds.
So i would need 3 allpixelminis. Then 7 Powertaps to put every 5 meters (minus the 3 power jacks on the allpixelminis, correct?)
Am I okay to go with 10 smaller power units that plug directly into the powertaps? Or is this a situation where a bigger psu is
recommended for safety (this is an outside installation).
What would y’all recommend?
I assume you mean WS2812? Just being certain 
Also… we don’t actually sell the PowerTap anymore… unless you found some online store that kept a stash of them?
As for how many AllPixels you need it depends on how many pixels per meter… 30/m is the only standard density that would work for 3 AllPixels.
But in general, more is better. Every 5m at a minimum. For 30/m strips, that’s perfectly fine.
You actually can use multiple power supplies, however you need to not connect VCC on the input of the PowerTap to which you are connecting a new power supply. But you must make sure the ground line is connected the whole way down.
Basically, DO NOT connect multiple power supply’s VCC lines together! You have to isolate them. But it works perfectly fine.
As to what I recommend, it depends on where you can connect the power supplies, how far everything has to run, etc. You certainly cannot run 5V power for 50m! Actually I would greatly recommend 12V LED strips over 5V for long runs.
On Wed, Jun 6, 2018 at 6:27 PM ‘Rocky Gammon’ via Maniacal Labs Users maniacal-labs-users@googlegroups.com wrote:
I want to run 50 meters of ws2813 leds.
So i would need 3 allpixelminis. Then 7 Powertaps to put every 5 meters (minus the 3 power jacks on the allpixelminis, correct?)
Am I okay to go with 10 smaller power units that plug directly into the powertaps? Or is this a situation where a bigger psu is
recommended for safety (this is an outside installation).
What would y’all recommend?
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Hey thanks for the quick response!
They are indeed 30 leds per meter. But I actually did mean ws2813 leds. From ray wus online store it says this “same protocol as WS2811S but with Dual-signal wires,so can be controlled by the same WS2811 controllers”. I checked the all pixel mini page and it says it supports ws2811. Do you think it would all work together? The reason I wanted to go with ws2813 is that if one pixel goes out, the rest keep going, which is ideal for my project.
And just to be clear, youre not suggesting putting an allpixel every 5 meters? The end of your second paragraph kind of confused me.
On the seeedstudio webstie it lists 9 available powertaps. It shows all 4 wires going into the powertap, and all 4 coming out. But you are suggesting to only have 3, minus the power, going into the powertap, correct? Just want to be sure that is what you were suggesting.
yes ive been looking for ws2813 but cannot find any. (thats if they work with allpixel if not ill go with ws2812)
Thanks
On Wednesday, June 6, 2018 at 4:35:33 PM UTC-6, Adam Haile wrote:
I assume you mean WS2812? Just being certain
Also… we don’t actually sell the PowerTap anymore… unless you found some online store that kept a stash of them?
As for how many AllPixels you need it depends on how many pixels per meter… 30/m is the only standard density that would work for 3 AllPixels.
But in general, more is better. Every 5m at a minimum. For 30/m strips, that’s perfectly fine.
You actually can use multiple power supplies, however you need to not connect VCC on the input of the PowerTap to which you are connecting a new power supply. But you must make sure the ground line is connected the whole way down.
Basically, DO NOT connect multiple power supply’s VCC lines together! You have to isolate them. But it works perfectly fine.
As to what I recommend, it depends on where you can connect the power supplies, how far everything has to run, etc. You certainly cannot run 5V power for 50m! Actually I would greatly recommend 12V LED strips over 5V for long runs.
On Wed, Jun 6, 2018 at 6:27 PM ‘Rocky Gammon’ via Maniacal Labs Users maniacal-...@googlegroups.com wrote:
I want to run 50 meters of ws2813 leds.
So i would need 3 allpixelminis. Then 7 Powertaps to put every 5 meters (minus the 3 power jacks on the allpixelminis, correct?)
Am I okay to go with 10 smaller power units that plug directly into the powertaps? Or is this a situation where a bigger psu is
recommended for safety (this is an outside installation).
What would y’all recommend?
–
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Hey thanks for the quick response!
They are indeed 30 leds per meter. But I actually did mean ws2813 leds. From ray wus online store it says this “same protocol as WS2811S but with Dual-signal wires,so can be controlled by the same WS2811 controllers”. I checked the all pixel mini page and it says it supports ws2811. Do you think it would all work together? The reason I wanted to go with ws2813 is that if one pixel goes out, the rest keep going, which is ideal for my project.
Oh oh! Those… yeah, should be fine.
And just to be clear, youre not suggesting putting an allpixel every 5 meters? The end of your second paragraph kind of confused me.
Correct… one allpixel (up to 700 pixels of course), multiple powertaps.
On the seeedstudio webstie it lists 9 available powertaps. It shows all 4 wires going into the powertap, and all 4 coming out. But you are suggesting to only have 3, minus the power, going into the powertap, correct? Just want to be sure that is what you were suggesting.
Tsk tsk… they aren’t supposed to be selling those anymore 
But hey, if they have them, that’s good for you 
And yes… when ever you switch to a new power supply, just don’t connect the power on the input side.
yes ive been looking for ws2813 but cannot find any. (thats if they work with allpixel if not ill go with ws2812)
Yeah, there’s no 12V for WS2813
On Wed, Jun 6, 2018 at 6:58 PM ‘Rocky Gammon’ via Maniacal Labs Users maniacal-labs-users@googlegroups.com wrote:
Thanks
On Wednesday, June 6, 2018 at 4:35:33 PM UTC-6, Adam Haile wrote:
I assume you mean WS2812? Just being certain
Also… we don’t actually sell the PowerTap anymore… unless you found some online store that kept a stash of them?
As for how many AllPixels you need it depends on how many pixels per meter… 30/m is the only standard density that would work for 3 AllPixels.
But in general, more is better. Every 5m at a minimum. For 30/m strips, that’s perfectly fine.
You actually can use multiple power supplies, however you need to not connect VCC on the input of the PowerTap to which you are connecting a new power supply. But you must make sure the ground line is connected the whole way down.
Basically, DO NOT connect multiple power supply’s VCC lines together! You have to isolate them. But it works perfectly fine.
As to what I recommend, it depends on where you can connect the power supplies, how far everything has to run, etc. You certainly cannot run 5V power for 50m! Actually I would greatly recommend 12V LED strips over 5V for long runs.
On Wed, Jun 6, 2018 at 6:27 PM ‘Rocky Gammon’ via Maniacal Labs Users maniacal-...@googlegroups.com wrote:
I want to run 50 meters of ws2813 leds.
So i would need 3 allpixelminis. Then 7 Powertaps to put every 5 meters (minus the 3 power jacks on the allpixelminis, correct?)
Am I okay to go with 10 smaller power units that plug directly into the powertaps? Or is this a situation where a bigger psu is
recommended for safety (this is an outside installation).
What would y’all recommend?
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Thanks again for all the help. It all makes sense now. Apparently though Ill need to inject power every 3 meters based on the leds, which means 16 powertaps. So I might need to rethink this.
Thanks again I appreciate it.
I’ve used 50 meters of dotstar leds at 60 leds/meter (which are pretty power hungry little beasts) in a project that occasionally got to full brightness (all white) and had no problems tapping power in every 5 meters, just make sure you calculate max power and get enough amps. 5 meters didn’t seem to have much of a voltage drop at all. soldering 10 power connectors might seem like a lot, but even as a novice solderer it only took a couple hours. (was running them off a raspberry pi that wasn’t providing any power, so powered them all externally)
My suggestions –
slap a capacitor between the power supply and the leds to soak up any surges, even if you don’t have too.
solder barrel jacks so you can plug or unplug the power strips easily, don’t hard wire them.
aim low at first if you want to save money and time – the worst that’s gonna happen without enough power is that you’re not gonna get the brightness you suspect or you are gonna get weird flickering from voltage drop at the end of the strip – can always add another power tap
def def make sure those red wires aren’t connected 
On Wednesday, June 6, 2018 at 10:35:48 PM UTC-5, Rocky Gammon wrote:
Thanks again for all the help. It all makes sense now. Apparently though Ill need to inject power every 3 meters based on the leds, which means 16 powertaps. So I might need to rethink this.
Thanks again I appreciate it.
Hey thanks that makes sense. My project definitely doesnt require consistent brightness/color so it shouldnt be a problem, if that's the only draw back. I'll do what you said and test it out and go from there.
Thanks again
Hey
Would the same logic apply to a power supply that only supplies 25 watts, when the ws2813 use 36watt per 5 meter?
What would the consequence of lower wattage be?
Thanks
On Wednesday, June 6, 2018 at 4:27:13 PM UTC-6, Rocky Gammon wrote:
I want to run 50 meters of ws2813 leds.
So i would need 3 allpixelminis. Then 7 Powertaps to put every 5 meters (minus the 3 power jacks on the allpixelminis, correct?)
Am I okay to go with 10 smaller power units that plug directly into the powertaps? Or is this a situation where a bigger psu is
recommended for safety (this is an outside installation).
What would y’all recommend?
I don’t recommend it. Never underpower your LEDs. You’d have to limit the max brightness in software, but in general, it’s just never good practice. I always rate my power supplies for 110% max power draw. They’ll run cooler and more efficient then trying to max them out.
On Fri, Jun 8, 2018 at 9:09 PM ‘Rocky Gammon’ via Maniacal Labs Users maniacal-labs-users@googlegroups.com wrote:
Hey
Would the same logic apply to a power supply that only supplies 25 watts, when the ws2813 use 36watt per 5 meter?
What would the consequence of lower wattage be?
Thanks
On Wednesday, June 6, 2018 at 4:27:13 PM UTC-6, Rocky Gammon wrote:
I want to run 50 meters of ws2813 leds.
So i would need 3 allpixelminis. Then 7 Powertaps to put every 5 meters (minus the 3 power jacks on the allpixelminis, correct?)
Am I okay to go with 10 smaller power units that plug directly into the powertaps? Or is this a situation where a bigger psu is
recommended for safety (this is an outside installation).
What would y’all recommend?
–
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