Hooking up a Power Supply (PSU)

12v DC watt power supplies are very common when using various light controller boards (Falcon16, Kulp, LOR CMB24D, San Devices, etc.). This video does a quick walk through of hooking up and testing a PSU to AC input and DC output.
I buy my PSU's from Holiday Lighting, Wired Watts, and a few other places.
I bought my Southwire Digital Multimeter from Lowes.

[@thomasbraswell1330]

Hey John, Really great video and information AND especially stressing the exercising of caution handling these things. I wish they designed those connectors so they'd be less prone to accidents, buuuuut they don't. Well done and cheers!

[@prism2928]

Very (VERY) useful, thanks for all the tips !

[@DrDougan]

you have a new subscriber my friend, you explain everything in detail, and your not fast about it, your slow and calming, im not a great person to keep up, but i keep up with you thank you haha!

[@DrWoodyII]

Great tutorial, thank you for sharing.

[@redlilywaychristmas1840]

What size blue crimp fork connector did you use. Went to buy and see that there are size #8 or #10. Which one fits the studs on the meanwell power supply? Thanks for doing the video. Very helpful.

[@ColbyHiggs]

Thank you for your time!

[@seel1823]

Hi there loved the video, super helpful Im using this information for a stepper motor project with these power supplies and it really helped. Also I have a question about what size wire gauge did you use or would recommend? Is it just standard 22 or would you reccomend something smaller?

[@witchypoo6937]

Thank you for your video! I hope you did one for power injection. 😋

[@denn450]

hi there i have a advatek controller each port is 340 pixels and i want to add other power supply to port 9 to 16 could i take other ac wire and plug that one to power supply and connect to controller so that mean i have two different wires and 2 wires to plug into wall socket thank you

[@pmichaeljordan]

Do you do anything for strain relief? Looking for ideas. Seems crazy to just strip the ends of a cord and put them into a screw terminal without it.

[@justinallen4903]

Personally, I solder a ring terminal onto the wire and then fully remove the screw from the power supply and reinsert it through the ring terminal. With the ring terminal soldered onto the wire, no strain relief is really needed.

[@kevinantunez275]

What stud size should I use if I’m going to use a spade connector? I’m using 22-18 AWG to input power

[@unmeshgandhi9053]

I have a 200W , 24V transformer , Question is if I can put it inside the stud walls? I dont think it has a fan like the ones in your video. Many thanks in advance

[@listentoourlights]

I'm not an electrician, but I would not put this inside a wall with or without a fan.

[@Deadman316]

Hello thanks for the video. I notice everyone only uses 1 output even tho there is 3 output sections. Can you use all 3 to output to different things?

[@listentoourlights]

Yes you can!

[@Deadman316]

@@listentoourlights sorry sir a follow up question just to make sure i dont destroy something or burn money.
if i had a 48vdc 20.8a 1000w power supply and i use all 3 slots which require 48v 6a each, the psu can handle it? ie all 3 will get 48v and 6a, meaning the limiting factor of the psu is the total amp/watts you put thru it am i correct?

[@Lun4812]

I know this wasn't the purpose of this video, but I wish you would have explained why not to wire the negative to ground.
I've done some research and I've found it's actually recommended to do so.
Why do you advise against it?

[@gatoruss62]

If my PSU is 12v @30A (with 3 V+/V- connections -- similar to the PSU shown in the video) and I only connect one V+/V- to load, can that single V+/V- connection source 12v @30A, or do I need to connect all 3 V+/V- connections to the load?

[@listentoourlights]

The PSU can handle all of the output on one set of terminals. Make sure that the wire you use is the right gauge to take that much. Like 10 AWG.

[@gatoruss62]

​@listentoourlights Thank you for your quick reply. I intend to distribute the power from the PSU among 4 strings of pixels, so I need to connect the output from the PSU to a bus bar and distribute pwr among the 4 pixel strings. So, as an alternative to a single connection to bus bar, could I connect all 3 outputs of PSU to bus bar? Would that mean that roughly 1/3rd of load is on each wire from PSU to bus bar?

[@listentoourlights]

@@gatoruss62 The preferred way of doing it is to connect your power supply to a power distribution board then do your power drops from there, each with a fused connection. Do a search on f8 distro board for an example.

[@gatoruss62]

@@listentoourlights Thank you.

[@brianfrank4156]

Please use wire ferrels

[@robertdillon9989]

Correct! Recommended by major manufacturers like Victron , who deal with much higher powers sources than you are.