This is the most instructive channel I’ve come across so far. Very helpful & instructive videos. Any way you can do a video on the various types of power injection. This is the first I’ve heard of ‘self power injection.’
Thanks BMac, appreciate the comment. I’ll put in the list covering various types of power injection. Another term folks use for ‘self power injection’ is ‘power balancing’. I used the term ‘self power injection’ because in a way it’s power injection (adding power somewhere other than the beginning of a string of pixels).
Love the videos. I'm 14 seasons into LED Display (Halloween and Christmas) and this year JUMPING into Pixels. For first project I'm building a 528 Pixel Spinner and your videos are very helpful answering several of my concerns not to mention items I didn't think about. Once I get my pixel order I can workout the power injection adding additional power supply and only using one channel on my Falcon controller for the data. I could split up the channels and run multiple lines but I have plans for them next year. :)
Steve, excellent efforts, great videos, watched all behind the scene & more videos at one sitting...! Are you planning to upload videos on sequencing software and hardware set up & other integration? Good Luck...
J Patel, thanks and I'm amazed you watched all those videos in one sitting! I use xLights to sequence, and there are lots of great video resources from others on sequencing at videos.xlights.org. What specific topics are you're interested in for hardware set up & other integration?
I use 18awg 3 Conductor Low Voltage LED Cable for all my "extensions" and I have very little corruption. Might look into it instead of CAT5. ~$50 for 200ft.
@andrewm1967, thanks for the question. I actually don't set the brightness output in xLights. I do that directly in the controller, setting the output brightness of each pixel string to 30%. That said, I've been doing this for a while and manually setup/load my controller settings. xLights does now let you do all that configuring from the controller tab. So, you should be able to set that up in that first tab in the app.
I'm planning on using the 2 Output setup for this model. Is there any way that the first port can be assigned nodes 1-350 instead of 1-348? I'm using 50 node strands so it would be a little easier and save a little time if I could end a strand at 350 and plug into the 2nd string at 351!
Absolutely, you can do that. That configuration would be setup in your controller. Or if you are having xlights setup your controller, there should be a way to do that in the layout setup for that prop.
Steve - great video as always! I connected with you on FB last year as we had a same viewer of both our shows comment that she knew you. Question I have is cutting the data line on the self PI, I assume you cut the data line at each point of self PI, but do you not cut the last data line (pixel 696) if you are stringing another prop or additional pixels to this one? I have a new prop with a frame around a Boscoyo GEO Wreath and would like to chain the prop and frame together and assume i need the data line to continue to receive data to the frame. Is this accurate or is there a better way to do it?
@Chris Corsano, indeed, I terminate the data line for each section as I don’t chain anything after each of the 3 controller outputs shown to drive the RosaWreath. If you are looking to chain another prop at the end of any run on the prop, you’ll need to continue carrying the data line, V+, and GND to a pigtail to then connect to another subsequent prop.
Steve, thanks for your detailed and informative videos. They help a lot explaining how to setup displays. Quick question how are you splicing in the pigtails to the pixels? Are you just stripping wire and connecting essentially making a "T" connection?
Hey Steve, glad that the videos are helpful for you. For the self-power injection, yes, I stripped the wire, twisted the self-injection wire around the bare wire, soldered it, then hit it with some liquid electrical tape.
@@NiFamilyLights Cool. Thanks for that. So one other question the self injection are coming off the pigtails or other points where you tapped in? And those are just power only, no data?
@@NiFamilyLights Hey Steve. Thanks for the info. Sorry have another question, may not be a simple answer but based on this video how would to string together several low density props like 5 48 node snowflakes?
@@llatrel Steve, keep the questions coming. These are great. Take a look at my 2018 Behind-The-Scenes video. On my garage, I have 7 Boscoyo 48 node snowflakes all chained off of a single Falcon controller output. That's 336 nodes with no power injection at 30%. This is only possible by using the self power injection technique. If you don't self power inject, you'll have both data and voltage sag issues. It's in my queue to make a video showing how many snowflakes can be chained with and without self power injection. BTW, 7 is pretty much the limit at 30% with no power injection as that'll put the power output use just under the 5Amp fused limit.
You are correct about that statement. However, 5V pixels also use .3W instead of .55W on full white. So, while 5V pixels don’t double the current load, they do increase the load marginally. And definitely, 5V pixels suffer more from voltage sag needing more power injection points, as the chips need about 3.3 V to function properly (for both 12V and 5V pixels).
I don’t understand your statement about needing famps. These are only required if you have long runs between controller and first pixel or between pixels. The latter is not going to happen on a high density prop.
Keith, as you stated, the F-Amps I spoke of are indeed for long runs between the controller and the first pixel for a given output. Later in the video, I show that I needed them for the 40' runs from the Falcon F16v3 to the prop to maintain data integrity.
This is the most instructive channel I’ve come across so far. Very helpful & instructive videos. Any way you can do a video on the various types of power injection. This is the first I’ve heard of ‘self power injection.’
Thanks BMac, appreciate the comment. I’ll put in the list covering various types of power injection. Another term folks use for ‘self power injection’ is ‘power balancing’. I used the term ‘self power injection’ because in a way it’s power injection (adding power somewhere other than the beginning of a string of pixels).
@@NiFamilyLights Thank you!
Please keep the great contact coming
Greatings from Ksa
Also want to say i really enjoy your channel. I like your content . For a newbie this is the information im looking for.
Love the videos. I'm 14 seasons into LED Display (Halloween and Christmas) and this year JUMPING into Pixels. For first project I'm building a 528 Pixel Spinner and your videos are very helpful answering several of my concerns not to mention items I didn't think about. Once I get my pixel order I can workout the power injection adding additional power supply and only using one channel on my Falcon controller for the data. I could split up the channels and run multiple lines but I have plans for them next year. :)
Steve is a legend
Steve, excellent efforts, great videos, watched all behind the scene & more videos at one sitting...! Are you planning to upload videos on sequencing software and hardware set up & other integration? Good Luck...
J Patel, thanks and I'm amazed you watched all those videos in one sitting! I use xLights to sequence, and there are lots of great video resources from others on sequencing at videos.xlights.org. What specific topics are you're interested in for hardware set up & other integration?
I use 18awg 3 Conductor Low Voltage LED Cable for all my "extensions" and I have very little corruption. Might look into it instead of CAT5. ~$50 for 200ft.
Thanks for the recommendation.
How do you set the brightness output in xlights ?
@andrewm1967, thanks for the question. I actually don't set the brightness output in xLights. I do that directly in the controller, setting the output brightness of each pixel string to 30%.
That said, I've been doing this for a while and manually setup/load my controller settings. xLights does now let you do all that configuring from the controller tab. So, you should be able to set that up in that first tab in the app.
I'm planning on using the 2 Output setup for this model. Is there any way that the first port can be assigned nodes 1-350 instead of 1-348? I'm using 50 node strands so it would be a little easier and save a little time if I could end a strand at 350 and plug into the 2nd string at 351!
Absolutely, you can do that. That configuration would be setup in your controller. Or if you are having xlights setup your controller, there should be a way to do that in the layout setup for that prop.
Thank you!! @@NiFamilyLights
Steve - great video as always! I connected with you on FB last year as we had a same viewer of both our shows comment that she knew you. Question I have is cutting the data line on the self PI, I assume you cut the data line at each point of self PI, but do you not cut the last data line (pixel 696) if you are stringing another prop or additional pixels to this one? I have a new prop with a frame around a Boscoyo GEO Wreath and would like to chain the prop and frame together and assume i need the data line to continue to receive data to the frame. Is this accurate or is there a better way to do it?
@Chris Corsano, indeed, I terminate the data line for each section as I don’t chain anything after each of the 3 controller outputs shown to drive the RosaWreath.
If you are looking to chain another prop at the end of any run on the prop, you’ll need to continue carrying the data line, V+, and GND to a pigtail to then connect to another subsequent prop.
Steve, thanks for your detailed and informative videos. They help a lot explaining how to setup displays. Quick question how are you splicing in the pigtails to the pixels? Are you just stripping wire and connecting essentially making a "T" connection?
Hey Steve, glad that the videos are helpful for you. For the self-power injection, yes, I stripped the wire, twisted the self-injection wire around the bare wire, soldered it, then hit it with some liquid electrical tape.
@@NiFamilyLights Cool. Thanks for that. So one other question the self injection are coming off the pigtails or other points where you tapped in? And those are just power only, no data?
@@llatrel The self injection wires are for V+ and GND. You are correct, leave the data line alone.
@@NiFamilyLights Hey Steve. Thanks for the info. Sorry have another question, may not be a simple answer but based on this video how would to string together several low density props like 5 48 node snowflakes?
@@llatrel Steve, keep the questions coming. These are great.
Take a look at my 2018 Behind-The-Scenes video. On my garage, I have 7 Boscoyo 48 node snowflakes all chained off of a single Falcon controller output. That's 336 nodes with no power injection at 30%. This is only possible by using the self power injection technique. If you don't self power inject, you'll have both data and voltage sag issues.
It's in my queue to make a video showing how many snowflakes can be chained with and without self power injection. BTW, 7 is pretty much the limit at 30% with no power injection as that'll put the power output use just under the 5Amp fused limit.
Can you down load the power cal ?? Or is this something you made up ??
Yes, a link to the spreadsheet is in the description. You can download it and play with it all you want.
Running 12v pixels will cut your load by at least half. Higher voltage=lower drop thru the wire.
You are correct about that statement. However, 5V pixels also use .3W instead of .55W on full white. So, while 5V pixels don’t double the current load, they do increase the load marginally.
And definitely, 5V pixels suffer more from voltage sag needing more power injection points, as the chips need about 3.3 V to function properly (for both 12V and 5V pixels).
I don’t understand your statement about needing famps. These are only required if you have long runs between controller and first pixel or between pixels. The latter is not going to happen on a high density prop.
Keith, as you stated, the F-Amps I spoke of are indeed for long runs between the controller and the first pixel for a given output.
Later in the video, I show that I needed them for the 40' runs from the Falcon F16v3 to the prop to maintain data integrity.