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So I received my two PSUs (12V&24V), borrowed a friend's multimeter and the difference between the -Vs is 0.05V. Is that something to worry about, or am I still able to connect those together?

Edited by freezy
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Thanks maxxsinner!

One thing I'm not yet grasping about LED-Wiz yet is how does it close the circuit? For instance, a LED's (+) is connected to the PSU's +V. The LED's (-) is going to the LED-Wiz input. In order to close the circuit, does LED-Wiz connect the (-) coming from the LED to the GND that is connected to the PSU's -V? If that's the case, what are the bank voltage selects on the LED-Wiz for?

I apologize for the basic questions, but understanding how LED-Wiz works would be quite of a benefit to me regarding magic smoke and such :)

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Not basic questions at all freezy and dont hesistate to ask questions mate. Thats what this thread is all about!. :D

You are correct, the ledwiz connects each colour of the LED to ground as they are switched. The voltage banks on the LEDwiz are for the internal diodes on the LEDwiz drivers to help with protection from relays and coils; which are inductive loads. When the coil turns off, it sends a voltage spike back to the LEDwiz that could do damage. Thats why you will see we put extra diodes on the contactors and knocker coils to protect the LEDwiz even more.

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Hi everybody,

Electrical noob here. I have a question and sorry if its been answered before. The 12v and 24v power supplies I bought both have multiple V+ and V- terminals. What is the purpose of this? Do I need to use all or just one of each? Is each V+/V- combo only capable of delivering a certain amount of Amps per output? I can't find a manual on these so its hard to find the answer.

Also, these supplies have a voltage adjustment pot. I was wondering how I could test the output to make sure each PSU is outputting the correct voltage? I have a multimeter I'm just not sure what to make contact with to perform the test. I would assume red wire to V+ and the black to COM. Thanks !

24v PSU

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140704686466&ssPageName=ADME:L:OC:MOTORS:3160

12V PSU

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140704686466&ssPageName=ADME:L:OC:MOTORS:3160

Edited by ArcadiusMaximus
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Okay, so the "common ground" that we use in the star point setup is actually the only way of setting up multiple voltages (since on the LED-Wiz there is only one connector leading back to the -V of the PSU)?

Thats correct freezy. The LEDwiz can complete the circuit for each voltage power supply once its connected to the start point.

Hi everybody,

Electrical noob here. I have a question and sorry if its been answered before. The 12v and 24v power supplies I bought both have multiple V+ and V- terminals. What is the purpose of this? Do I need to use all or just one of each? Is each V+/V- combo only capable of delivering a certain amount of Amps per output? I can't find a manual on these so its hard to find the answer.

Also, these supplies have a voltage adjustment pot. I was wondering how I could test the output to make sure each PSU is outputting the correct voltage? I have a multimeter I'm just not sure what to make contact with to perform the test. I would assume red wire to V+ and the black to COM. Thanks !

24v PSU

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140704686466&ssPageName=ADME:L:OC:MOTORS:3160

12V PSU

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140704686466&ssPageName=ADME:L:OC:MOTORS:3160

It depends on the power supply AM. Some seperate the rails so each set of terminals is only good for a certain amount of amps, but most have a common rail in them and the extra screw terminals are there just so you dont have to jam a thousand wires under the one screw.

You are correct on how to test the volatge, set your multimeter to DC voltage and red to + black to -. Getting your multimeter probes backwards on the power supply wont do any harm, it will just give you a negative reading.

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Thats why you will see we put extra diodes on the contactors and knocker coils to protect the LEDwiz even more.

Hey Maxx, if I were to purchase Zebulon's LED Wiz booster boards, does that mean I can skip adding relays and diodes for toys/flashers/strobes? I believe I've read this before but not sure how much truth there is to that, if any!

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No need for relays or fuses to protect the LEDwiz as the booster board is doing all the work for your toys, but you will still need your diodes on all of your contactors and knocker. They are only about 7 cents each so no great expense there.

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Thanks maxxsinner. Then there is another thing that got me confused. I see the point of DeeGor driving the 24V knocker via a 12V relay (relays use small voltage to control a higher voltage, right?). But why did Chris put a relay (using a 4 relay module) before the LED strip? It's 12V and his LED-Wiz is running at 12V on all ports if I'm not mistaken. Why couldn't he just have hooked the LED strip to the LED-Wiz directly as he did with the ROM-controlled LED buttons?

I think that's the last mystery from my side, then I'm ready to start wiring! :)

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You have it pretty close there freezy. Relays are used to contol a large amperage with small amperage. Basically it comes down to the LEDwiz can only handle about 500 milliamps per output, so in DeeGor's case, the knocker uses a lot more than the maximum 500 milliamps, so he puts a relay in to control the knocker. The LEDwiz only has to power the small amount of amperage that the relay draws and not the full amperage of the knocker. Same with the LED strips in Chris's case. The LED strips can draw a lot of current... up to 5 amps on some strips! To connect that straight to the LEDwiz would let the magic smoke out of one of those 4 little driver chips on the board.

Hope that helps and good luck with your wiring :top:

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Ah, that was the classical noob mix-up I guess. ;)

One last detail: when going through the relay, can the LED-Wiz still control the intensity of each light in an "analog" way, or is it either on or off, resulting in the RGB LED only being able to display 7 colors (still talking about the LED strip)?

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  • 1 month later...

Hi there,

I have seen a few people talking about 'bridging' power supplies. I was thinking about doing this to reduce the amount of cords ( prob not the best reason) in my cabinet but I can't seem to find any information on the nets about bridging power supplies. I drew up a diagram on how I think its suppose to work but I wanted to run it by the electrical guru's here first. I will be bridging a 5v, 12v, and 24v supplies. I was wondering what gauge wire should be used to bridge them and if it is possible. Also, Ive been using old PC power cables for my supplies now. If I bridge them is that cable still good enough or should I find something a bit more beefy ? Thanks

post-59913-142870579972_thumb.jpg

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That will work fine AM. As for wire gauge, most flexible wire used in extention leads and computer leads has to be rated to about 10 amps. You should have on your power supplies the rating of the mains side and how much amperage it will draw (maximum). But personally dont think you willl have any problems wiring them as you have show.

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That will work fine AM. As for wire gauge, most flexible wire used in extention leads and computer leads has to be rated to about 10 amps. You should have on your power supplies the rating of the mains side and how much amperage it will draw (maximum). But personally dont think you willl have any problems wiring them as you have show.

Thanks for the input !

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You can safely run 3A per channel boogies, and I have unofficially run one to 6a with no heating of the Mosfet or magic smoke on the traces (chickened out beyond that), but officially, 3a. In 5w cree terms that's 3 crees inputs per output.

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WooHoo - THANKS Zeb!

I believe that it would actually be safe for me to use up to 8 per channel, if I was using 350ma:

Red - 33 ohms @ 4 Watts

Green - 27 ohms @ 3.3 Watts

Blue - 27 ohms @ 3.3 Watts

I believe that 4 per channel with these specs this should be safe.

4 @ 350ma = 1.4a

Edited by boogies2
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That will work fine AM. As for wire gauge, most flexible wire used in extention leads and computer leads has to be rated to about 10 amps. You should have on your power supplies the rating of the mains side and how much amperage it will draw (maximum). But personally dont think you willl have any problems wiring them as you have show.

Hi again. So I picked up this 5V psu and noticed it said input inrush current is 30A !? Is this correct? I tried to look up my other 2 supplies but the only info I found was for my 24v supply which has a running amperage of 3.6A . Im guessing that 30A is for a split second and is not the running amperage but I wanted to run it by you. I cant see having to use wire that could support almost 100A :D for 3 dinky power supplies....

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