freezy Posted July 5, 2012 Share Posted July 5, 2012 (edited) 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 July 5, 2012 by freezy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxxsinner Posted July 5, 2012 Author Share Posted July 5, 2012 Should not be a problem freezy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freezy Posted July 6, 2012 Share Posted July 6, 2012 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxxsinner Posted July 6, 2012 Author Share Posted July 6, 2012 Not basic questions at all freezy and dont hesistate to ask questions mate. Thats what this thread is all about!. 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freezy Posted July 6, 2012 Share Posted July 6, 2012 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)? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArcadiusMaximus Posted July 6, 2012 Share Posted July 6, 2012 (edited) 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 July 6, 2012 by ArcadiusMaximus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxxsinner Posted July 6, 2012 Author Share Posted July 6, 2012 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evil eye Posted July 7, 2012 Share Posted July 7, 2012 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! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxxsinner Posted July 7, 2012 Author Share Posted July 7, 2012 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freezy Posted July 7, 2012 Share Posted July 7, 2012 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! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxxsinner Posted July 7, 2012 Author Share Posted July 7, 2012 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freezy Posted July 7, 2012 Share Posted July 7, 2012 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)? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxxsinner Posted July 7, 2012 Author Share Posted July 7, 2012 If you want to try and get full colour mix on your led strips, there are two options. Either use optocoupler relays, or go for a booster board from Zebulon. They use transitors instead of relay contacts so are able to cope with the pulse wave modulation from the LEDwiz that gives you the different colours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evil eye Posted July 7, 2012 Share Posted July 7, 2012 Good to know, thanks Max! I'm sure I'll have more questions once I actually start my build. Getting closer to that point though! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArcadiusMaximus Posted August 19, 2012 Share Posted August 19, 2012 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxxsinner Posted August 19, 2012 Author Share Posted August 19, 2012 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArcadiusMaximus Posted August 19, 2012 Share Posted August 19, 2012 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 ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boogies2 Posted August 21, 2012 Share Posted August 21, 2012 How many amps can the High Power zebulon board handle per channel? Using the VPforums, I wasn't able to see the details on the board (and I have one ) I was hoping to hook up multiple LEDs per channel, if possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxxsinner Posted August 21, 2012 Author Share Posted August 21, 2012 Will let Zeb answer that one boogies, but I think on the booster board thread over on VP there was some info on it as a couple of people have asked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zebulon Posted August 21, 2012 Share Posted August 21, 2012 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boogies2 Posted August 22, 2012 Share Posted August 22, 2012 (edited) 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 August 22, 2012 by boogies2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zebulon Posted August 22, 2012 Share Posted August 22, 2012 You'll be fine with that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArcadiusMaximus Posted August 22, 2012 Share Posted August 22, 2012 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 for 3 dinky power supplies.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxxsinner Posted August 22, 2012 Author Share Posted August 22, 2012 You right AM. The inrush current will only occur for milliseconds and the wiring will cope no problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArcadiusMaximus Posted August 23, 2012 Share Posted August 23, 2012 You right AM. The inrush current will only occur for milliseconds and the wiring will cope no problems. Thanks again ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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