Power injection in to addressable LED strip lights

[ChipButty]

Hi, new member here seeking a bit of advice.

I want to run 4 x 5 meter addressable RGB LED stips around my living room skirting to form a continuous 20 meter strip -don't judge me lol. The LEDS will be controlled by a NodeMCU flashed with WLED and powered by a 5V 12A 60W psu. All 4 strips will be connected together and I know that the voltage will drop so power injection is required.
My question is does each injection wire pair need to come from the Power supply or can I daisy chain the power injecion wire from one injecion point to the next? My original plan was to run a 5 meter wire pair to the end of the 1st strip/start of the 2nd then a 10 meter wire to the end of the 2nd strip/start of the 3rd and then a wire to the end of the 4th strip (cos that will be back near the psu).
Any help/advice appreciated.
Thanks.

 

[James]

What do the manufacturers instructions suggest?

 

[plugsandsparks]

You can use one PSU, you could feed both ends direct from PSU, then either add an extra little bit to pick up the next 5M length or run an extra 5.1M back to PSU. All according to the design calc for current, VD etc.

 

[snowhead]

As James, what's the recommended max length?

But if not available, I'd run power to each end, but what I'd also do is a dry run.
Lay the led strip out on the floor in it's 20mtr length and power it with the length of cable that would be used if it was actually installed.
See how it lights up and check the voltage midpoint on the strip.

 

[ChipButty]

Ok, so I dry run tested the lights and it all seemed ok. I've now installed the lights and they work but I can only run on half brightness when they are all white otherwise the last 2 strips flicker and go out. I can run them all on full in red but brighter colours like yellow will make the end strips flicker or pixels change to random colours so I must be getting too much voltage drop.

I've read a few posts on wiring LED strips and I'm still a bit confused as to the best way to wire them.
Some say to power each one separately and just connect signal wire
Some say to connect all V- together and just inject V+ every few meters and others say to inject both V+ and V-

Currently all my strips are connected in series (each strip has V+ V- and signal connected together). Power to the 1st strip is at the start of the strip, first power injection is to the start of the 2nd strip (end of the 1st), second power injection is to the end of the 3rd strip (start of 4th) and third power injection is to end of the 4th strip (back near the psu).

Should I have powered each strip separately and not daisy chained them? (see attached pic) In my test I know that the PSU can power a 5m strip on full white with just the end of the strip going a bit pinky but it's hardly noticable, so I assumed that injecting power to the end of each strip would give me the same result.

 

[SuperLED]

Hi, new member here seeking a bit of advice.

I want to run 4 x 5 meter addressable RGB LED stips around my living room skirting to form a continuous 20 meter strip -don't judge me lol. The LEDS will be controlled by a NodeMCU flashed with WLED and powered by a 5V 12A 60W psu. All 4 strips will be connected together and I know that the voltage will drop so power injection is required.
My question is does each injection wire pair need to come from the Power supply or can I daisy chain the power injecion wire from one injecion point to the next? My original plan was to run a 5 meter wire pair to the end of the 1st strip/start of the 2nd then a 10 meter wire to the end of the 2nd strip/start of the 3rd and then a wire to the end of the 4th strip (cos that will be back near the psu).
Any help/advice appreciated.
Thanks.

Hi, I saw someone's suggession to connect each side with one power supply for the led strips, that is not correct, we shall consider about the Current from one power supply to flow into the other, which is harmful to the power supply and LED Strips.
I send some LED Strip Wiring diagram for your reference.
Moreover, if you would like to connect longer RGB LED strips, do not forget to use an LED amplifier, otherwise, the contolling will be problem.
Good luck！

 

[dmxtothemax]

Your power supplies are not quite up to the task,
Especially on white,
I would use i x supply for each segment,
How big each segment is depends on how many white leds your supply can safely suuply.
This may take some experimenting from you

 

[Simon47]

Bear in mind you have TWO issues regarding volt drop. The first is that of the power for the LEDs, where the volt drops in both the +ve and -ve supply cables and tracks will add up. The second is that your control signals may well be referenced to -ve, so volt drop in the -ve will affect the signalling.
What you haven't said is how much power each strip takes - if (for example) each one could take 15W then you've overloaded your PSU and output will sag. Even if well within the PSU rating, the output may not be clean - it may help to put a large capacitor between +ve and -ve at each connection point (i.e. 5 in total) which will help with dealing with the small surges that will occur with the switching within the strips.

Otherwise, apart from an extra connection to the joint between strips 2 & 3, you've wired them exactly how I'd have wired them which minimises volt drops.

 

[ChipButty]

Bear in mind you have TWO issues regarding volt drop. The first is that of the power for the LEDs, where the volt drops in both the +ve and -ve supply cables and tracks will add up. The second is that your control signals may well be referenced to -ve, so volt drop in the -ve will affect the signalling.
What you haven't said is how much power each strip takes - if (for example) each one could take 15W then you've overloaded your PSU and output will sag. Even if well within the PSU rating, the output may not be clean - it may help to put a large capacitor between +ve and -ve at each connection point (i.e. 5 in total) which will help with dealing with the small surges that will occur with the switching within the strips.

Otherwise, apart from an extra connection to the joint between strips 2 & 3, you've wired them exactly how I'd have wired them which minimises volt drops.

Thanks for the replies
The watts per strip is 45 according to the specs so that's .3W per LED (I'm assuming that's all 3 coloured leds combined). I have 565 LEDs in total so that's 169.5W.
My psu is 5V 40amp 200W.
I have WLED auto brightness limiter set to 13000ma so that fixes the flckering on white. To be honest I'll never have them on full white and even on full brighness in colour they are too bright so they are fine as they are now. I'm glad I didn't go with 300leds per strip!

I want to put some on the outside of the house for christmas so think I'll be opting for 12v ones insead of 5v, should get less voltage drop.

 

[Simon47]

... and powered by a 5V 12A 60W psu.

My psu is 5V 40amp 200W

So you've upgraded then ?

The watts per strip is 45 according to the specs

So in rough terms, 180W max (4x45). That should be within your PSU capabilities.

I have WLED auto brightness limiter set to 13000ma so that fixes the flckering on white. To be honest I'll never have them on full white and even on full brighness in colour they are too bright so they are fine as they are now. I'm glad I didn't go with 300leds per strip!

13A x 5V = roughly 65W less electronics losses. I hope you issue dark sun glasses to all your visitors

I want to put some on the outside of the house for christmas so think I'll be opting for 12v ones insead of 5v, should get less voltage drop.

Well could be yes, could be no - "it depends". A lot depends on what differences there are with the arrangements of LEDs and control circuits - it's entirely possible (though unlikely) that the strip takes the same current but just wastes much of the extra power. I would hope that they've taken the opportunity to run the LEDs at higher voltage/lower current - but that depends on the LEDs available. Certainly with 12V there is more scope for tolerance on supply voltage, and hence tolerance on voltage drop - but that all depends on how the strips are designed and you can't assume anything.

 

[Jimmiy]

Hi, new member here seeking a bit of advice.

I want to run 4 x 5 meter addressable RGB LED stips around my living room skirting to form a continuous 20 meter strip -don't judge me lol. The LEDS will be controlled by a NodeMCU flashed with WLED and powered by a 5V 12A 60W psu. All 4 strips will be connected together and I know that the voltage will drop so power injection is required.
My question is does each injection wire pair need to come from the Power supply or can I daisy chain the power injecion wire from one injecion point to the next? My original plan was to run a 5 meter wire pair to the end of the 1st strip/start of the 2nd then a 10 meter wire to the end of the 2nd strip/start of the 3rd and then a wire to the end of the 4th strip (cos that will be back near the psu).
Any help/advice appreciated.
Thanks.

When running a continuous strip of LEDs, power injection is necessary to compensate for voltage drop. Each injection point helps to maintain stable voltage along the entire length of the strip. In your case, with a 20-meter strip comprised of four 5-meter sections, you'll need to inject power at multiple points.

It is generally recommended to connect each injection wire pair directly to the power supply rather than daisy-chaining them from one injection point to the next. This ensures that each injection point receives an adequate power supply and minimizes voltage drop.

Based on your original plan, you can run a 5-meter wire pair from the power supply to the end of the first strip/start of the second strip. Then, connect a 10-meter wire pair from the power supply to the end of the second strip/start of the third strip. Finally, connect another wire pair from the power supply to the end of the fourth strip.

This approach will help distribute power evenly and maintain consistent brightness and color accuracy across the entire 20-meter strip. Remember to use appropriately sized wires for power transmission to minimize voltage drop.

 

[DPG]

When running a continuous strip of LEDs, power injection is necessary to compensate for voltage drop. Each injection point helps to maintain stable voltage along the entire length of the strip. In your case, with a 20-meter strip comprised of four 5-meter sections, you'll need to inject power at multiple points.

It is generally recommended to connect each injection wire pair directly to the power supply rather than daisy-chaining them from one injection point to the next. This ensures that each injection point receives an adequate power supply and minimizes voltage drop.

Based on your original plan, you can run a 5-meter wire pair from the power supply to the end of the first strip/start of the second strip. Then, connect a 10-meter wire pair from the power supply to the end of the second strip/start of the third strip. Finally, connect another wire pair from the power supply to the end of the fourth strip.

This approach will help distribute power evenly and maintain consistent brightness and color accuracy across the entire 20-meter strip. Remember to use appropriately sized wires for power transmission to minimize voltage drop.

The OP hasn't been on here for 2 and a half years.

Welcome to the forum though.