A 50 node string of 12v ws2811 takes 2/3 the power off (plugged into a running hub with uSC) as a 50 node string of regular LED's full on.
And I thought I was going to get away with less power cords in the future.
Jeff, I would definitely say that something is wrong with the string you plugged in or the setup overall, as was suggested below.
I finally got my Kill-A-Watt the other day and went out to do some testing. As I think I mentioned in the other thread over at PC, I am interested in leaving my ten e1.31 controllers plugged in and running in the garage this summer so that I can experiment with (1) new software (2) FPP master / slave setup (3) music sequencing in general. I have convinced myself that I don't need all the lights plugged in to see data issues, just all the controllers that will get data. I do, however, have the megatree (which lives on my garage ceiling) plugged in for visual reference. That megatree consist of 48 poles with 50 ws2811 pixels each (square, flat back style) = 2400 lights.
So, I went off to the garage with my new Kill-A-Watt in hand... Since the megatree is spread over two p12s controllers, each in its own case with a 350W power supply, I went to my controller rack that I just built and plugged two p12s controllers to the Kill-A-Watt, each p12s in its own case with its own 350W power supply, but NO LIGHTS connected. The power draw was 11W. I then went and connected the Kill-A-Watt up to the two p12s controllers that have the 2400 megatree lights plugged into them and the power draw was 24W (lights off). I went and flipped on a little sequence I have running on the FPP (link below) and the power went between around 190W to 375W max. Basically, the 190W was when there was red sweeping going on and the 375W was when there was a much higher percentage of white (duh).
https://vimeo.com/120250250Summary:
two x p12s controllers, no lights: 11W
two x p12s controllers, 2400 lights OFF: 24W
two x p12s controllers, 2400 lights ON: 190W to 375W
Do you have any other controllers you can test that one string in? Any other strings you could test to see if that string is shot?
For further reference, I connected a wifi router, a gigabit switch, and the FPP to the power switch with the two p12s controllers without lights and the total power draw of the whole shabang was only 21W... right now, I'm figuring (need to confirm) that all of the e131 controllers running (no lights), the two p12s controllers with lights (lights OFF) and the network stuff listed above will take around 75W. If I end up leaving that on all the time, it will use around $5.40 electricity per month.
-Louie