Falcon PiCap V2 Power Injection

[Skrymir]

I'm using a Falcon PiCap V2 and two of the four connectors to run some props.  I need to do some power injection.  Should I use the two free connections on my controller without connecting the data wine, or should power be injected directly from the power supply?

[JonD]

5v/12v, seeds/bullets..... how many lights on each port?

should power be injected directly from the power supply?

No right or wrong answer.  I personally like to keep strings under 170 nodes and run at 30% power.  Newer seeds lights I might do 200+.   They are easier to move around each year, less to troubleshoot.  Only time I power inject is for longer light strings.  Example, front of my house eaves have 300+.  If divided, certain effects do not play right and it is better to leave them as a single strand.  I power inject those from an empty port in the controller.  It is not cost effective way to inject, but it makes it easy to move from controller to controller each year.   No way I would power inject another way at this point, but I only have a few things that are power injected. 

[k6ccc]

I have done it both ways.  I have a couple places with four port controllers (or remotes) that only have two ports in use - and NEVER will have any more.  The idle ports on the controller or remotes are perfectly good as a power source for PI.  And that way you don't need to buy another fuse panel (and take up the space for it - if that's an issue in a box).

Like JonD, I prefer not to build stuff to require PI, but some times it just works out that way.

[Skrymir]

Thanks to both of you. 

I'm building two 4' trees with 300 pixels each; the star adds another 70.  So, each prop is 370 pixels; I was going to PI at pixel 300.

[JonD]

Without knowing if you are using 5v or 12v pixels, wire gauge, distances and etc. it would be hard to give you any advice.
 
The below calculator might be helpful.
http://spikerlights.com/calcpower.aspx 

[Skrymir]

I should have said 12v.  I have done a lot of small projects with 5v LEDs and WLED.  This is my first 12v projects.

I did use that calculator to verify my voltage drops.

[GizmoYEG]

I've done what's convenient at that time. I got 2 500+ props very close to a main controller with a few free ports, so I just use the spares for the power. Some of my SR boxes I go directly thru a fuse to the PSU. I think it was said up above, neither is wrong, just look at the current you need as the board has 5A fuses. I've got PI up to 30A on some lines, so that obviously needs to be separate from the board.