New Pixel Installation - Problems

[clampman]

I am late to the game, due to kids sports and work.  But I finally was able to get my lights up on the eaves of my house.  The roofline of my house at the lowest point is 22' high and 35' at the highest.  I installed my pixels, WS2811 in permatrack, using a rented boom lift.  There are 460 pixels coming from a Falcon F16V3 controller on Port 1, located about 18' down from the beginning of the run of pixels (Segment 1) in attached drawing.  I injected power at 3 other points along the eaves, one at the end and the other 2 points splitting the line somewhat equally.  I originally used the experience lights, clickit connectors, which sadly performed horribly, failing to pass the signal.  After initial power up and testing, Segment 2 would not light up.  I figured out that after cutting connectors off to fit the installation, the pixels had been installed backwards in that segment.  We rechecked all pixel directions and fixed where needed, and ended up removing the Clickit connectors and soldering the splices in place.

After getting all of them to work finally, I was left with some weird functionality.  If I raise the power beyond 20-30%, I get flickering and segments of pixels that will not change colors. I never get the typical or expected fading of pixels, that would be expected from not enough power. At higher output percentages, Segments 4-11 will just lock into the last color they received.  If a ramp is being sent from either the controller or FPP, the the lights in those segments will flicker in a similar pattern as a chase function (this is at higher output percentages)

Any suggestions with how to improve my setup or get the ability to go to higher power outputs would be appreciated.

[tbone321]

How are you power injecting?  Are you using the same power supply for everything or are you using different supplies?  If you are using different supplies, are all of the grounds connected together?  Also, what is the distance between strings 3 and 4?  If these are 5V pixels, your injection points are too far apart.

[clampman]

These are 12VDC pixels.  The main control box is about 25ft from the Power Injection box.  In it, I am using a separate 12VDC 30A power supply with 5A fused outputs.  The 3 power injection runs go out using xconnect plugs on 18AWG wire/cable.  There is a short jumper between segment 3 and 4 that is about 7ft, where I injected power by soldering the red to red (V+), black to black(V- or Common), so the power continues from one segment to the next. I have ran a 14 gauge wire between the Commons on the power supplies of both boxes and haven't seen a change in the behavior.

[MikeKrebs]

What is the measured voltage at PSU, start of pixels and end of pixels? Maybe some adjustment to the voltage will help?

[tbone321]

Make sure that the ground from the power supply of the controller is connected to the ground of your power injection supplies.  Perhaps a wiring diagram of your setup would help jus see what you are doing and a possible cause of your issues.

[Poporacer]

If you are using different supplies, are all of the grounds connected together?

Just to clarify, the grounds need to be connected together at the power injection point.

Make sure that the ground from the power supply of the controller is connected to the ground of your power injection supplies. 

Again at the Injection point, not at the PSUs themselves.

[LedMutt]

Have you tried using F-amps somewhere in the middle of the run, just my two cents...