F48 & Receiver Enclosure Builds, distro boards & F-Amps

[algerdes]

MarbeL, don't forget the unseen (literally) draw of the pixels and associated circuitry.  At idle (all lights off) you will see this.

[k6ccc]

Yes, there were definitely a few surprises when I measured those.  I expected the curve to be a bit towards higher consumption.  I am wondering if the higher current of the GECE bulbs has anything to do with them being 5 volt vs 12 volt.  Maybe I'm going to have to put out some 5V WS2811 pixels and see what those look like - I have 3,000 brand new ones in a box from Ray so it would be easy enough to do...  I need to measure those anyway as I will be using 2,600 of them on my pixel tree rebuild.

Other than the GECE, I don't have pixels that use any technology than WS2811, so I can't measure them.  Anyone else have some that they can measure and post results?

BTW, for those that have been around a few years, remember the claims that were floating around that pixels drew full power regardless of how much light they were putting out.

[k6ccc]

MarbeL, don't forget the unseen (literally) draw of the pixels and associated circuitry.  At idle (all lights off) you will see this.

That's why I included off in my chart I posted a few days ago...

[algerdes]

MarbeL, don't forget the unseen (literally) draw of the pixels and associated circuitry.  At idle (all lights off) you will see this.

That's why I included off in my chart I posted a few days ago...

Thanks.  Didn't remember seeing the chart.  Went back to the first page of this thread and whoa and behold, there it is.

A lot of people forget this and think "if my lights are off, I'm not using any power."  I know for some time I thought this way.  Then I asked myself "why, when all the lights are off, do my power supplies on my large matrix props (brand new at the time) kick their cooling fans on when idle during the day?"  A check such as you did showed a pretty good draw with no lights.

[MarbeL]

I found that CanispaterChristmas also uses a similarly sized ammo box as RobbieT's build and he didn't mount anything in the box either. You can see his build in the following youtube video: or check the picture below for what his looks like. He lives in Texas, which is also hot like Florida.

I reached out to him and asked "I'm thinking of using a 9.5" x 4.25" x 6.5" ammo box with 1 power supply and a receiver. I live in Florida which is pretty hot, do you think I need a vent for the enclosure or would it be ok without? Im not sure how hot the power supply would get in the box."

He replied with "Yeah who knows? I show the boxes in one of my setup videos I believe. They are pretty small. Room for the PS and the DR is held in place with friction (so not much room). I haven't done a temperature test, but they haven't failed either. Not very scientific I know, but just some data for you. I suppose the correct thing to do would be to run a temperature sensor inside the box during a show and see how hot it gets. Mine get warm and any new boxes I build, I add a little more room for air just to be safe but I haven't vented any of mine. ...and it's Texas. Generally though, even though it can be in the 70s during the day in December, it usually cools down quite a bit at night during showtime so factor that into it too. Basically, do your own testing to see what you need. If I were in Alaska, I'd imagine I'd have other issues to deal with. lol!"

Based off this, I will try to do the same here in Florida, I think the chances are good that it will be just fine and not overheat (so long as I don't turn the lights on during the day).

Canispater's build used 1 x 350W PS & 1 receiver per box. What I like about his solution is he used an ammo crate that holds 4 ammo boxes. So if I want to make 12 boxes, they could all store inside the crate and stack real easy for storage.

The cost to make 12 boxes boxes including the cost of 1 receiver & 1 power supply in each box is $921.55.

The box Canispater used to put his receivers in is the mtm ac4c ammo crate, link below:
https://www.amazon.com/MTM-AC4C-Ammo-Crate-4-Can/dp/B01MU6ZAPG/ref=sr_1_2?crid=3ACBKR0USDPEZ&dchild=1&keywords=mtm+ac4c+ammo+crate+4-can&qid=1590070796&s=sporting-goods&sprefix=MTM+AC4C%2Csporting%2C209&sr=1-2

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[robbiet]

I gave a couple of my new enclosures a good stress test over the July 4th holiday. Temps were in the low 90's and I ran a small show from 10am to 11pm on both Saturday and Sunday. Although the enclosures were definitely warm and the PSU fans were running continuously, I had no issues with performance. Safe to say the lack of ventilation will not be an issue for my Halloween or Christmas shows.

[MarbeL]

Thanks for this information robbiet! Definitely makes me feel safer with the build