Hello all, I have seen mixed information regarding this and I am wondering the disadvantages, advantages, or if it even matter where the pixelblaze is wired between the PSU and LED strip.
I have powered LEDs using the pixelblaze as a middle man, and I have backfed power through LED strip to the pixelblaze. Both scenarios seem to work but I have also seen some forums say to back feed and I have seen on here that it is okay to power through the pixelblaze. My current project would be a lot more clean if I were to power the pixelblaze off the first terminal of the PSU and the LEDs off of the second terminal (I am assuming I should connect V- for terminal 1 and 2).
As long as you are backfeeding from the same end of the strip that you are applying power, it should be OK for most things. Powering them with separate wires from the same PS is probably fine too. The LED data signal has to return too, so the return path could be longer if you don’t have GND following along with data to the LEDs (from the LED to the PS to the PB), so count those along with the distance from PB’s output data to the LEDs.
I see, perhaps it would be best in my scenario to power the LEDs through the pixel blaze, and power the pixel blaze from the PSU? This way the ground can travel alongside the data and the pixelblaze can still be powered directly from the PSU instead of backfed from the LEDs?
It depends on the length, if its a few inches it won’t matter. The Pixelblaze doesn’t take a ton of power, the LEDs do, so I would optimize for that wiring path first unless the total length the data signal round trip is going to take is several feet.
That makes sense. The distance between the LEDs and PSU will be around 5 to 10 ft… so perhaps my best option is just to integrate the pixelblaze with the piece and backfeed in this case