LEDWIZ wiring question

[pfabbro]

Hey guys,
I got a LEDWIZ's and I just wanted to know when I hook up my RGB led's how do i hook up the sixth RGB led?  I have 5 RGB leds hooked up to ports
1-15.  Do i start the next RGB led on port 16 then run the other wires to 17 & 18 and keep going? or Can I just wire the sixth RGB led on ports 17, 18 & 19? 

If I power up my RGB leds with the 5v rail from power supply how should I wire it?  or will the LEDWIZ provide enough power?

What do you guys think?

[HaRuMaN]

Start the next one at 16, go to 17 and 18.  Will make the programming a bit easier.

I didn't add any external power, and I had no problems loading all the ports on the LEDWIZ with RGB's.

[mgb]

according to the led wiz install sheet: you can have upto 32 ports of leds with proper resistors (which are already built into the ggg rgb leds) with just getting power from your usb. You will only need to externally power it if you will be using bulbs or more than the 32 outputs.
the unit should come shipped with the jumper wires set from usb 5+ to the the +5 bank terminals so your default should be for usb power.

[pfabbro]

Thanks guys for your responses.

Here's another question..  If I have more then one LEDWIZ should I plan ahead on which RGB leds are grouped together on each LEDWIZ?

[HaRuMaN]

Thanks guys for your responses.

Here's another question..  If I have more then one LEDWIZ should I plan ahead on which RGB leds are grouped together on each LEDWIZ?

Yes. 

I basically had 1 LEDWIZ per player.

[Dragonman73]

I've got a question, I just got my ledwiz in yesterday and noticed on the instruction sheet I needed resisters on the LED's. My LED buttons are 5 volt pieces I got from paradise arcade.

I plan on using my computer power supply to power the led's with 5 volts....and bypass the usb power alltogether.

Do I still need resistors? I used to have an pac-drive controller and I didn't use resistors with it

[mgb]

If the leds you got from paradise arcades are said to be 5 volt, then they should already have the resistor built in.

[RandyT]

I've got a question, I just got my ledwiz in yesterday and noticed on the instruction sheet I needed resisters on the LED's. My LED buttons are 5 volt pieces I got from paradise arcade.

I plan on using my computer power supply to power the led's with 5 volts....and bypass the usb power alltogether.

Do I still need resistors? I used to have an pac-drive controller and I didn't use resistors with it

Raw LED's need a resistor, but if you buy a lighted button which specifies 5v, that means there are already resistors in place which make them 5v.  The LED's themselves usually work at much lower voltages.  We offer similar buttons with a 12v rating, which will also light fine at 5v, albeit not as brightly (and will last longer at the lower brightness, BTW).  You can always run an LED lighted button at a lower than specified voltage, so long as you are happy with the light output, but never run one at a higher voltage, without another resistor in series to soak up the extra.

RandyT

[stalemate]

I had a similar question...

I have some of the electric ICE buttons with RGB led from groovy game gear. Do I need to add resistors or is it already built in?

Also, I have 8 buttons per player so that is 24 led leads per player. I have 2 LED-Wiz units. If I run USB to each one, should each one be able to power 1 player worth of buttons with no external power? And do I need resistor(s)?

[mgb]

You don't need to add resistors to those Ggg rgb leds. You should however use external power, not the usb power.

[stalemate]

You don't need to add resistors to those Ggg rgb leds. You should however use external power, not the usb power.

Is the USB power not strong enough or what is the deal?

[mgb]

Current draw is the problem. You can only get so much current from the power on the usb bus. According to the ledwiz cut sheet, its about 500ma I believe.

[stalemate]

Current draw is the problem. You can only get so much current from the power on the usb bus. According to the ledwiz cut sheet, its about 500ma I believe.

What if I have both of my LED-wiz units connected to a powered USB hub. Would that help?

I have 8 buttons per player which should use 60ma per button (20ma x 3) so I think my total current draw per player would be 480ma. I wasn't sure if the 500ma referenced on the LED-wiz cut sheet was in reference to a single LED-wiz unit or to the USB bus overall.

[BobA]

Depends on your powered hub.  Check the wall wart that comes with it to see how much current it can supply at 5VDC.    Many 4 or 5 port USB adapters supply less than 1 amp at 5V and therefore greatly under power the bus.

[stalemate]

I actually have an old 5v dc wall wart that I don't even know what it originally went with. It will do 2.5 amps, so I guess I could just use that directly. Would I need an inline fuse on the connection from the wall wart to the led wiz devices?

[mgb]

That wall wart will already be fused internally, but it would be a definite benefit to put an inline fuse in

[stalemate]

So let's see if I have this straight...

I will be powering 16 rgb lights so that is a total of 960 ma (16x20x3). So, a 1 amp inline fuse is what I need? Or should I go higher?

[BobA]

Fuse sizing should be about 125 percent of max load.   If loads are inductive or capacitive this can be increased but for LEDs it should be fine.

[stalemate]

Thanks! That makes sense

Stupid question, any suggestions where to get such a thing or what to get? I looked up inline fuses at radio shack and they are all like 12v/10amp and stuff. I think I need 5v/1.2 amp?

The things radio shack has look good because they have wires with a fuse holder already  inline so I just have to wire in their wire in series with my wiring but I don't see the right sizes.

[BobA]

I don't think they have fuses specifically for 5V.   Fuses are rated by amperage and the volatge that you are most likely to get is 12V or 120V

[stalemate]

Ah, so I can just get one for the right amperage and it won't matter that the voltage says the wrong thing then? I was actually kind of confused at why the voltage was listed but I thought it was important.

[BobA]

Try to get 12 v for you 5 v and you should be ok. 

[evh347]

Guys,
I just dropped a ton of questions on Randy and I figured maybe as a community you might be able to help me better understand this process of wiring up the LED WIZ better.  I've wired Super Bright LED's directly to my PC via PCI ports in the past with 4-pin Molar cables (coin door, credit buttons, and backlit speakers).  I've read over this thread, but I'm still a little confused as to what I'm in for.  

My intent is to light up 32 buttons on my old Slik Stik CO2 control panel.  Eventually, I want to hook up my trackball to the same system.

I ordered 32 electric ice 2 buttons, one 32-port LED WIZ controller, and ordered RGB boards/lights for all the buttons from GGG.  I will order the 3" trackball RGB upgrade when they get them in stock (hopefully later this week).

I will be using the LED Blinky software to activate them all using the Hyperspin FE.

After reading over this thread and looking over the LED WIZ install PDF (http://groovygamegear.com/PDF/LEDWIZv2_INSTALL.pdf), I'm now a little concerned that I didn't order enough stuff to complete my job.  

You'll excuse me, but without actually yet having the stuff in my hands, it's a little difficult to get my head wrapped around this techno stuff...

(1)  Each RGB will occupy 3 ports (e.g. 1, 2, 3) and then a 4th is connected to the +5v Anode terminal, correct?  
(2)  Each LED WIZ board supports up to how many RGB's?  32?  
(3)  I can't hook up all 32 buttons to one LED WIZ?  In other words, no two RGB's share the same numbered port except for the "common +5v Anode terminal?  
(4)  If I have 32 buttons and (eventually) adding a trackball, and all of these are operated by RGB LED's...that's 3 ports per RGB...each LED WIZ has 32 ports...do I need four LED WIZ controllers to complete this job?
(5)  If I need an LED WIZ for each player, which LED WIZ do I wire the universal buttons (one's that are used by all players) to?
(6)  I want to keep my Player-1 and Player-2 buttons (I know I ordered 32 buttons, but hey), I can light them up like the other buttons, but I have to drill a hole in them, correct?  How big of a hole?  Or can I order GGG's push button inserts and apply them to the Electric Ice 2 Pushbuttons?
(7)  Is there any specific order of buttons that I have to wire to certain ports on the LED WIZ?


Thanks!

Sorry for the EDITS...I keep coming up with more questions the more I think about this!  <---NOVICE  

[Nephasth]

1) Correct.
2) If you want each RGB individually controlled, 10. If not, then it depends on how my you want to be shared controlled.
3) You can hook up all 32 RGBs to one LED Wiz, but you will lose the capability to individually control each LED.
4) Again, depends on how you control your LEDs. If all you want to do with your LED controller is to individually control your LEDs, I would recommend getting 2 PACLED64s, as they are cheaper per output. If you want to do other things above and beyond lighting LEDs (or want to light multiple LEDs from each port), then the LED Wiz would be the one to pick.
5)You don't need an LED controller for each player, you can assign any LED to any MAME input with LEDBlinky.
6)You can drill a hole in the base of the button. Size depends on what LED you use.
7) See #5.

[RandyT]

I will order the 3" trackball RGB upgrade when they get them in stock.

This will require the capabilities of an LED-Wiz.  Each color is the equivalent of 5 superbright LED's on a single port.

[evh347]

1) Correct.
2) If you want each RGB individually controlled, 10. If not, then it depends on how my you want to be shared controlled.
3) You can hook up all 32 RGBs to one LED Wiz, but you will lose the capability to individually control each LED.
4) Again, depends on how you control your LEDs. If all you want to do with your LED controller is to individually control your LEDs, I would recommend getting 2 PACLED64s, as they are cheaper per output. If you want to do other things above and beyond lighting LEDs (or want to light multiple LEDs from each port), then the LED Wiz would be the one to pick.
5)You don't need an LED controller for each player, you can assign any LED to any MAME input with LEDBlinky.
6)You can drill a hole in the base of the button. Size depends on what LED you use.
7) See #5.

Yes, then it appears my math was correct...thank you.  I want to be able to control each button individually so I must assign 10 buttons (max) to each LED WIZ 32-port controller.  Hence, I need 4 LED WIZ 32-port controllers to complete the job. 

So if I have 10 buttons on LED WIZ #1...that leaves 2 ports available.
...then 10 more buttons on LED WIZ #2...that leaves 2 more ports available.
...then 10 more buttons on LED WIZ #3...that leaves 2 more ports available for now a total of 6 ports on those three LED WIZ's.
But I'll need more than those 6 ports if I eventually want to include my trackball upgrade which will require an additional 3 ports.
So...I install the remaining two buttons on LED WIZ #4, thus occupying 6 of those ports.  The trackball upgrade will use 3 more ports...

Which leaves me with a grand total of 29 available ports for future RGB installed buttons if I need them.

This all changes (I guess) if I select the NovaGem buttons which use PCB instead of RGB and each button only uses 2 output ports on an LED WIZ board rather than 3.

On Randy's advice, I also ordered 4 of those Euro Terminals to help keep the +5 wires tidy.  Hope I don't screw it up.

Sorry Randy for making you come here and answer me in emails too.  Anybody who says GGG uses poor communication is on crack! 

[RandyT]

This all changes (I guess) if I select the NovaGem buttons which use PCB instead of RGB and each button only uses 2 output ports on an LED WIZ board rather than 3.

The NovaGem 2 buttons use only one port on the LED-Wiz, but are the equivalent of 5 leds each.  If you opt for clear with RGB lighting, then you will be back to three.

Sorry Randy for making you come here and answer me in emails too.  Anybody who says GGG uses poor communication is on crack! 

No problem.  We miss a couple from time to time, but we do what we can.

[evh347]

Got my LEDWIZ(s) x4 and 32 RGB LEDs from GGG yesterday and just wanna make sure I understand how to wire these up...

I intend to power my 32 RGB lights off of USB.

Off of the RGB LED boards, there are 4 wires...they are labeled R1, R2, and R3, the fourth looks like a ground?  And at the ends of these wires...none of them are labeled except the (ground?) is painted red.

What do the R1, R2, and R3 wires correspond to?  Colors?  And the fourth wire is what?

I'm assuming that I should insert R1 into LEDWIZ port #1, R2 into port #2, R3 into port #3 and the fourth wire with the red tip goes into +5 (or ground?)?

So far, I'm halfway wiring the first LEDWIZ up with each RGB doing exactly the same (except into the next available ports on the LEDWIZ) and I'm daisy chaining up the red tipped wires into a GGG Euro Terminal Port and then that goes to the +5.

Am I doing this correctly?  Thanks.

[RandyT]

Got my LEDWIZ(s) x4 and 32 RGB LEDs from GGG yesterday and just wanna make sure I understand how to wire these up...

I intend to power my 32 RGB lights off of USB.

Off of the RGB LED boards, there are 4 wires...they are labeled R1, R2, and R3, the fourth looks like a ground?  And at the ends of these wires...none of them are labeled except the (ground?) is painted red.

What do the R1, R2, and R3 wires correspond to?  Colors?  And the fourth wire is what?

The red marked wire goes to +5vDC.  These can all be connected together, and then to your 5vDC regulated source.  The other wires, starting with the one after the 5v wire, are Green, Red and Blue, in that order.   Once the 5v line is connected, you can test the colors to verify by touching that wire to ground.  I usually recommend that the wires be connected to the LED-Wiz in the order R, G, B, R, G, B, and so on.  But it doesn't make a lot of difference, as pretty much any of the apps which support RGB with the LED-Wiz, will allow you to map any of the outputs (even across multiple LED-Wiz's) to any button.

RandyT

[evh347]

Randy,
Please disregard my emails yesterday...today, I just have these questions...

Do the white plastic spacer "standoffs" that came with each LEDWIZ go between the head of the mounting screws and the PCB board (on top) or between the PCB board and the object (my control panel) of which I'm mounting the PCB board to (underneath)?

The red marked wire goes to +5vDC.  These can all be connected together, and then to your 5vDC regulated source.

What is my "5vDC regulated source"?  Is that the the "USB +5v" port on the PCB?  <--that was my plan.  I have all the red tipped +5 wires going into the Euro Terminal and then I daisy chained them with the intent of running them all into the "USB +5v" terminal port on the PCB.  I probably made this job a lot harder on myself than it needed to be but I wired them together with what I had instead of going to Radio Shack.

Actually, when I look at the diagram in the documentation...it looks like this is exactly how this is supposed to be connected.  Just wanna make sure Randy.  

Nothing plugs into the "Ground" terminal port on the PCB for my situation, correct?  

Could I wire one of the colored wire leads into the "Ground" on the PCB to test the color?

If I'm only planning on wiring up 32 GGG RGB LEDs plus (eventually) the trackball upgrade across 4 LED WIZ PCB boards running all that into a powered USB hub...I'm thinking that since I'm not adding any outside bulbs and everything is pretty much easy peasy...none of that applies to my situation because I'm not using any additional lamps and relays, or a "large number of LEDs".  I shouldn't need to utilize the "bank voltage select terminals" on the PCB, correct?  

Sorry Randy, I'm trying to be safe and ask questions...I'm nervous about turning this thing on and seeing smoke!

[RandyT]

Do the white plastic spacer "standoffs" that came with each LEDWIZ go between the head of the mounting screws and the PCB board (on top) or between the PCB board and the object (my control panel) of which I'm mounting the PCB board to (underneath)?

The latter.

What is my "5vDC regulated source"?  Is that the the "USB +5v" port on the PCB?  <--that was my plan.  I have all the red tipped +5 wires going into the Euro Terminal and then I daisy chained them with the intent of running them all into the "USB +5v" terminal port on the PCB.  I probably made this job a lot harder on myself than it needed to be but I wired them together with what I had instead of going to Radio Shack.

Actually, when I look at the diagram in the documentation...it looks like this is exactly how this is supposed to be connected.  Just wanna make sure Randy.  

If you have 32 RGB LED's, that it the equivalent of 96 mono superbrights.  This would be almost 2 amps of current, if all of them were on at one time, which is far more than the USB port can supply.  You would need to tap into the 5v line of your PC power supply to power that many LED's.

Nothing plugs into the "Ground" terminal port on the PCB for my situation, correct?  

No.  With that much current, you should also connect the ground line from your supply to this terminal.

Could I wire one of the colored wire leads into the "Ground" on the PCB to test the color?

To test the color, you would only need to touch that wire to the metal housing of the USB socket on the LED-Wiz.

If I'm only planning on wiring up 32 GGG RGB LEDs plus (eventually) the trackball upgrade across 4 LED WIZ PCB boards running all that into a powered USB hub...I'm thinking that since I'm not adding any outside bulbs and everything is pretty much easy peasy...none of that applies to my situation because I'm not using any additional lamps and relays, or a "large number of LEDs".  I shouldn't need to utilize the "bank voltage select terminals" on the PCB, correct?  

That depends on the current available from the powered hub.  If it's more than the load, you should be fine.  Otherwise, you should tap into the PC power supply, as mentioned above.  You probably don't need to worry about the "bank voltage select terminals".  But it's usually a good idea to use them anyway.

RandyT

[evh347]

Randy,
Tonight I got my first LED WIZ PCB board up and running with LED Blinky. I've got 10 buttons going into 30 "output" ports and everything looks GREAT!

However, if I catch what you're saying, you're saying that if I continue wiring up the 3 remaining PCB boards I'm gonna find out that I don't have enough power to run all of these...and I'm gonna find out this quickly especially if they are programmed to all go on at once, correct?

This is the USB hub I'm using now:  http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0051PGX2I/ref=oh_o01_s00_i02_details

The beginning of this thread is starting to make a lot more sense to me now.

Okay, so I probably have an insufficient power issue.

I need someone to walk me through tapping my PC Power Supply.  I've got LEDs behind my coin door and illuminating my speakers via molar cables...same thing?  I can't honestly remember how I did that, it's been so long.  What exactly do I need to do?

GGG sells a "Switching Power Supply - 110/220v - 110 watt" (currently out of stock).  <---Is this an alternative to "tapping the PC power supply", as in "easier way" to supply the needed current?  Does Radio Shack sell these?

You probably don't need to worry about the "bank voltage select terminals".  But it's usually a good idea to use them anyway.

I don't need to worry about them because all of the LEDs will be running at +5V...I'd only need to utilize the "bank voltage select terminals" if I were trying to run different batches of LEDs (4 max) on the same PCB, correct?  Still, why do you say "it's usually a good idea to use them anyway"?  If I were using the PC's power supply, wouldn't all of the +5v  wires (currently going into the "+5v USB" on the PCB) just be connect to the PC's power supply? 

Is there any danger in finishing wiring the 3 remaining PCB boards and configuring them in LED Blinky to see what happens when all 32 of the RGB LEDs (actually 96 mono super brights) ramp up?  Worst case scenario, the USB powered Hub shuts off...no damage right?

I know I'm a total FNG and I should've more paid attention in electronics class...

Thanks!

[evh347]

I think we can forget my last post, I answered almost all of my questions when I landed on a post elsewhere on this forum.  The search function is my friend.

In that thread, a user posted a very good video on tapping the computer supply.  The video jogged my memory as to how this was done as I've done it already by lighting up my coin doors and speakers.  I used MOLEX (not molar, dummy) connectors.  Red wire is +5v and the ground is the black wire.  I just need find additional wire to get there and between all 4 PCB boards because I already have the majority of this connected.

I'm not convinced that I'll need to tap the computer +5v supply considering another user didn't require any additional power beyond his USB Hub and he was running 4 LED Wiz boards (32 RGB LEDs) and a U-Trak.  He reported no performance degradation.  I guess I'll wire it up and see what happens and add the PC power supply if necessary.

What the other post didn't mention that this one does is the suggestion of installing an in-line fuse.  What is that for and how do you wire that?

Thanks.