Stretching the budget with an LED-Wiz

[QuixoteQuest]

I'd like to maximize what I can get out of one LED-Wiz board, both for cost reasons, but also I don't know how support is gonna work across multiple boards for animations, or other software or frontend functions. SO I'd like to start with one board and see how it goes. Since each RGB LED takes up 3 outputs I'll run out of space pretty fast with one board. So I'd like to start with my 7-button player clusters. I like to wire P1 and P2 clusters to sharing the same outputs. So what lights up on P1 cluster will be the same as P2 cluster. Can I gang 2 LEDs per output without worry for needing secondary power to the USB draw or creating a fire or heat risk? If I can then that would leave me an extra 3 buttons I could wire up in my RGB test--either the mouse cab buttons, Start buttons or the trackball.

Unfortunately one LED wiz just can't cover running all the buttons --utility buttons, Asteroids, and pinball buttons will get overlooked -- on my 2-p panel in RGB mode, but it would be fun to start and try this device (and the ICE buttons) out.

[spiffykyle]

I'm going to start off with just one LED-Wiz board. The thing is I am not planning on hooking up RGB LED's to every button. Just one color for each group (like red for player 1, blue for player 2, etc...), that way only one spot on the board per button.

I figure if I like this setup then i can expand in the future if I want.

spiffykyle

[Chris]

Can I gang 2 LEDs per output without worry for needing secondary power to the USB draw or creating a fire or heat risk? If I can then that would leave me an extra 3 buttons I could wire up in my RGB test--either the mouse cab buttons, Start buttons or the trackball.

Make sure you run them in parallel, each LED with its own resistor.  If you wire them in series you'll increase the voltage you need.

[QuixoteQuest]

Can I gang 2 LEDs per output without worry for needing secondary power to the USB draw or creating a fire or heat risk? If I can then that would leave me an extra 3 buttons I could wire up in my RGB test--either the mouse cab buttons, Start buttons or the trackball.

Make sure you run them in parallel, each LED with its own resistor.  If you wire them in series you'll increase the voltage you need.

I had better do more research. I thought if I bought the RGB lights that come with the ICE buttons that it was as simple as plugging each of the leads into a power terminal, much like wiring up the IPac. I didn't know I needed to mind equipment like resistors.

[Chris]

Can I gang 2 LEDs per output without worry for needing secondary power to the USB draw or creating a fire or heat risk? If I can then that would leave me an extra 3 buttons I could wire up in my RGB test--either the mouse cab buttons, Start buttons or the trackball.

Make sure you run them in parallel, each LED with its own resistor.  If you wire them in series you'll increase the voltage you need.

I had better do more research. I thought if I bought the RGB lights that come with the ICE buttons that it was as simple as plugging each of the leads into a power terminal, much like wiring up the IPac. I didn't know I needed to mind equipment like resistors.

If you have the RGB-Drive lighting modules on little circuit boards they already have resistors on them; they would still need to be wired in parallel.If you have plain RGB LED's, I don't know if you have resistors or not.

[arzoo]

I had better do more research. I thought if I bought the RGB lights that come with the ICE buttons that it was as simple as plugging each of the leads into a power terminal, much like wiring up the IPac. I didn't know I needed to mind equipment like resistors.

Purchase the GGG RGB-Drive modules with the RGB LED and resisters pre-installed and you'll be fine. You can also purchase them with a small ribbon cable pre-soldered on. Either way, all you need to do is wire the R, G, B, and +5v leads to the LEDWiz ports - very easy. And you can have more than one LED attached to each port.

[QuixoteQuest]

Yes, I was just thinking of buying the RGB lights that already have the little circuit boards on them together with the wires. Hopefully those 4-wide ribbons aren't hard to strip. Otherwise it seems like GGG has made it pretty convenient to buy all ready to go, even planning their ICE buttons to fit in the boards and everything, albeit at a small premium for the convenience.

I was just hoping I could plug two leads into a single output without having to worry about the supplemental power warned about nor endanger CP with any fire or overheating risk. If so, how many leads could an output take without such needs or risk?

[arzoo]

I'm not sure there's really a limit as long as they're wired in parallel (which is the case for the RGB-Drive modules). As for stripping the ribbon cables - it's a bit of a pain - make sure you have a good wire stripper.

[QuixoteQuest]

Just want to clarify I understand how I was planning to wire is wiring in parallel:

Each lead for each RGB color attaches in its own output port; in the case of multiple LEDs going into the same output they should plug together in the same output. All power leads obviously would not all fit into the same output, so they will go in the same wire nut with a single wire that will lead from the power output to all the wires in that nut. (Or rather what I expect I would do is:  all the power leads from each set of 8 of the leads will nut together, which would give me only 4 wire leads going from each nut into the USB output, thus probably fitting well.)

If I remember right as I write this: each RGB lead is 20ma, so even if I had only one LED lead per port of the 32 available I will exceed the 500ma USB rating, thus requiring external power. I'm planning on firing 17 RGB buttons off of one LED-Wiz board, which would be 60ma per button or 1020ma or almost twice the rating for the USB power supply alone. Therefore I need to supplement the USB connection with an external DC power supply, too. But as long as I do that I just want to be sure I'm not introducing an overheating or fire risk to my CP. . .

Thx for the help.

[arzoo]

Just want to clarify I understand how I was planning to wire is wiring in parallel:

Each lead for each RGB color attaches in its own output port; in the case of multiple LEDs going into the same output they should plug together in the same output. All power leads obviously would not all fit into the same output, so they will go in the same wire nut with a single wire that will lead from the power output to all the wires in that nut. (Or rather what I expect I would do is:  all the power leads from each set of 8 of the leads will nut together, which would give me only 4 wire leads going from each nut into the USB output, thus probably fitting well.)

If I remember right as I write this: each RGB lead is 20ma, so even if I had only one LED lead per port of the 32 available I will exceed the 500ma USB rating, thus requiring external power. I'm planning on firing 17 RGB buttons off of one LED-Wiz board, which would be 60ma per button or 1020ma or almost twice the rating for the USB power supply alone. Therefore I need to supplement the USB connection with an external DC power supply, too. But as long as I do that I just want to be sure I'm not introducing an overheating or fire risk to my CP. . .

Thx for the help.

Your wiring is correct. I don't recall any way to add external power to the ledwiz. The ggg site indicates that the ledwiz can support 15 LEDs per port (480 total).

[Kaytrim]

The documentation for the LEDWiz contains instructions on how to add an external 5V DC connection.  This way the board can handle more than the 500ma rating.