Main > Main Forum
LED Wiz wiring questions (help randyt or anybody;))
ivwshane:
I'm beginning the wiring planning phase of my cp and I have a few questions.
First I need to know if I have the right amount of devices to achieve what I want.
I have:
18 buttons that will have an RGB drive each
1 electric ice trackball (I will be using the RGB that's built in)
2 LED lights for (triple led cluster) coin reject buttons
If my understanding on how LED-wiz's work is correct, I figured that means I need 59 inputs, does that sound correct? I believe that the LED-wiz can control 32 unique outputs which means I would need two of them, correct?
I have two u360's+trackball for controls.
Since the u360's have a built in controller I will be using them to control 8 buttons each and the ice trackball will control another two buttons. That leaves two buttons (the coin reject buttons) and I plan to control those with an LED-wiz+GP.
I believe I have everything I need for controls and button inputs, can anyone confirm?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now for the actual wiring this is what I have planned:
The two LED-wiz's will be powered via a pc power supply running off a molex connector using one black and one yellow lead each (giving me 12v+), am I right? And is that the correct way to get enough power to the wiz's?
What gauge wire should I be using for everything (the RGB drives are already wired)? And where is the best place to get the wire?
Is there anything else I need to take into consideration?
Franco B:
I'm no RandyT but hopefully I can help a bit :)
You are correct that you will need 57 outputs for the RGB's and you will need also need to power the coin door clusters. Do you want to control the clusters too?
What are the voltage of the clusters? I'm guessing they will need 12v?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If that is the case and you do want to control the clusters you will need two LED Wiz's and one LED Wiz+GP.
You could configure the first LED Wiz to run 5v and use the to control the first 10 RGB's using 30 of the outputs.
You could then configure the 2nd LED Wiz so that banks 1-8, 9-16 and 17-24 run at 5v and connect the remaining 8 button RGB's to run off that. You would then need to configure bank 24-32 to run at 12v and connect the two coin door clusters to two of the outputs (say 24 and 25).
You still have the trackball to light so you could run that from the LED-Wiz+GP using thee of the outputs.
This would leave you 2 free 5v outputs on the first LED Wiz, two 12v outputs on the second LED Wiz (from the 12v bank you created) and 13 5v outputs on the LED Wiz+GP.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you don't wish to control the coin door clusters you can just hook them up to a 12v molex (if they are 12v lights, you may need to use resistor(s) to bring the power down if they are 6v etc but I imagine they will be 12v)
In this scenario you will still need two LED Wiz's to control the 19 RGBs.
Connect the first ten button RGBs to LED Wiz one and the other eight button RGBs and trackball RGB to LED Wiz two.
This would leave you two 5v outputs on LED Wiz one and five 5v outputs on LED Wiz two.
You wouldn't need a LED Wiz+GP but you would still need to connect the trackball buttons. Its probably a bit over kill and spendy to get a encoder just for two buttons. I would suggest hacking the buttons from a mouse or a cheap gamepad, Randy stocks hackable USB gamepads for about $6.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In scenario one, you wouldn't need to power LED Wiz one as it would take the 5v from USB, LED Wiz two would want 12v (Yellow and black ground) from a molex for bank 24-32. The LED Wiz+GP wouldn't need power as it too would take 5v from USB.
In scenario two, neither LED Wiz would need external power as it would take it from USB. You would just need to give the clusters 12v from a molex.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As for wire, we are not talking huge voltages so you probably just want to use some stranded ~22AWG, the same you would use for wiring controls. Most home electronics stores (Maplins, Radioshack etc) should carry it.
Hope that helps a little.
RandyT:
Mostly good advice here (thanks, Franco!).
However, I don't think USB power will suffice here. 10 RGB's all on at once (white light) will consume 600ma, which is 100ma more than what is specified for USB and doesn't take into account the power required by the LED-Wiz itself or any other device which may be attached.
The right thing to do is to run that 5v line from the power supply, and make sure the gauge of the wire is large enough to support all of the devices you will be powering. Then just attach the (+) side of all of the 5v devices to that junction, which can be aided through the use of something similar to the Euro-Terminal blocks offered at GGG.
Just keep all of the external (+) wiring away from the LED-Wiz's in this installation. These aren't inductive loads, so you shouldn't need to use the "bank voltage select" terminals.
Any other questions, feel free to email.
RandyT
ivwshane:
Thanks for the responses guys. If I wasn't a total newb I'm sure your answers would make perfect sense:o
Just so I have it straight. Does this look correct? And with regards to the terminal block, is the bottom figure what you are talking about? If so, for my setup how many blocks would I need?
RandyT:
This is what you want.