The NEW Build Your Own Arcade Controls
Main => Main Forum => Topic started by: YoMama1 on June 09, 2014, 09:29:12 am
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I have an ledwiz with a bunch of helio9 leds and a 5V/4A powered usb hub. If I power the ledwiz off the hub, do I need to do anything with the black wires from the helio9?
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I have an ledwiz with a bunch of helio9 leds and a 5V/4A powered usb hub. If I power the ledwiz off the hub, do I need to do anything with the black wires from the helio9?
I have a bunch of Helio9's waiting to be installed and I have done enough reading to know that the Helio9s use common anode RGB LEDs. This means that the black wire is actually the wire you need to feed +5 VDC into in order for the LED to be powered. Thus, you need a terminal block with all of your black wires from the Helio9s connecting to the +5 VDC power supply, and to the "Bank Voltage Select" terminals on the LEDWiz. Lastly, the "External Ground" terminal needs to be connected to an earth ground (mains supply or good PC Power Supply).
Give this PDF document (http://groovygamegear.com/PDF/LEDWIZv2_INSTALL.pdf) a read. The instructions are clear enough to understand what you're missing.
Please don't take my word for this completely, it is extremely important that you understand what you're supposed to do with the Bank Voltage Select terminals and powering the LEDs. If you still do not understand after reading that document, I would recommend you get into contact with Randy at techsupport@groovygamegear.com.
Hope that helps,
Brutick
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After some thinking during a jog this morning, I guess my question is, can I daisy chain the black anodes together, screw that into "usb +5v output", then run the whole thing off the powered USB hub, bypassing the "bank voltage select"? This seems to be what figure 3 is
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After some thinking during a jog this morning, I guess my question is, can I daisy chain the black anodes together, screw that into "usb +5v output", then run the whole thing off the powered USB hub, bypassing the "bank voltage select"? This seems to be what figure 3 is
You need to be careful when you do that. Each Helio9 when displaying white at full brightness (or red, green, and blue on full) requires something like 165 mA of current. The USB +5V output only provides up to 500 mA, meaning you can only power a total of three Helio9s reliably.
You would be much better off providing the +5 VDC to the LEDs using a terminal block and an external wall wart +5 VDC supply.
-Brutick
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I finally wired this up in the morning today, and was able to test it.
Running a single helio9 off the 5v plug on the ledwiz is noticeably less bright than running them all off 5v from the CPU power supply. So, if you're thinking about doing this in the most lazy way possible, you will see a difference if you are slightly less lazy