Yes I may be an IDIOT!! But I'm needing some help regarding rgb buttons/strips..

[cobalt_boxx]

OK guys, I have built a multi-player pedestal. I am in the wiring stages of hooking everything up. I started w/ the rgb buttons ( Ultimarc gold leaf ) and standard 5050 60pm rgb light strips / 4 RGB drink holders. The Idiot part is I way underestimated the load rating of the Ultimarc UIO's in regards to the High Current connectors. I believe I may have smoked the mosfets on the boards. I have 2 strips measuring 100", One Measuring 95". havent hooked up the cup holders as of yet. I am running 2 Ultimarc UIO's, I have 1 strip hooked to each High current Led port, with the High current turned on in the board configuration. I also have 25 RGB led buttons plugged into each UIO, skipping the first row of led plugs as they are for the high current terminals. I am running separate External power supplies, 5v - 20A - 100w, to each UIO for the 5v buttons. I have a similiar 12v power supply running the strips thru the UIO's as shown on the Ultimarc website. My 12v power supply never gets hot, all illuminate well in regards to the strips, but my 5v Power supplies and UIO boards get crazy hot, 1 of the UIO's smoked the barrel connector for LED power within just a few minutes. I realize My Led strips are way too long now, & I need to run Amplifiers, but would that have also killed my 5v section? If I could get some help w/ this I would really appreciate it! Been doing this for a long time, just have never played w/ led's $ the like.

[Zebidee]

Slow down and take a few breaths between sentences. Hard to understand, and I'm only vaguely familiar with the UIO. That being said...

Looks like you should run those LED strips from a separate 12v power supply.

If you move from a 12v supply to a 5v supply for the same load, then your amps are going waaaay up. Pulling over 2x the current through the same wires. It is just simple Ohm's law W=V*A. If W stays the same and you reduce V then A has to go up.

Also LEDs require a fixed voltage drop to operate. Reducing the supply voltage signficantly reduces the overhead available for the LED to operate. If you have a blue LED that requires 4v drop then a 12v supply gives 8v overhead. If you use a 5v supply then your overhead is reduced to 1v. As noted above, reduced voltage means that to get the same brightness you're going to need to ramp up the current quite a lot.