Christmas Light Pixel Power Injection 101 - Do I Even Need Power Injection?

One of the top things I see people confused about is power injection. Here's the "how" behind it, and a few different ways to get it done!

0:00 - Introduction
0:57- Why Do We Need Power Injection?
2:51- The Chief Causes of Voltage Getting Too Low
3:46- How Does Power Injection Work?
5:51- The Biggest Key When Adding More Power
8:52- Closing

Full article on Learn Christmas Lighting:

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[xTremeSequences]

Great explanation. I've never power injected my show and run over 40, 000 pixels. I choose to put the point of consumption as close to the power and data as possible while keeping my brightness at 20%-30%. I have used this method for six years. That being said, if people feel more comfortable power injecting there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. As you said, some may want 100% brightness for their application, and at that point, I would advise power injection.

[simonbiela]

As you said I would love to avoid the need for power injection in my setup and go with the Mattos Long Range Receivers instead. Do they have a separate output for the power for power injection purposes? I think they should add one, so one could maybe at least to a power injection at the end of a 200 pixel strand. Assuming that I have 10 feet to my first pixel from the point where the controller is, how many pixels (12v) would you recommend to run per Port. During my main show I run the pixels on 100% theoretically (When do you ever use full white in the show). Would 200 pixels per port be a good bet?

[abdultairu]

Nice information. Foe me, I don't mind power injection after all with 5v pixel, I am bound to. However, what I have been doing is to break my show into series of models that has between 10 - 50 pixels and I run them on small power (1-2 amp) supplies that are attached to the models themselves. So, I have a bunch of mini trees, arches, candy canes etc that I run like this using PixelSticks. So the Pixel sticks is attached to the power supply and both inserted into a 2 inch tube with the AC and DC terminals out on pigtails with cable gland making them element-proof. All, I then pass around is the AC line to power them and since they are all on wireless I run very little cable around. Now with my mega tree, I do not have a choice but to inject. This has worked for me for three years now. I don't use centralized controller, simply my soldiers of Pixel Sticks.

[mountaintopper]

For power injection, do you need to run both a positive and negative wire from the power supply to the injection point? Or can you just run a positive line? If you have a negative running through the controller and through all the lights inline in that way wouldn't a negative line for each power injection be redundant and unnecessary?

[donatocappetta]

Good morning. Have u ever worked with the company Animated Lighting and their controllers. I’m new to this and wondering if I can expand without starting from scratch.

[DWR]

Great Video! What is the typical brightness setting, and number of pixels between power injection points people use (for both 5V and 12V setups)? I am setting up a mega tree with 16 strands of 75 pixels each (currently have the 5V variety) and planning ahead. :)

[mtstoll]

I am just getting started with this for next Christmas, and I am considering the roof line. It is about 60' long and will require about 5 - 50 pixel lights (at 3" spacing). You don't seem to prefer power injection (and it seems like a bit of a hassle), so I am wondering what other solution you would recommend? Running 3 strands from one end, and 2 from the other end (or halfway down the line)? I do plan on having a Falcon smart receiver about halfway down the house for the picture window lights (3 strands - 150 pixels) and 3 mini-trees in front of the picture window anyways. And possibly another smart receiver near the end of the house for a star on the antennae.

[luvlyf]

Newbie to this process. I'm using 30mm led point pixels. 200 point pixels w/3 LEDS in each so 600 leds. Do I need to power inject and If so do I go to the end of the entire strand to inject? At whichever point do I clip the v+ & v- at the last pigtail and connect the injection wire to the clipped pigtail wires?

[mrsarcazim]

I would also like to see some actual wiring to help explain.

[epoweredrc]

Thanks for the video, I am brand new to pixels and lot of this has confused me, i am setting up my roof-line on my house this year so far i'm at 200 pixels, and like to add 150 more people keep telling me i will have to run power injection but wasn't sure how. so it sounds like from my number 200 pixel to my number 201 i need just to cut the positive lead. then run another Positive and negative from my power supply to the 201 pixel to power number 201-350. I am using 12 volt 2811 pixels. so far i see no dimming or flickering.