I’m just about to put a blade together with one of the new KR v3 pixel strips. This battery eater has no fewer than 527 LEDs on it, compared with 264 for the regular strips!!!
My question is, how much welly do I need to give it in terms of LED pads? Is three enough or should I wire it up to four of them?
Any thoughts welcome?
What size LEDs? Smaller LEDs tends to draw less power than bigger ones.
Three FETs is almost certainly enough, but make sure you get a pogo pin connector with as many pins as possible. (15 is recommended for high-power blades like these…)
1 Like
The strip is pictured below, so half the LEDs are kinda half-sized, but I don’t know what they draw. But it’s reassuring to know that three FETs should do the job, as it leaves me with plenty of options for some chassis blinkies.
We can guesstimate.
Lets say the small LEDs draw half the power of the 5050s.
Looks like ~half the leds are small, so we get 263 large LEDs and 263 small.
~263 large LEDs is the same as a regular 2-strip blade, which draws maybe 8A or so when white. The other 263 LEDs would draw half of that, meaning that the whole blade would draw about ~12A when white.
My math wasn’t mathing when I wrote that. I meant an 11-pin pogo pin connector. 5+5+1.
A 9-pin connector will probably work ok, but I would NOT use a 7-pin connector.
2 Likes
Many thanks as always Prof.
Yeh I was going to err on the side of caution and use a 10 pin (4 + 4 + Blade Detect + Data).
I’m glad to hear I’m thinking along the right lines for the rest of it too.