Fantastic information as I have looked at getting these weather boxes. Gotta admit, you did well on getting this video well organized with excellent tips. Good job!! I use Light O Rama cards and depending on which card it is, will use 2 power supplies when the card has 2 inputs. Instead of the weather boxes, I use clear bins so I can see the indicator lights from the ground. Yours looks so much more organized and look forward in getting my 10 cards into a good box.
Nice. Would be good to add a voltage and amp meter in there too… assume you would mount this between the power supply and the distribution block? Thoughts?
You’re better off leaving out all of the solder on the crimped connectors. Otherwise, it looks great. I really like the idea of “deployable” power supplies.
Crimped connectors (done properly - not with the lousy tool I have) are mechanically stronger than soldered ones if you're only doing one or the other. Doing both is the strongest option. The solder is also a better electrical connection, but not by as much as most folks think. Some will say not to solder because it might melt, but if your setup is getting that hot then it is seriously under-sized for the job.
@@MattHeere I think i remember hearing somewhere that tinning the wire before crimping can be a more brittle option than crimping the bare wire because over time the wire can seperate from the solder after it has been crushed.
Because I have a 500 foot roll of that landscape wire and it was a lot easier to just use two strands than to get a different wire for these couple of short jumpers. The actual current will vary a lot depending on which box we're talking about, and at what brightness I end up running the show. Worst case is likely 30 amps for short bursts. Remember that the current carrying capacity of a wire depends on the length of the conductor as well as the diameter. Fuses carry 100's of amps over very small wires - because they only go 1 inch.
So I gotta dumb question I'm assuming the reason why your setting ur power supply to 5v is only because ur lights are goin to be 5v .. so instance I'm carrying 12v strips so in this case my power supply would be 12v and I'm assuming I could prob keep the same fuses at 5amp fuse..
Correct. I have 5V lights. Do watch if you're running 12V lights that anything else you might hook up to power (like controllers) is expecting the higher voltage as well. In my case, 12V would fry the little controller boards I built nearly instantly.
Hey Matt Heere! I saw this and am trying to accomplish the same thing but I cannot for the life of me find what size these screw holes/nuts are. Mind linking me to the screws/standoffs/nuts you have? I seem to have the same PSU as you.
The standard ones that come with a PC motherboard. Guessing they're 1/2" or so. The height isn't really important so long as it's enough to clear the various irregularities in the back of the box
