Power issue with active hub

[drlucas]

I had a perfectly working 12 strand of flexstips working a few days ago. put on a power supply instead of the dc power as I need the DC power elsewhere and I think the pc power supply was doa...so now I put a different dc power supply on there and having some issues powering more than 6 strands. Its just a 32amp PS....vs the old dl380 PSU that did 50amp. two questions, is 32amp enough for a 12 strand tree and I have other issues? can I any way put on a less powerful PC power supply and a DC power input at the same time on the active hub?

[einstein2883]

Flexstrips take about 4amps each. 4x12= 48amps.

[drlucas]

Good news then that my hub isn't fried....

Bad news now I need an alternate plan.

Can someone tell me if any of these two are an option?

1 - take two DC power supplies that are 32A each and chain them together some how.
2 - add a PS from a PC and use it at the same time as the DC power

[einstein2883]

Connecting 2 power supplies is not a good idea. They will possibly fight each other and may burn them up.  This is why you should only get a single rail PC supply. Your only option is 2 hubs or a bigger supply.

[jnealand]

Your best option is to just bite the bullet and get a new high power PS.  It is too late to be looking for cheap.  The show must go on.

[drlucas]

Thanks Jim (and all) - I needed that reality check!!!

I'm messing around tooooo much right now and have lots of final touches to do... I have to replace that string on the roof this weekend (ray finally came through for me so I have my extra nodes now) as it keeps screwing up on the one strand...too many splices and I'm losing my cool there. Also I have 3 coro candy canes i'm putting together now that my square nodes are here.

Still...I think with some sleepless nights the next 4 days I'll be live for Dec 1st.

Happy turkey day to all you guys south of the border!
Ryan

[drlucas]

Hmmmm.  Just pulled all but one string and a different 12v dc power supply that works fine on other hub. Problem still happens. Problem is in mixed color test mode in xlights the entire string flickers.

What did I do?! Did my bad power supply kill the pic?

[drlucas]

Now I pull all chips. Reprogram pic (even though checksum was fine on read) and have a string of squares and 100 pixels ala string and it's working fine. I think issue might be rj45 connector for pixelnet in on the board. Would that make sense that would cause these issues?

[arw01]

Can you try it with a different program as well?  I recall seeing a post elsewhere that a user was seeing a flicker in xlights but not another program they used and turned the issue in as a bug to investigate.