pixel flicker from short extension wire

[Phrog30]

they work fine without any extension wire. anything i add 3ft of extension wire to starts to flicker.

Maybe you already said it, but what kind of wire? Make sure you use pure copper.

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[Ebuechner]

I bet phrog30 is right it just may be the wire that you're using.
I use the 3 wire green 16 gauge extension cord wire that I find on sale at Home Depot or Menards, and I can get 40 to 50 feet from the controller to the first pixel without an issue.

[whitebuck]

I am not sure if anyone mentioned this, but there is a possibility that after the first tree 170 pixels, your losing the data signal over the 3' extension.  This happens to me after 5' usually and need a signal boost/cleaning.


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[Phrog30]

I am not sure if anyone mentioned this, but there is a possibility that after the first tree 170 pixels, your losing the data signal over the 3' extension.  This happens to me after 5' usually and need a signal boost/cleaning.


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I think each tree (170) is a separate output or data line.

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[mrgimmeone]

it's the 3 wire extension wire from holiday coro.

[Phrog30]

it's the 3 wire extension wire from holiday coro.

That should be ok. I used that in the past with success.

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[mrgimmeone]

i just bought some 12awg stranded wire to use as injection wire.

[MrChristmas2000]

12Ga? That's a little overkill on the wire gauge isn't it?

There is a problem somewhere else. Can't say where but shouldn't have to go that large just for short range power injection.

[mrgimmeone]

was only 30 bucks for 250ft so i'm just covering some bases. considering the only elements that are giving me trouble are the ones i have 3ft of cable on imma try some 12 awg first and see what happens.  can't hurt

[mrgimmeone]

ok so i tested the flickering tree by shortening the data wire only and low and behold the flickering stopped and the string works fine.  but now what do i do about this? should i use a bigger gauge wire for the data wire to be able to run at least 40-50ft away from my controller. and the flicker from this starts at least 2-3ft away in an extension wire so how would i overcome this problem.

[Ebuechner]

As I mentioned before I've had good luck with the green outdoor extension cord wire that 16 gauge with 3 wires.
If I'm at the hardware store and I see some of those extension cords on sale I pick them up and cut the ends off to use it to run pixels
Unfortunately you're in a situation that's trial-and-error.
Do you have another controller to test this on to make sure it's not an issue with the controller and the length of wire.

[mrgimmeone]

Oddly enough I just tested the same tree using a solid core wire on the data wire and I have a 8ft + length of wire on and it's working. Wth?

[babybear]

Ok That's better I know not really but we have ruled out power. The issue comes down to the E682. The first year I ran one the max I could get from the controller was 15 feet with strips and 20 feet with bullets if it was even that. That's was with all solider joints, no connectors   I fixed mine by giving it away and going with a F16v2 and never looked back. Even with my F16v2 and 14-3 speaker wire the max is 37 feet. I did test Cat5 and it will go 60 feet but you are not pushing power down that, and if you do, the power will mess up the data.  The other choice you have is changing out the resistors on the board. If you do a search others have talked to what to change to. That I cant help you with. Now that I recall I had split my power away from my data to get the 15 feet on strips.
   As of now 2 choices       F16v3 or new resistors.    One other test that I never did is leave your power alone take a cat5 cable 40 feet with Data and ground only , One twisted pair see what it does on your E682. I did this with f16v2 and started with 100 feet kept backing it down until it worked. 60 feet.
   I know I have not given a straight up answer, wish I could, at least some directions to head. 

[mrgimmeone]

And now I'm using over 16ft of solid core on the data wire and it's still working. Can solid core wire be used for this application without a problem?

[babybear]

Yes That's why I was saying try cat5 for data