Falcon f16v3 & 24v light strips

[smtodd@gmail.com]

I have several 24v light strips mounted to my gutters from a previous display. Now that I have the f16v3, I'd like to control them with it but I'm unsure how to configure them. These are 3 wire addressable strips. Any ideas? My searches have come up empty this far.

[Gilrock]

You'll either use the SingleLine or PolyLine model depending on how fancy you want to get.  "3 wire addressable" sounds like it matches the normal default settings.

[smtodd@gmail.com]

I appreciate the input. Any idea how to translate the voltage from the Falcon F16v3 which can only do 5v or 12v? the light strips are 24V so i'm not sure how to get from 12v on the board to 24v on the light without wrecking something

[algerdes]

One thing you may want to consider is to use only the data and ground from the controller, but directly feed 24vdc (and its ground) from your PS to your pixels.  (Appropriate fusing - of course.) Don't use the power feed from the controller.

Do you know what the control voltage for the strips run at?  This would be the limiting factor for using the high voltage (24vdc) strips with any controller, including the F16.

[smtodd@gmail.com]

I don't know the voltage, but I can figure it out. I have both step down and step ups for voltage, just wasn't sure if / where I needed them. I think I understand what you're saying for layout. I direct wire V+ from power supply then V-  from both power supply and F16 combined, then finally clock from F16. I'm not an electronics expert so not sure of repercussions of mixing grounds from 2 different voltage sources.

Thank you for the input - getting me on the right path I believe.

[smtodd@gmail.com]

I just wanted to follow up that the previous suggestion is what solved it. Thank you very much, you saved me a lot of headache!

[Gilrock]

"repercussions of mixing grounds from 2 different voltage sources"

Regarding mixing grounds that's actually what you want to do.  You tie the grounds together to make sure all the components in the system are referenced to the same ground potential.  Otherwise you could end up with more or less voltage than you expected between the V+ of one component and the ground of another component.