0

I am running a RGB strip of 5 meters with 30 pixels/m with 5 V/6 A. But I will be running different lengths soon ranging from 10 m to 50 m. To avoid buying multiple power supplies for every 5 m, I have purchased a 5 V/60 A 300 W power supply.

Will this burn my LED strips if I don't use the whole 60 A? Can I still use just 10 m at 30 pixel/m without burning it out?

Jakub Rakus
  • 2,225
  • 5
  • 18
  • 26
Vishal
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • The fact that the supply **can** deliver 5V/60A does **not** mean it will nor that it has to. You **can** run one single LED at 0.001 mA from that supply if you want. The **load** (in your case the LED strips) determines the current, **not** the supply. – Bimpelrekkie Oct 27 '17 at 06:45
  • 2
    Do note that 6A, let alone 60 A is **a lot** of current which will need **thick wires**. You might not be able to run 60 A through a LED strip feeding the other strips. You might need to run thick parallel wires to carry all that current. – Bimpelrekkie Oct 27 '17 at 06:50

3 Answers3

0

Will this burn my LED strips if i don't use the whole 60A?

No. The LED's won't take more current unless you also raise the voltage.
The Amps per meter stays the same.

However, a short circuit will cause a fire.

Jeroen3
  • 21,976
  • 36
  • 73
0

See How to drop amperage without losing voltage where the mismatch between supply and load is discussed.

Will this burn my LED strips if I don't use the whole 60 A? Can I still use just 10 m at 30 pixel/m without burning it out?

enter image description here

Figure 1. Cut along the dotted line.

Be aware that the current flows along the traces in the strip. If you daisy-chain strips then the first one has to carry the current for all the down-stream lights. You need to ensure that the current carrying capacity of the strip is not exceeded. If you have purchased a product with a decent datasheet you will find the required information to determine this.

Transistor
  • 168,990
  • 12
  • 186
  • 385
0

You could run wires to the other side of the strip as well, this will cut the current of the first bit of strip in half(assuming the wires have very low resistance).

Alex
  • 1