Hi,
I have a question. I understand that it’s beneficial to use a thicker wire to deliver power to LED strips (in my case I use 6amp power supplies). However, with the 5v data signal from the controller, does the same principle apply?
Thanks
No, not so much. Just don’t cheap out with really thin wires.
It’s a big deal on the power wires because of the potential for voltage loss over long lengths.
The wire is not a perfect conductor and has a small resistance, which will cause a small voltage drop. The higher the current draw the bigger the voltage drop. V = I x R. The longer the wire is from source to load the bigger that resistance becomes.
The Data signal basically see’s a constant load. More LED’s doesn’t mean more current on the Data Signal.
just to add to this, amp draw on sensors/signal wires is tiny, so wires in the range of standard bread board jumpers or resistor/led legs is more than fine, finer might work but they’re ridiculously delicate, so save yourself the headaches and skip those.
Can i just check that this is also true on 4 or 5m of wire?
this little quick calculator may ease your mind, I’ve set it for 5v over the smaller of the most common bread board jumper wire gauges (22awg, vs 20awg), and 50ma of current draw (higher than most sensor draws, and MUCH higher than signaling power), over 5m length. you can confirm via datasheets whether 0.53% variance (4.974 of 5v) is within tolerance.
One other note: It is NOT usual to run your signal wires long, the longer they are the more susceptible they are to interference from outside sources. The power drop may be fine, but you may pick up stray signals. For this reason it IS normal to run power long, and group all of your electronic components together as closely as possible. The other alternative is to use ground shielded cables for long signal cables
