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Using CAT 5/6 to connect LEDs


dshel1217

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Soon I am planning on redoing my DIY LED. I currently have 3 small heat sinks ( Modules) that divide up all my 3 watt leds evenly. I am looking for a better way to connect each module to each other and to the drivers.

Will CAT 5 or 6 work?

Details:

84 3 watt LEDs

28 RB (1amp)

28 White (1amp)

28 Colors and UV (700m amp)

Thanks for your help

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I only use cat5/6 for the job. Even my lumia build is constructed of pairs of cat5. There is ONE other option that is much tidier.. its a 10P10C (RJ50 i believe?) connector, would allow for 5 channels! or 4 channels and a fan, with a single cable. But the 10p10c is hard to come by. Cat5/Cat6 are easily available and quicker to hook up than VGA15's, or DB25 Serial.

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I only use cat5/6 for the job. Even my lumia build is constructed of pairs of cat5. There is ONE other option that is much tidier.. its a 10P10C (RJ50 i believe?) connector, would allow for 5 channels! or 4 channels and a fan, with a single cable. But the 10p10c is hard to come by. Cat5/Cat6 are easily available and quicker to hook up than VGA15's, or DB25 Serial.

Thanks for the info.

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  • 4 weeks later...

This is the first time I've seen it but I just finished wiring the Ethernet our new office and the previous tenant ran 6 pair Cat 5 cable from the building demarc to our suite, so there's at least 6 pair wire in a single bundle available.

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I ran some current tests a few weeks ago with the use of cat5 (24ga) on a diy pendant. According to various online info there are two different answers to the max amperage, one being chassis wiring and other for power transmission. Being that we run most of our lines in and around the heatsink with some airflow, just as in a boxed chassis, I felt okay with testing a bit higher amperage than just what the max transmission rate was.

So, the test was with 4 channels:

1x 1A-30V Bridgelux ES 1350

2x 1A-12V(series) Luxeon M RB

2x 1A-3.4V(s) HyperV

2x 1A-3.6V (s) blue

All used cat5/6 24ga. wire from the led to vr boards and cat5/6 from the vr boards from the Extech DC power supply (0-30v,5a).

I maxed the array at 3.44A on the PS->VR line with this setup and stress tested for 45 minutes. Most of the wire from VR to PS was left sleeved while the VR-LED was unsleeved. During the 45 min. test I used a Fluke IR handheld camera to monitor LED temps and wire temps for possible thermal issues arising from over current. While the Tjunc on the Luxeon and Bridgelux's did rise to ~65C, I only saw an increase of PS-VR line temp of around 6C, well below the breakdown point of the plenum.

One note is that was tested in 23C/72F ambient. I have yet to test in a more real world T.amb but the T.rise should be (fairly!) linear and acceptable.

Since I will be running a remote power solution for my array, I am not quite comfortable with this at distance (max. 7ft.) and will alternatively be moving to an 18ga solution for PS->VR and using cat5/6 for the arrays.

The local runs for the arrays however never had an issue.

HTH

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