Dig-Next-2
Power Handling
The Dig-Next-2 is designed from the ground up to to handle the currents involved with addressable LED setups, building upon years of QuinLED controller experience renewed and folded into the Dig-Next-2. I believe it’s unique port layout with having 3 individually fused power output terminals will allow a lot of entry to medium setups to be build and powered perfect and safely without needing any external hardware!
Recommended and Max current
Official total power rating for the Dig-Next-2 is 15Amps continuous but the board has been stress tested to easily double of that without any problems. The 15Amps is still the recommended max design current because beyond that the input wires into the controller become the limiting factor. The 6.35mm main input terminals take up to 12AWG/4mm2 with a wire ferrule!
So official figures are as follows:
- 15Amps continuous
- 5V = 75W
- 12V = 180W
- 24V = 360W
- 36V = 540W
- 48V = 720W
- 20Amps burst max
- 5V = 100W
- 12V = 240W
- 24V = 480W
- 36V = 720W
- 48V = 960W
Voltages and stability
The QuinLED Dig-Next-2 handles between 5V and 48V input, it’s also what I call a “true” 5V controller meaning that it can deal with sagging voltages in a 5V setup. Most other controllers out there use a buck-converter to convert 5V to 3.3V for onboard electronics and such. That’s all good, but what happens when the voltage into the controller sags? This often results in an unstable controller (especially during high transient spikes) and also means that the voltage of your data signal is directly influenced. The true aspect of the controller is that the circuit handles this different and the actual input range of the Dig-Next-2 is 4V to 48V meaning that even with 4V in the controller is stable able to create a stable 5V out for your level-shifted data outputs or for instance the relay output!
The main input of the Dig-Next-2 is fully auto-sensing so it does not care what voltage you input, nothing to change! Always match the input voltage of the board to the voltage your LEDs require, it only does power conversion for itself and always passes on the input voltage to the output ports!
Second power input (USB-C)
The Dig-Next-2 has a seperate power input in the form of a USB-C connector. You are allowed to connect a separate power brick (5V 2A recommended, 1A will do in most cases) to the USB-C input at the same time as a main power supply, there are circuits to deal with this internally. Once the USB-C power is connected the board will run dedicated off that power supply (this is different then previous Dig-Uno/Quad/Octa behaviour) but it will not feed any power from this to the LEDs connected to the board.
Output ports, individual fuses!
The Dig-Next-2 has (color coded) 3x positive output terminals and 3x GND terminals, the positive terminals are each individually fused. Combined these form your 3 power connections to connect your LEDs, for advice how to connect your LEDs, please see the Dig-Next-2 wiring guide! When running your wires which GND terminal is paired with which positive terminal does not matter.
The 3 ports are divided into two types:
- 2x 5A fused
- 1x 10A fused
The 5A ports are meant for edge injections such as at the start or end of your LED strip. These will generally not draw more then 4A and thus you use a 5A fuse for this. The 10A port is meant for any middle injections you might do, since power can travel 2 ways from such a point, it can also draw double, generally up to 8A.
Again, for wiring advice, please see the detailed wiring guide!
Using larger fuses
It is generally not recommended to upgrade the fuse values unless for specific situations that might call for it! The fuses are there for your protection, using larger values means you also need to wiring to support it downstream and generally with normal LED installs it doesn’t make sense to do so!
Downgrading a fuse to a lower value if that better suits your situation (running 48V for instance) is always fine.
Specific situations….
Upgrading a fuse is only recommended when you know what you are doing. One situation could for instance be the new SK6812-CC LED strips which can draw more then 5A from an edge injection point.
- It’s allowed to upgrade the 5A ports to 6.3A or 7.5A but not higher
- It’s not allowed to upgrade the 10A fuse to a higher value
Please keep the total current below 20A when actually running! Running higher anyway will cause components to heat up more and also start causing more voltage drop then I’d recommend even going from the PSU to the board and it’s likely better to upgrade to a higher current controller.
This still allows you to run up to 10m of the 12V SK6812-CC for instance or 24V QuinLED Dig-COB-160!