Hello, hoping this is the correct forum.... sorry if it isn't
And sorry for the wall of text
I need to power 5 meters of WS2812B LED strip (That I will split into 2x150cm and 1x200cm).
It is a 5 volt strip that is rated at 14.4w/meter according to sellers. According to the internet it draws ~50mA per LED at full brightness and there are 300 LED's, so lets say 15A at 5v.
From lots of googling I've figured out that I need to apply power every 1-2 meters or suffer an unacceptable voltage drop. With my split I figure I can feed it from the middle of each strip and it should be okay. I'll feed each strip with 2.5mm^2 speaker cable.
My problem is powering the thing. I've spent more than a day on eBay and Aliexpress trying to find a 5v 15a "laptop charger" style adapter. There are plenty of 5v 20A, 30A, 40A, 60A (!!) switching power supplies but they all have holes or electrical terminals exposed - they're made for being embedded into a larger device that the consumer cannot access. There are also a few "rainproof" where the rainproofing consists of a metal box that you hang it in, and its open at the bottom with the terminals exposed... that would probably be highly illegal here. My usage is residential and I don't want to electrolute any kids or cats.
The closest I've found are:
5v 8A: http://www.ebay.com/itm/350794968653
5v 10A: http://www.ebay.com/itm/121177458319
So, one option is to get 2 of the 8A's, plug them into the Arduino project box using 5.5x2.1mm DC plugs (if I can find any rated for 8A), power the Arduino and 2 of the strips from one rail, and the other 2 strips from the second one. Connect the ground between both supplies and the Arduino and the LED strips in a star pattern (I guess?).
I'm not so sure I like this idea because the DC end of the power cable from both those adapters seem VERY thin for 8A of current. Maybe I'm imagining things?
Another option I came up with is.. I have a 24v 5A power supply (that I was going to use for a 24v RGBW strip before I discovered WS2812B's). What if I take the output from that one and plug it into one of these 12-35v DC to DC converters with 15A output at 5v? Or one of these, or even two of similiar ones with lower rating?
Third option - Use a whole bunch (5? 6?) of 5v 2-3A "chargers". I don't like this idea AT ALL due to it being plain ugly.
Fourth option - ATX power supply... Don't have any spare ones, and they're big and noisy and do way more than I need.
Its going to be used for a clone of Philips Ambilight using boblight on a 65" tv, so I really do need almost 5 meters, and neatness when it comes to cabling is a huge plus.
Any opinions would be appreciated... I'm hoping I'm not the first one with this problem
I can't really decide between option #1 and #2...