Connect each panel side by side with 12 short 16-pin IDC's, leaving out the first input of each row (it will eventually be connected to the receiver board). Plug them in lining up the red wire of the IDC with the DR1 pin/up arrow on the board.
Each 16x32 panel comes with 2 cables and screws to provide power between them. To prevent voltage drops over long runs, each column will get its own 5V run of power.

Start at the top and run each power & ground wire down to the panel below it, stacking terminal rings as needed. Leave the last row unscrewed as shown in the photo below. Longer cables will be attached to provide power from a power supply.

Sometimes the panels we get use Molex plugs and have wire pigtails. These are more secure but are not as elegant to wire up the power. You can strip and solder the wires together instead.
To provide power to the LED wall, I used a ATX computer power supply. Any 5V power supply that can provide more than 20 amps works too. ATX supplies work great because they're generally cheaper, and have standard & secure connectors.
Cut 3 pairs of 12 gauge red and black wires. The LED's draw a significant amount of power, so keep the cables to a relatively short length- around 5ft is fine. In order to connect power to the LED wall, we'll crimp ring terminals on one end and solder ATX connectors on the other.


We suggest cutting out the yellow wires so you don't accidentally connect to the 12V lines.

Cut a 4 Pin ATX power cable, keeping the larger connector, and strip the red and both black wires. Twist the two black wires together for redundancy.

Twist together the red wire from the connector and the red cable. Heat the twist and apply solder until it is flowing through the entire connection. Fold it over and slide a piece of heat shrink over it. Repeat this for the twisted black pair and use a lighter or hot air gun to shrink the heat shrink over the joint.
Tightly twist one end of each cable and slide a ring terminal onto it. Use a crimper to secure it on to provide a good mechanical and electrical connection.
Screw the ring terminals of the just made cables to the bottom-most power terminals of each column.
Run the power cables along the bottom aluminum extrusion and off to one side, zip tying them together to keep them tidy. Cut off the excess with diagonal cutters.

This guide was first published on Jul 18, 2013. It was last updated on Mar 08, 2024.

This page (Wiring Data and Power) was last updated on Jul 01, 2013.

Text editor powered by tinymce.