re: Permanently installed LED "Christmas" lights.

quote:

---

On the other end, I have the option of putting a 2nd psu if I really want to

---

Totally doable to run two power supplies, but you have to connect the low voltage grounds if you have all the pixels in one continuous string.

Personally, RUNNING the power injection wires wasn't difficult. I ran some in my eves/soffit, some in the aluminum LED channels and some in the gutters. The hard part was soldering the injection the wire to the individual LEDs. If a run of LEDS was over 5 meters in length, found the 18 gauge wire I used to run PI too thick to solder directly to the pads on the LED strips. So I had to step down to 20 or 22 AWG for a few inches and then solder those to the strips. This step down led to having more injection points as I was getting off color LED's with the 5v strips I used. I prototyped everything on the ground before I put them up to get the injection points dialed. And of course the longest run of my system runs over the highest point of my house.

After the hindsight of putting in security camera all over my house, if I were to do it again, I'd run one 16 or 18 gauge (I used 3 strand 18 AWG) power injection wire directly from the power supply to the far end(s) of the system in the attic and other strategic (hidden) points along the way. That would have saved me trying to run large power injection wire in the aluminum channels. Quiet often, I had to separate the positive and negative wires from the jacket and data wire to get them to fit. 5 or 10' of 22 awg in the channels wouldn't be nearly as hard as what I ended up doing. Trying to "hammer" down the plastic diffusers onto the channels 15-20' in the air wasn't a great experience for someone who's not comfortable at height. But I have easy access to my attic and for the most part can move around up their pretty easily. Oh, and 1 more thing. If you do go the attic route. ALWAYS leave a line to fish wire/string(s) in place hidden in the eves so if you have to rework something, it's a much easier task.

I'm no expert on any of this, I can just tell you my mistakes/experiences to help other people avoid them.
Good luck!

ETA: Here's the wire I used. 100ft.18AWG Low Voltage LED Cable 3 Conductor White Sleeve in-Wall Speaker Wire UL Class 2 Certified

And here are the water proof connectors I'll be be installing this summer. 4 Pin Waterproof Male Female Connector Cable RGB The wire gauge is pretty small on these, but I'm more interested in preserving the data signal with these.