LED Pars

[Light Console]

Hi there, and :) to the Blue Room.

Having used the LED PARs for a couple of events now, I would say that they are good for effects but not so good for lighting action on stage. Mind you, your stage is quite small, so I guess it could work. As you may have picked up on in the other thread, they are about as bright as a 300w parcan with the nearest gell to the colour you are trying to produce. Power consumption is only 20W/unit so you could run lots of them to get better effects. If you buy models (both LED and normal pars) with the gel frame, you can add diffusion to spread out the beam a bit. One (out of six) of mine has just developed a fault, which may get worse. I wonder if a colour changing wash light, where the lamp is always on (thus there is no surging) may be better for your needs.

May I suggest that you hire a few systems to take on your gigs to see which best suites your needs, then buy the system that was the best.

[Ken Coker]

Not knowing the venues you play or the type of music.....or how much cash you have!!

 

Don't ask me how I know this, but it might be worth checking out Status Clone.. This band played our milkman's 40th birthday party and had a truly great light show powered from the ring main. LED Pars supplemented by all kinds of Maplin/NJD kit switched by the bass player- remember, you don't have to turn it all on at once. (Sadly, the pics on the site don't seem to show their rig!)

 

My view is that four would probably not be bright enough on their own, but I'm not the biggest fan of LED pars - yet. You could try stuff like a group of Par36s behind the drummer or as a backlight fan, or even some cheap movers/mirrors on the deck - minimal power and minimal time to rig. I would try and get as many "layers" of lighting as you can - a haze machine is often a useful addition and certainly will be once the smoking ban comes in (Eh Lightnix, tee-hee!!)

 

Hope this helps.

 

Ken

 

 

:( - Topics merged. As always please use the Search Function (or scroll down the page in this case) to check your question hasn't already been answered. :)

[niclights]

They are certainly not ideal for stage lighting & do have issues, but given your limitations they might just work for you. I would recommend four per side possibly with diffusion.

 

The loss of LED's appears to be due to one of the LED legs breaking from the PCB. Not that this helps, but why is it always green?? :) Has happened to only one of my units.

[Ricky]

I have used led pars similar to those pictured as up lighters for walls in a ballroom and are good for this reason but for washes I dough they can throw much light as the output is quite narrow and dim

[sjbvision]

I have just purchased my first pair. I am please with them, but I had a very particular application for the product. I am using it for up ligting sets and similar and am about to place a large order for more. They have performed better than I expected although I might be removing the sound function as it annoyed the t*ts off me last week. These will not replace the traditional Par, but it certainly has some great applications. If anyone wants to view these units I have(North East) PM me and we shall see what we can do.

[russd1978]

I think theyre good for smaller bands, especially solo acts like me, but you wont get the fantastic coverage you would achieve with Par 56s or 64s. Great for ambient lighting, and perfect for my situation.

 

Just to confirm, you can use them without the DMX and set to a very slow phase through the colours of the rainbow. You cannot set them to an individual colour without DMX.

[junglejim]

I play in a function band doing weddings etc... we use 4 soundlab colour changers with 250w halogen bulbs as the main lighting...controlled by DMX. thinking of getting the Thomman par56 led lamps to replace...

how would they compare?

brighter than 250w halogens???

I imagine a lot lighter in weight!!!

 

thanks,

J

[niclights]

Probably not as bright. I would suggest 150W -200W equivalent. Some of the pictures in this thread should give you a general idea. I would imagine they would work ok for you. You certainly won't have to worry about constantly replacing those halogens!

[si_cole]

I have purchased a number of these units from Thomann. I am quite impressed (useful for washes etc especially on a gauze) however I have a slight fault with one of the units. When being controlled by DMX, all blue LEDs are showing a bit of bleed - has anyone else seen this and/or fixed it?!

 

Cheers

Si

[Nicktaylor]

Have you terminated the last one in the chain. This is the first time I have found the need to do this!

[si_cole]

Yes, everything terminated correctly but this also happens when you take it out completely, plug it into a 13a source and set it to sound only.

 

Very annoying but I don't really want to send it back to Germany if I know it can be fixed.

 

Thanks

[Light Console]

Is this affecting one unit or all of them? I noticed fairly quickly that the audio switch affects the units, even with DMX.

[niclights]

I've never had any problems with bleed. Only with random flickering, which is (sort of!) solved by setting to 'music'.

 

I would recommend taking the unit apart and re-affirming all the connectors - remove three screws in LED board and this will come free. Then there are three nut/machine screws from the sides holding the transformer plate. You will probably need to loosen the mains cable gland, but otherwise they come apart/go back together ok!

[si_cole]

It is just one unit, the others are fine. I have taken it apart but no joy other than that. Cant see any dry joints, the chip is seated correctly. The flickering with me happens when you dim them up or down.

[Light Console]

Ah yes, right at the start of their travel from 0, or towards 0 from full, that affected all of mine though. How bad a flicker? I mentioned how I solved the problem in This post. It is a pain though!