LED Pars

[niclights]

I could have sworn I mentioned the SGM's...

 

Regarding step up/down. In my experience with the units there is a noticeable jump as with all LED's no matter how carefully I try and ease them in. Perhaps this is a control channel setting issue?

 

I agree about mobile, though strange how many people I see use then this way! Is a shame the tilt doesn't go a bit further backwards as this would give good option to switch from backlight to cyc.

[Graham Threader]

I'm surprised you've found much of a step up/down, they never seem do it for me when I demo; but then I demo using faders for convenience. Perhaps its affected by the personality in the desk. If you're viewing the LEDs directly you may see something, but I think you'll find that when projected onto summat it will appear completely linear.

 

For anyone using Palcos it might be worth checking the software version number. 2.5 is the latest. It doesn't differ much from the last one (2.4), but it has the code in place to handle the infra-red receivers fitted in the latest model.

 

With the mobiles, I didn't think anyone outside architectural users had bought some. I'll have to investigate and see what I can find out...

[Light Console]

I have just used my 6 LED pars as band lighting and I am very impressed with the light output. The band liked them too, and are now looking to buy some! Mine are the same as Paulears posted recently.

[paulears]

Rant mode on - sorry

 

I just sent the duff one back to Thomann. They charged me 10 euros for the 12 to be delivered here. One boxed back up, and taken to the local Royal Mail depot. They wouldn't take it - too heavy!! Sent me to the post office. They said the lowest price was £24! So that is what I had to pay. Does anybody for future referecne have a cheaper way of sending the occasional parcel to europe that isn't such a crazy price!

[Just Some Bloke]

Couriers charge differing rates depending on who is paying: the more you use them the cheaper the rate. Thus, Thomman get a really good rate and you get an exceptionally poor one. I've been hit by this before when sending a desk to The Service Company for repair - sending the board to them cost 3 x them returning it to me even though we both used the same courier. The answer? Simple - ask the company to arrange for collection and pass the cost on to you. That way you pay their rates.

[ampcats]

Regarding step up/down. In my experience with the units there is a noticeable jump as with all LED's no matter how carefully I try and ease them in. Perhaps this is a control channel setting issue?

 

 

it is usually a desk issue - if the desk runs in percent and then converts for the output, the smallest change will be 1% (2 or 3 in 'real terms depending on console maths), however if it were to run on decimal, the smallest change will be 0.39% (1 in 'real terms'

 

Having said that, I don't know of any desks that are 'stuck' running percentages - Even the old GSX could run in either mode (not sure about the MX though...)

[niclights]

As far as the Pearl is concerned this is not true - you can input in % or actual value, but control is always over the full range - ie. you can make adjustment by wheel over three steps even though the display might read the same %value for all three. That said I was sure that it does now show % values to one decimal place along with actual value in brackets, but the simulator doesn't show so I can't be certain. Similarly I think you can input %values with decimal place.

 

Something like this cannot be personality related IMO but the desk does have playback trigger settings for LTP on/off. Next time I get a chance I will have a play with wheel control over the dimmer channel.

[ampcats]

Having said that, I don't know of any desks...

 

and that included the pearl, although dimmers can have user curves assigned to them, I haven't tried it (and don't think you can) with fixture channels or tried to patch the RGB channels in as a fixture with a 'dimmer' patched as the intensity channel

 

 

I had thought about it being a fixture issue, but see no reason why they would have additional signal processing?

[RichD]

I've just ordered a couple from Thomann to try out, be for shelling out too much. I'm involved with a mobile disco and hope they will be useful for the odd gigs where there is band that needs some lighting.

 

I'm just posting to say thanks to everyone that's posted reviews in this thread, they've been very helpful in deciding if they are worth a try or not.

[greenalien]

I bought 2 of these from Thomann 2 months ago.

 

They have now done 4 gigs - about 20 hours runtime - and are still ok.

 

Not incredibly bright, but good for DJ sidelighting, live band side fill-in, and very effective when shone on a white projection screen - they are capable of rapid colour changes so are good as a coloured strobe effect. Great range of colours under DMX RGB control. And cool-running.

 

I plan to buy some more when funds permit...

 

Make no mistake, these type of lights are the future - Take a typical live-band stage rig - replacing 12 PAR-56 filament lamps with 24 of these LED devices would save about 30p (3 units) of juice every hour, to say nothing of reduced aircon costs in the summer, with no lamp replacement costs or gel costs and no dimmer pack - a rig like this in daily use would pay for itself in 2 - 3 years, and would be much more versatile and reliable.

[bruce]

So...so clarify:

 

having browsed thru this thead, and thru the thomann website, it appears that Thomann do 2 types of "LED pars" - the par-56 size and the par-64 size. The 64 is 76 pounds, the 56 is 53. The 64 is a Showtec unit, the 56 may or may not be.

 

The 56 has 153 LEDs, the 64, according to the spec, has 150.

 

Question: Internally, are these the same units? They have (almost?) the same number of LEDs, do they have comparable light outputs?

[paulears]

The 56s are Showtec 100% I have just had the replacement for my one dodgy one - same unit, different box - but with one addition. This one has a sheet of clear acrylic covering the leds. I am not sure why they have done this, the versions without seem pretty safe from harm.

[DMXLover]

I would definately look to use a Luxeon Based Product. The 5mm Technology is already grossly outdated. The Luxeon based products will offer superior colour saturation, long life and dependant on which product you buy will cut your power requirement down.

A typical RGB Luxeon based product will take up 3 channels.

[AndrewR]

Given that luxeon is just a better LED why would it only use 3 channels? Oh and it will cost huge amounts more. (circa 700 pounds for Par64 offerings) And the high wattage (5W) Luxeons are classed as lasers because they are such a bright point source, so that offers more problems.

 

The real breakthrough will be boosting the efficiency to the point that you dont need the sophisticated cooling that the luxeons use.

 

At the price budget LED 'cans make sense, but a Luxeon based 'can that is the price of half a Mac250 wash.... don't think so.

 

Thats my 2p

[niclights]

Absolutely. What ^he said! Brighter? - yes. More efficient? - maybe, though hardly significant I would suggest. More painful to look at? - yes, very. More expensive? - definitely! and as for number of control channels.... ;) Came accross rather like a sales pitch from someone selling them

 

Real reason for posting - @bruce: AFAIK both the 56 & 64 units are identical except for the shell. @paulears: The acrylic is an interesting new addtion and was one of the bonuses of my use of acrylic frost. I did think the LED's were rather vunerable especially as the reason for string failure seems to be from one LED leg breaking away from the board.