Ynot Posted July 7, 2006 Share Posted July 7, 2006 Strobe is 41, <snipped>Well, had a play last night and sure enough, it works! Thanks for the suggestion.channels 14, 15 & 16 now assigned to a profile as red, blue & green, 41 strobe, then 44 & 45 (I think) as something like 'colour' as I couldn't find anything else more descriptive. Still does the necessary. (Not quite sure what the 5th channel does - some sort of colour mix effect, but the last one being a sound to light option with variable sensitivity could turn useful!) TD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hambone Posted July 11, 2006 Share Posted July 11, 2006 I just stuck a 5w Luxeon LED in my Maglite. Now THAT'S the source that's needed to replace traditional antiquated, hot, heavy, inefficient lighting! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ekij Posted July 11, 2006 Share Posted July 11, 2006 When these units are dimmed, I expect the LEDs are not actually dimmed as such but they are controlled by Pulse Width Modulation so that they spend only a percentage of their time (fully) ON. The frequency of this PWM should be high enough that you don't notice that the LED is actually flicking on and off rapidly (>50Hz ideally several 100Hz). However some posts mention noticing a flicker when the brightness is very low. Does anyone know what frequency is being used for PWM? (A digital multimeter or scope would be needed to measure this). For someone who has had these apart (Niclights) do you know what the brains are?I am in the middle of making my own LED MR16's and it just struck me, most people here seem to dislike the arrangement and operation of the channels of these units. It shouldn't be too difficult to replace the brains in these units with a home made PCB that does whatever you want it to.1] Red2] Green3] Blue4] intensity (proportional to the RGB selected by 1,2,3)5] ?If you had free reign to design your own interface, What would you want it to do? (I expect two 'groups' of answers to this 1] with and 2] without DMX control) As to the LED failures, apparently a lot of the cheep high intensity LEDs made in China at the moment *do* have a burn in period where they fail to short circuit. This failure increases the current through the remainder of the LEDs in that string and burn them all out (usually 2 to 4 LEDs in a string). Some posts specifically mention broken legs but what might be happening is a failure in one LED drives the string into over-current failure that eventually results in the leg melting off an LED. (Broken led is the end result, not the cause) however this would be almost impossible to prove. Edit: Thinking about this some more if the *other* LEDs in the string are still OK (in working condition but obviously not lighting up due to damage to string) then this would suggest physical damage to leg, if all LEDs in the string are faulty this would suggest thermal run-away failure. However you would have to unsolder one of the other LEDs in the string to test it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ynot Posted July 11, 2006 Share Posted July 11, 2006 I am in the middle of making my own LED MR16'sInteresting...How many LEDS can you get in a birdie, then? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ekij Posted July 11, 2006 Share Posted July 11, 2006 How many LEDS can you get in a birdie, then?I'm focusing on the microprocessor and power circuitry (I struggle to call it 'power' circuitry when dealing with so little power but it's 'power' as far as the microprocessor is concerned) at the moment but I expect to get four of each Red Green and Blue on a veroboard base, probably more if I made a custom PCB. Edit: I'm intending to run up to eight MR16s from the one dimmer/brain (since it would be just too expensive to have a brain per unit). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
niclights Posted July 11, 2006 Share Posted July 11, 2006 I didn't take too much notice of the control electronics when I was taking them apart as I was more interested in making them work. But I do still have the 'dead' one sitting on by bench. I will pull apart and do some photos as soon as.Interesting idea about string failure though they are quite vulnerable and cheap so I figured some just get knocked!... :** laughs out loud **: Incidentally the remaining units are all still functioning perfectly. Photos will happen as promised.... eventually! /edit: ooops. forgot to answer question. I would like control channels as described along with the separate strobe channel currently implemented on 5. Existing ch4 and ch6 are not much use IMO especially as the sound-light is shockingly sensitive and therefore unusable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ekij Posted July 11, 2006 Share Posted July 11, 2006 I would like control channels as described along with the separate strobe channel currently implemented on 5.Can you clarify how the strobe channel works?Is a low value a 'slow' strobe and a high value a 'fast' strobe? Should the on time and off time be the same? (Or the on time fixed to say 0.5seconds and the channel controls the time between flashes)? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ynot Posted July 12, 2006 Share Posted July 12, 2006 The sound-light is shockingly sensitive and therefore unusable.Odd - I found the variable sensitivity of the S - L quite usable on ours.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
niclights Posted July 12, 2006 Share Posted July 12, 2006 Erm. :** laughs out loud **: What variable sensitivity? I guess this must be one of the slight differences between the different models? @Ekij: Currently Low = slow/high = fast. Equal on/off times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ynot Posted July 13, 2006 Share Posted July 13, 2006 Erm. :** laughs out loud **: What variable sensitivity? I guess this must be one of the slight differences between the different models?We have 4 of the Thomann Par 56's - one channel (6 I think) controls the sound to light, and the higher the channel, the more sensitive the pickup. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
niclights Posted July 13, 2006 Share Posted July 13, 2006 Ahh. Fair enough! I only ever tried S-L in stand alone situation and stopped reading the 'manual' about ch6 after I saw 'sound-to-light' mentioned... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ben.suffolk Posted July 19, 2006 Share Posted July 19, 2006 I see Thomann have the par 56's in for £47 quid each now! Order code 193247 Ben Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whitehousejamie Posted July 19, 2006 Share Posted July 19, 2006 Very impressed with the Showtec ones, even just as extra lighting behind a band. They aren't a PixelPar, but I'd rather have 20 of these instead of a single PP! http://www.pauljamespromotions.fsnet.co.uk/led.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marktownend Posted July 19, 2006 Share Posted July 19, 2006 Firstly, apologies if this has already been said (the first of my 2 points below). I've followed this thread but can't rememebr everything that's been written since April and can't really be bothered to read all back through 11 pages! I used some LED parcans for the first time this weekend. It was a festival gig with the kit already set up in a tent with 10 cheapish disco scans, and I was asked to program and run them for a cabaret show one night and a dance event a couple of nights later. 18 x Par 64 (I think), from some Chinese manufacturer but not sure which brand. Apparently they'd cost just under £200 each so presumably slightly better than the Thomann ones? 4 channel DMX (RGB + intensity). No instruction manual or DMX table to be seen. They were ok for what was wanted, but the 2 main issues I had with them was the dimming - I couldn't get them dim enough (they snap from zero to a minimal brightness which was more than we ideally wanted), and secondly the previously mentioned 'white' - it's no-where near white! Still wanting to get a pile of our friendly £47 jobbies though for my own use. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luisdjar Posted July 19, 2006 Share Posted July 19, 2006 hi! a question about 36/1w luxeon leds Moving Heads, anyone saw some units in action? is near a 250w wash unit? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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