LED Pars

[Hambone]

For the cost, you can't beat the LED par cans from Thomann. At that price, they're basically disposable. Sticking a plug on the end adds 50p to the cost, and the lack of detailed info is irrelevant to me. I want to use them, not built one from toothpicks!

 

I'm thinking of buying 8 or so of the PAR 64s for uplighting the walls of the rooms I mobile DJ in. The only hassles are running the DMX cable around the room, finding 240V for each fixture, and placing them where they're not a tripping hazard.

 

For uplighting, wouldn't a rectangular fixture better? I haven't seen any at comparable prices, though.

[bruce]

My main complaint is that they don't tell you what plug is on the end.

 

Yes they do.

 

ps - the adaptor they mention above costs £4.76, but you can get ones that look virtually identical from CPC for 93p.

 

Update:

 

I have just taken delivery of a few of the "Stairville" LED par56 units from Thomann - the 46 pound ones.

 

After playing around with them in the garage for half an hour, I'm basically, reasonably impressed, bearing in mind the budget price point. About as bright as I had anticipated.

 

First grumble is that the picture on the website shows them with a gel frame, but the units delivered did not have this - they had the brackets, but no frame supplied.

 

There is a noticeable flicker, as other posters have said, at very low intensities. Particularly noticeable on blue.

 

5 channel DMX. The first (Selected as N on the DIP switches) is a "mode select" - low values put it into RGB mode, with values selected by channels N+1,2 and 3.

 

When channel N is set to higher values, it switches or fades between various presets, with speed selected by the value of N+4.

 

Is this the same as the other (showtec etc) units?

 

It also has various non-DMX standalone functions - a simple "chaser" with speed selected either manually or via a sound-to-light function.

 

 

Things that would be nice on a redesigned controller:

 

o/ less flicker

o/ the ability to sync multiple units when in standalone timed or sound-light mode

o/ ability to just run on 3 channels,

 

:D

 

One other thing - despite what I said above - these units come with a Schuko plug, so the adaptor described above won't fit. You'll need the Schuko equivalent, which from CPC is just over a pound.

[mumbles]

5 channel DMX. The first (Selected as N on the DIP switches) is a "mode select" - low values put it into RGB mode, with values selected by channels N+1,2 and 3.

 

When channel N is set to higher values, it switches or fades between various presets, with speed selected by the value of N+4.

 

Is this the same as the other (showtec etc) units?

Its the same as the el budgeto battens I often use, and I believe is so for others as well. However, often, with N set low, so RGB operates, channel 4 is used as a shutter. At 0, it is open, then above about 20 it is closed, and above about 40 acts as a strobe with the speed varying as you would expect.

 

o/ ability to just run on 3 channels,

Do you mean just with RGB? If so, can't you just set N to 0 by not having it patched to the desk, and so not having a value transmitted down the cable, or does N need to be on but low. For when I use the battens, but don't want to use the chases, just use a personality that has just RGB and the shutter channel.

 

Hope this helps,

[Ekij]

ability to just run on 3 channels,

Do you mean just with RGB? If so, can't you just set N to 0 by not having it patched to the desk, and so not having a value transmitted down the cable.

You still need to assign it a channel even if you don't patch that channel to a fader.

I think Bruce wants to be able to assign

1: Lantern 1 Red

2: Lantern 1 Green

3: Lantern 1 Blue

4: Lantern 2 Red

5: Lantern 2 Green

etc.

[mumbles]

ability to just run on 3 channels,

Do you mean just with RGB? If so, can't you just set N to 0 by not having it patched to the desk, and so not having a value transmitted down the cable.

You still need to assign it a channel even if you don't patch that channel to a fader.

I think Bruce wants to be able to assign

1: Lantern 1 Red

2: Lantern 1 Green

3: Lantern 1 Blue

4: Lantern 2 Red

5: Lantern 2 Green

etc.

I assumed that the problem wasn't having each par taking up 5 channels, but running out of channels on the desk, in which case not patching it is all I suggested.

 

ie that the pars are patched say 1,6,11 etc, but only channels 2,3,4 then 7,8,9 then 12,13,14 etc are patched to a fader, so that the other channels are taken as zero.

 

If I have misunderstood this, then I do apologise, as I'm packing to be on a ferry tomorrow morning, so am not in the best state.

[bruce]

I think Bruce wants to be able to assign

1: Lantern 1 Red

2: Lantern 1 Green

3: Lantern 1 Blue

4: Lantern 2 Red

5: Lantern 2 Green

etc.

 

That's it exactly - although the reason I want to do this is fairly obscure - I have a budget DMX PC interface which only has 36 channels, and it seems wasteful to have to allocate 5 for each (group of) fixture(s) when I only actually use 3...

[Ekij]

I assumed that the problem wasn't having each par taking up 5 channels, but running out of channels on the desk, in which case not patching it is all I suggested.

I thought it was a problem of running out of channels (since the units can only be addressed up to 128). I guess we need Bruce to clarify please?

 

Edit: Bruce got in with the answer before I managed to finish writing the question! Thats the kind of service I like. :D

[niclights]

Useful info about the Stairville version. Interesting to read there was no gel frame. The Showtec units come with one albeit horrible!

[musht]

Scan of Showtec instruction sheet:

 

http://img482.imageshack.us/img482/5102/showtecled56rp6.th.jpg

 

and direct link to image, that should work;

 

http://img482.imageshack.us/img482/5102/showtecled56rp6.jpg

[ben.suffolk]

Those instructions seem to imply that you get a the full 9 bit DMX addressing from the dip switches, which I believe is contradictory to the information posted earlier in the thread.

 

I guess this must be for a new version that has not yet hit thomann?

 

Ben

[musht]

This one is a recent purchase from Thomann, disn`t strike me about possibly wider address till you mentioned it. Will have a proper look and report back , along with correct chip numbers internaly ....

 

Saw mentioned on a DJ forum discussion about American DJ version being shipped with DIL switch 1 being ` reserved for future expansion` so looks like there may be various versions of firmware floating around.

[bruce]

Useful info about the Stairville version. Interesting to read there was no gel frame.

Thomann say that this is a mistake - there should have been a frame, but they were missing from one batch, and that they will forward them when they come into stock.

[24seven]

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?

 

 

I spent a whole day trying to get a bunch of pixel pars to fade in ie not just jump to on couldnt do it even rang around a few venues - eg Manchester academy to see if they have sussed it as they have a rig full of them .

 

I didnt manage to do it and the venues hadn't either

 

who knows

 

Mark W-E

[bruce]

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?

 

Having played around with some of these, it seems that the flicker does NOT occur in steady-state, it just occurs when changing intensities via a fader, and is only really noticeable near the bottom of the scale. This makes me think it's not the PWM that we're talking about, it's actually the "stepping" between different intensities at the low end of the scale.

[niclights]

@24seven: You don't give many details as to exactly what you were trying to do. There are many personalities and modes for the Pixelline.

 

If RGB attributes are defined as LTP and there is no dimmer master then there is no way to fade these other than using mode 2 in a playback. If they are HTP then they are fadeable. Dimmer master is essential if you want to use palettes in the same way as moving lights. The Pearl can only use 'real' channels available on the fixture. It cannot simulate a dimmer master if the fixture does not have one or if the personality does not define.

 

1044 does support dimmer but depends on mode