LED Pars

[Ynot]

Changing direction a little, but anyone had a chance to play with any of the newer flat panel budget LED units?

Like these or these from CPC...

I do recall someone else mentioning them - possibly here on the BR, but not sure and a quick search didn't show me anything.

 

Just curious at the mo - maybe investing in a few more budget LED pars at some stage as they do have their uses, and these flatter models would certainly fit the bill in some applications we have coming up.

[mac500]

The 2nd link looks very interesting with the amber leds! Anyone used that unit before?

[rossmck]

The 2nd link looks very interesting with the amber leds! Anyone used that unit before?

 

I was looking at these (RGBA as well) which look reasonable for a budget fixture - I've used the RGB version and was quite impressed, my main concern is the fact they have fans... movers with fans I accept but I don't really want my pars making lots of noise B-)

 

The CPC ones look to just be standard 10mm LEDs which are obviously going to be far dimmer than the 1W and 3W that are becoming more prevalent now but the flat ones would be useful at times ... at that price might be worth getting hole of a couple to try them..

 

These products are ideal for the market they're intended for (DJ/Small Live Music) but increasingly I find they have a use in small scale theatre productions... my main problem with most of the cheap LED kit on the market is the dimming curve (or lack thereof)

 

Ynot - if you get any report back on how you got on with them ? :)

[dmxtothemax]

Led pars do have a limited output, typically somewhere between 15 - 30w. So there uses are limited, they are not really useful for color washs, unless really close, however if they are used on the backline or for accent they can be useful, due to the flexibilities of color changing and mixing.

Use them to light a scrim or backdrop, they work ok for that.

Most of the cheap ones have five DMX channels, 1 - strobe. 2 - master fader. 3 - red. 4 - green. 5 - blue.

And because they drive the leds hard, the leds usually have a short life, so expect to replace some.

The outputs of leds is getting better and better as time goes on,

So it wont be too long before they become a viable alternative to lamps.

 

 

we are up for getting some new lighting kit in our warehouse. currently we have 24 par cans (12 on stage, 12 on cieling) and im looking at getting two profiles. I also came accross the LED par fixtures on usedlighting.co.uk and they looked like a great way to get some colormixing happening. I particularly had my eye on the par64 short nose variety for 94 GBP each + VAT.

 

So my question is - how bright are they? and I assume they take up 3 DMX channels each?

 

Cheers

[paulears]

A link of some kind would have been good. I've had a look and can't see any for that price on usedlighting.co.uk

 

For 'non-new' LED fixtures some of those look a bit on the pricey side, especially for kit with a 30 day warranty. I personally would look at buying LED new, not second hand, as each batch of new LED fixtures get brighter and cheaper almost on a month to month basis.

 

For example - 10 out of 10 have second hand LEDs for £10+VAT each - that puts the price point for 2nd hand kit into perspective.

 

I can find brand new LEDs cheaper than the second hand units you mentioned.

 

As for brightness? Remember these are products that need to be bought in batches. Getting another that will perform the same in 6 months will be difficult. Software implementation seem to change very quickly, even sometimes, very annoyingly, on models with the same model number! Brightness is one area where the LED industry keep quiet. Apart from Brian's tests here on the BR, I can't remember a manufacturer or dealer ever detailing how bright they are. If you buy one, like it and quickly order more - that's probably the only real way for most of us.

 

I think everyone has concluded LEDs are getting better, quite how much seems difficult to put numbers on!

[csg]

as to the comment above regarding lack of brightness details from manufacturers - im in the process of importing a couple of sample 60 x 3w RGBAW units from a chinese manufacturer, and they were able to give me full LUX and Lumen ratings versus beam diameter and throw.

 

We will see how accurate their ratings are shortly, and if a bigger order will be placed!

[Brian]

... they were able to give me full LUX and Lumen ratings versus beam diameter and throw.

It'd be interesting to see those.

[Andrew C]

We will see how accurate their ratings are shortly, and if a bigger order will be placed!

One thing to be aware of, and it may have been mentioned here in the past. Ensure that the samples you get are exactly what will be supplied with the bigger order.

[csg]

yes, quite right. Ive taken quite a bit of time looking at different manufacturers, and have gone with one who seems to have a very good reputation in the industry with other importers. They are far from the cheapest, but garantee the use off certain led chips etc etc

 

It seems that, like everywere else, in China, you get what you pay for ( hopefully !)

[Brian]

I've got an unpublished shootout of a 36 x 3W unit (note to self - get measurements done and publish it). The problem is that in the couple of weeks since I got the unit it's gone out of stock and is currently showing a delivery date of July. I quite expect that the new stock will be a slightly different model. Which is rather annoying as I was going to buy a double-digit quantity of them.

 

 

[EDIT]

I've just posted my new shoot out.

[p.k.roberts]

Changing direction a little, but anyone had a chance to play with any of the newer flat panel budget LED units?

.............

 

these from CPC...

 

I had one of those to play with the other day. Mechanically, they seem a reasonably built unit. The outer case is an extrusion and seemed reasonably tough, there was also a thin plastic cover over the LEDs which should go some way at least in protecting them. The split yoke supported the unit well when used on the floor. Two boards inside (plus the LED board) are well secured. The only immediate modification I would make would be to fit one or two star-washers to the screws that secure the back panel to the rest of the unit to ensure a better earth continuity. On back there is a potentially useful IEC pass-through.

The dimming via DMX seemed quite smooth and the addition of the amber LEDs gives a larger pallette of colours, although they did not, to my eye, seem as bright as the red, green and blues. I tested it next to a generic Chinese OEM 'PAR 56' RGB LED unit and it was brighter, but not massively so (sorry, no measuring kit, so I can't put any numbers on it). The beam angle was quite tight and reasonably homogeneous. There is no means of attaching any gel or frame to the unit, so adding a diffusion media would be a minor creative challenge. I would have been happy to buy more, but sadly in my application, I need to use them on camera and as soon as the unit is dimmed, it flickers horribly.

So, on the whole, quite impressed for the price, as long as you don't need to film anything they are used on.

[KidRay]

I was looking at these (RGBA as well) which look reasonable for a budget fixture

 

Something a bit confusing about the specs on this fixture, it states: 36x 3W high-power LED´s RGB + amber; then a couple of lines further down: power consumption max. 45 W.

 

Huh? 36x 3W, plus a fan, that should be more like 150W surely.

 

At the moment I'm looking for an LED replacement for a pair of NJD Quartets (too hot, too heavy) and with the lack of light output figures quoted by the manufacturers I'm using an educated guess approach comparing power consumption, beam angle, my experience of some existing LED fixtures we have etc. to try and narrow it down to a few likely suspects, but this is really confusing me!

One of the fixtures I'm considering is the ADJ Mega Bar Pro, with 27x 1W LEDs (maybe 4 of these) and the quoted max power consumption on that is 45W; or the ADJ Mega Bar Tri, with 18x 3W LEDs (quite like the look of these rigged vertically at stage level)

[J Pearce]

A 3W led doesn't have to be driven at 3W. They could also in theory be doing clever things offsetting the various PWMs so one colour is on when the other two are off.

 

Unlikely though, more likely to be marketing dept getting carried away.

[jab46]

LED lighting I think can be cool. however my only criticism would be is that you can't dim LED lighting. At least I don't think

[csg]

is that right? I must be doing something wrong then...