LED experts - problem - lights flickering on 50% intensity

[GS]

Hello LED experts,

I'm using 70ct, half wave, warm white, Diogen, 3 strings per sign, for my FM sign on one LOR 1602W.

ON 100%, fine but too bright. When channel intensity is dropped to 75, 50, 25% the LEDs have an annoying flickering. I do not fade these sign, but I tried a snubber anyway. The snubber appeared to just make the flickering rate more consistent.

Any thoughts? Thanks in advance.

Glenn

[Nova5]

Full or Half wave lights?Half waves will appear to flicker when swung through the air. they tend to not play nice with dimming antics some work, others just flicker to drive you nuts. Fulls tend to be more dimming friendly. that said, I have some GE halfwaves that are dimming friendly. C6 size is dim friendly. the C9 size hates dimming and flickers.

[Ponddude]

It really has nothing to do with the size or type of lights (full or half wave). Because the lights draw so little power the controller can not "sense" that there is a load on the channel. The triac than gets stuck at a certain level and will begin to do very strange things, especially if this is the only strand on the channel. You will need some sort of snubber. The majority of use just use a bulb like a C7 or C9 (incandescent) at the end of the string or a standard string of minis. You can also make a snubber, which is just a resistor (I don't remember the ohm's off the top of my head) between the lines of the plug. This creates the load needed to help the channel fade and such.

[chartrand]

Yep... Snubber is most likely needed.

[GS]

Thanks all, I tried the snubber trick. It only made the flicker more consistent. I'll test today at 100% power and a manual in line dimmer.

[GS]

Update - Installed a manual dimmer between the LOR channel and the LED. Works perfect, solved the problem, no flickering at 25% solid on.

[Rafter Bar R]

The biggest problem with LED's is that these are wired using the old out of date mini light strings. LED's need to be on low voltage DC circuits and controlled with DC controllers. LED's were not meant to be used with standard line voltage. Half wave LED strings flicker 60 times a second. Fullwave strings flicker 120 times a second. Only a few special effect strings use capacitors along with rectifiers to supply a constant DC so color changing and flashing LED's will work.

Some of the newer LED lights that are made to be CFL replacements use voltage regulating circuits that supply a constant DC voltage and do not flicker. I am using one of these and have no plans of returning it.

[dschultz56]

GS wrote:

Update - Installed a manual dimmer between the LOR channel and the LED. Works perfect, solved the problem, no flickering at 25% solid on.

What is a manual dimmer? I may try this with some that I am having trouble dimming as well. Thanks

[jimswinder]

dschultz56 wrote:

What is a manual dimmer? I may try this with some that I am having trouble dimming as well. Thanks

More than likely just a dimmer switch you would install in your home...like to dim your dining room light...

[GS]

Yes, manual lamp dimmer (Lowes).
This is a constant on application, FM sign.
Use C9 or snubber resistor for fade issues.