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RGB strip controller

Caleb Linburg

By Caleb Linburg
in LOR DMX

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geronc Member

geronc

Posted
Posted

Carl S wrote:

Can you put 3 LOR DC boards in 1 enclosure and use the extra channel so that you can run 16 strips instead of losing the extra channel per board?

I would say no, but have no way to prove that.
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Dan C Member

Dan C

Posted
Posted

Carl S wrote:

Can you put 3 LOR DC boards in 1 enclosure and use the extra channel so that you can run 16 strips instead of losing the extra channel per board?


I've thought about doing that too. I don't see a problem doing that as long as the power was the same to each board and you were able to find a box big enough to fit all three boards and you PSU.


Here is what I did on two of my DC controllers. The unused 16th channel gets wired into a $8 120v AC, 12v Dc trigger relay I bought from Radio shack. Then I use it for my Strobe lights. The channel must remain on full 100%. No dimming, shimmer or fades allowed. That would destroy the strobes.

I wired the relay to be controlled by the 16th channel of the dc controller. The input/output of the relay is wired to the 120v power coming into my PSU. That way I can use a dc channel to control an AC channel. You could wire it to an inflatable or any other light that you want to just turn on/off.
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l0chte Member

l0chte

Posted
Posted

Dan C wrote:

Carl S wrote:
Can you put 3 LOR DC boards in 1 enclosure and use the extra channel so that you can run 16 strips instead of losing the extra channel per board?


I've thought about doing that too. I don't see a problem doing that as long as the power was the same to each board and you were able to find a box big enough to fit all three boards and you PSU.


Here is what I did on two of my DC controllers. The unused 16th channel gets wired into a $8 120v AC, 12v Dc trigger relay I bought from Radio shack. Then I use it for my Strobe lights. The channel must remain on full 100%. No dimming, shimmer or fades allowed. That would destroy the strobes.

I wired the relay to be controlled by the 16th channel of the dc controller. The input/output of the relay is wired to the 120v power coming into my PSU. That way I can use a dc channel to control an AC channel. You could wire it to an inflatable or any other light that you want to just turn on/off.

Do you have a link please?
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Geoff Harvey Member

Geoff Harvey

Posted
Posted

Carl S wrote:

Can you put 3 LOR DC boards in 1 enclosure and use the extra channel so that you can run 16 strips instead of losing the extra channel per board?


For 2011 I had 6 DC boards in an enclosure, 5 were running at 10.5V from a single 350W DC power supply driving my RGB spinners (22 RGB channels) + 4 other RGB channels and a a couple of other individual channels. The 6th board was running at 30V DC from a separate PSU. Because the board voltages were below 12V, I used a separate 12V supply to the DC boards via the barrel connector.

The spinner channel connections had 5 RGB arms on each of 4 DC boards, a centre RGB channel spanned 3 of the 4 boards (16th channel), while the second central RGB channel was on the 5th board.

This setup worked without a hitch and I was very happy with the results. You can see the videos in http://forums.lightorama.com/forum82/30675.html

Attached files 303248=16644-Silver Box - P1000921.jpg
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NINtender Member

NINtender

Posted
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Dave H1 wrote:

Caleb Linburg wrote:
Those seem to be sold out and expensive. Would a module like this work alone, just for color changing (no dimming)?

http://www.aliexpress.com/product-fm/383004267-DMX-MODULE-connect-DMX-module-with-DMX-digital-console-to-achieve-dimming-or-various-changes-in-wholesalers.html


Yes that would work.  They are $39 ea w. shipping

This one is $22 w/ shipping

http://www.aliexpress.com/fm-store/701799/209915969-307297559/DMX-512-Module-decoder-DC5V-input-P-N-LN-DMXMODEL-3CH-5V.html


So I've seen two decoders mentioned from AliExpress, but these seemed even cheaper, and are 12V. Would these work as well, or am I missing something?
http://www.aliexpress.com/product-gs/487425085-Promotion-DMX-512-Module-decoder-DC12V-input-P-N-LN-DMXMODEL-3CH-12V-wholesalers.html
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dmoore Member

dmoore

Posted
Posted

edvas69 wrote:

What i dont understand is why the 3 channel controllers are so popular, it means you then have to run both a power and a data cable to each one unless your doing power over ethernet which im personally not a big fan of. Its OK if you want a decentralized setup, but if your not needing this type of setup then why not use a standard DC controller.
you can get a cheap DMX 27 channel controller from Ray
http://www.aliexpress.com/fm-store/701799/209915969-378111925/Easy-DMX-LED-controller-dmx-decoder-driver.html
it is rated for 1 amp per output with a total ampage of 15 amps for the board. This is less than what the LOR DC boards do but you can run 5 complete 5 metre dummy strips from this controller without overloading it.


There are reasons that each solution exists:

* Centralized (such as an LOR DC controller or the one you posted the link to) is great where you have a high concentration of channels, such as one element.

* De-centralized is great where you have lots of space between elements, say spread all over your yard, then running all the wire, making up connections, etc get's pretty complicated. For example, I was able to layout and hook-up over 90 corostars in about 2 hours - that's power AND signal AND programming the addresses. Had I had one or a few centralized controllers, I would have had much more cable, more boxes to put everything into, etc. Here is a behind the scenes video:



Additionally, the 3 Channel DMX controllers are cheaper (20+) and they handle more current. They also have mounting boxes which handle outdoor weather pretty well. Also super small so they fit into just about any element. Short circuit protection, ability to better break up channel orders if you need to, etc all make these a good solution to a centeralized solution.

http://www.holidaycoro.com/product-p/26.htm

26-2.jpg
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dmoore Member

dmoore

Posted
Posted

NINtender wrote:

Dave H1 wrote:
Caleb Linburg wrote:
Those seem to be sold out and expensive. Would a module like this work alone, just for color changing (no dimming)?

http://www.aliexpress.com/product-fm/383004267-DMX-MODULE-connect-DMX-module-with-DMX-digital-console-to-achieve-dimming-or-various-changes-in-wholesalers.html


Yes that would work.  They are $39 ea w. shipping

This one is $22 w/ shipping

http://www.aliexpress.com/fm-store/701799/209915969-307297559/DMX-512-Module-decoder-DC5V-input-P-N-LN-DMXMODEL-3CH-5V.html


So I've seen two decoders mentioned from AliExpress, but these seemed even cheaper, and are 12V. Would these work as well, or am I missing something?
http://www.aliexpress.com/product-gs/487425085-Promotion-DMX-512-Module-decoder-DC12V-input-P-N-LN-DMXMODEL-3CH-12V-wholesalers.html


I'll make you a deal on these same controllers for less than you'll get them from China, shiped from the US, you'll get a warranty and I have a PC based programmer cable for setting the address.

Just let me know.
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SteveMaris Member

SteveMaris

Posted
Posted

Joe Rayburn wrote:

SteveMaris wrote:
This is a great place to buy those controllers. Don't listen to this dmoore guy...
http://www.holidaycoro.com/category-s/1837.htm

I beleive dmoore is the owner of holidaycoro.com

He is, and he is an asset to what we do. Great person.
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Steven Member

Steven

Posted
Posted

Caleb Linburg wrote:


This is a bit off-topic, but this strip, sold on eBay for $24.49 by trustpick, is the exact same strip as the one you posted on Amazon for $32.99 by Sunvalleytek. In fact, trustpick is a distributor for Sunvalleytek, which I learned when I visited their warehouse last week to pick up the strip I ordered.
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Denis Chaput Member

Denis Chaput

Posted
Posted

dmoore wrote:

Joe Rayburn wrote:
SteveMaris wrote:
This is a great place to buy those controllers. Don't listen to this dmoore guy...
http://www.holidaycoro.com/category-s/1837.htm

I beleive dmoore is the owner of holidaycoro.com

That is completely correct - I run HolidayCoro.com.

Any plans on shipping to Canada in the future?
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l0chte Member

l0chte

Posted
Posted

Steven wrote:

Caleb Linburg wrote:

This is a bit off-topic, but this strip, sold on eBay for $24.49 by trustpick, is the exact same strip as the one you posted on Amazon for $32.99 by Sunvalleytek.  In fact, trustpick is a distributor for Sunvalleytek, which I learned when I visited their warehouse last week to pick up the strip I ordered.
With best offer I got TrustPick to reduce price to 23$. It's a great strip.
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dmoore Member

dmoore

Posted
Posted

Denis Chaput wrote:

dmoore wrote:
Joe Rayburn wrote:
SteveMaris wrote:
This is a great place to buy those controllers. Don't listen to this dmoore guy...
http://www.holidaycoro.com/category-s/1837.htm

I beleive dmoore is the owner of holidaycoro.com

That is completely correct - I run HolidayCoro.com.

Any plans on shipping to Canada in the future?


Everytime I've quoted shipping to anywhere outside the US people pass on their order. I'd love to ship worldwide but nearly all our items are too large to be economical to ship.
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Denis Chaput Member

Denis Chaput

Posted
Posted

dmoore wrote:

Denis Chaput wrote:
dmoore wrote:
Joe Rayburn wrote:
SteveMaris wrote:
This is a great place to buy those controllers. Don't listen to this dmoore guy...
http://www.holidaycoro.com/category-s/1837.htm

I beleive dmoore is the owner of holidaycoro.com

That is completely correct - I run HolidayCoro.com.

Any plans on shipping to Canada in the future?


Everytime I've quoted shipping to anywhere outside the US people pass on their order. I'd love to ship worldwide but nearly all our items are too large to be economical to ship.
Maybe later on in the season will call you on a small order and see what the price is for what I want.:)
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flogger7 Member

flogger7

Posted
Posted

SteveMaris wrote:

Joe Rayburn wrote:
SteveMaris wrote:
This is a great place to buy those controllers. Don't listen to this dmoore guy...
http://www.holidaycoro.com/category-s/1837.htm

I beleive dmoore is the owner of holidaycoro.com

He is, and he is an asset to what we do. Great person.


Agreed. David has been fantastic to buy from and work with; not to mention he has a set of videos that make it easy to get started with RGB and provide a bunch of great info that helped in making decisions on what to do and how to do it.
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dmoore Member

dmoore

Posted
Posted

Denis Chaput wrote:

dmoore wrote:
Denis Chaput wrote:
dmoore wrote:
Joe Rayburn wrote:
SteveMaris wrote:
This is a great place to buy those controllers. Don't listen to this dmoore guy...
http://www.holidaycoro.com/category-s/1837.htm

I beleive dmoore is the owner of holidaycoro.com

That is completely correct - I run HolidayCoro.com.

Any plans on shipping to Canada in the future?


Everytime I've quoted shipping to anywhere outside the US people pass on their order. I'd love to ship worldwide but nearly all our items are too large to be economical to ship.
Maybe later on in the season will call you on a small order and see what the price is for what I want.:)


One of the other issues has been handling the customs documentation. We just (today) switched over to a new order shipping system that looks like it will be able to handle automaticly printing these documents. So, there maybe hope in the near future. If so, we'll announce it on our mailing list.

Thanks,
David
HolidayCoro
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Carl S Member

Carl S

Posted
Posted

How do you tell these modules what channel to start on?



dmoore wrote:

edvas69 wrote:
What i dont understand is why the 3 channel controllers are so popular, it means you then have to run both a power and a data cable to each one unless your doing power over ethernet which im personally not a big fan of. Its OK if you want a decentralized setup, but if your not needing this type of setup then why not use a standard DC controller.
you can get a cheap DMX 27 channel controller from Ray
http://www.aliexpress.com/fm-store/701799/209915969-378111925/Easy-DMX-LED-controller-dmx-decoder-driver.html
it is rated for 1 amp per output with a total ampage of 15 amps for the board. This is less than what the LOR DC boards do but you can run 5 complete 5 metre dummy strips from this controller without overloading it.


There are reasons that each solution exists:

* Centralized (such as an LOR DC controller or the one you posted the link to) is great where you have a high concentration of channels, such as one element.

* De-centralized is great where you have lots of space between elements, say spread all over your yard, then running all the wire, making up connections, etc get's pretty complicated. For example, I was able to layout and hook-up over 90 corostars in about 2 hours - that's power AND signal AND programming the addresses. Had I had one or a few centralized controllers, I would have had much more cable, more boxes to put everything into, etc. Here is a behind the scenes video:



Additionally, the 3 Channel DMX controllers are cheaper (20+) and they handle more current. They also have mounting boxes which handle outdoor weather pretty well. Also super small so they fit into just about any element. Short circuit protection, ability to better break up channel orders if you need to, etc all make these a good solution to a centeralized solution.

http://www.holidaycoro.com/product-p/26.htm

26-2.jpg
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