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New products to be delivered in August September 2008


LightORamaJohn

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Dan:

Is it possible to leak out a little more info on the new products. I would love to see Documentation on the new products. This would help with designing other equipment for Halloween. I won't ask for a date, I know how dates can come back and bite you in the A**.

Thanks in advance Donald Puryear

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Donald Puryear wrote:

Is it possible to leak out a little more info on the new products. I would love to see Documentation on the new products. This would help with designing other equipment for Halloween. I won't ask for a date, I know how dates can come back and bite you in the A**.


The Network Repeater is done and available in the store under accessories. Here is the document:

http://www.lightorama.com/Documents/LOR-Rep_Man.pdf


Here is the latest (preliminary) copy of the DIO32 manual. I think the verbiage is correct for the production boards, but I don't have pictures of the production board. I will most likely make some minor wording changes, expand the sections on the daughter boards and do a much better job with the photo diagrams. Anyway, this is an accurate description of the DIO32.

http://www.lightorama.com/Documents/DIO32_Man_Web.pdf


The isolated USB adapter has also been completed and will be available for Christmas this year. I haven't had a chance to produce a document for it yet. There's not really that much to say about it, it's like a regular USB adapter, except that the PC is isolated from the LOR network (thousands of volts of isolation.)

I have not had a chance to produce something I would consider presentable for the Chime-O-Matic or the Fountain Controller.

I completed the hardware design of the Fountain Controller last spring. Prototypes have been in use in test environments since June and they have exceeded our expectations.

Likewise, I finished the hardware design and testing of early prototyping for the CoM last July.

I'm sorry I announced the Fountain & CoM. Dan and I discussed these two items and really thought we would have the time to get them out before the Christmas rush overtook us. Unfortunately, for us, the Christmass rush starts in August.
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Well the ideas are already starting for next years show!! That is some great information. Thanks for the update John.

Any idea on prices yet?

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John, thanks so much for posting that information! It's great to see what exactly the DIO board will be capable of, and how it will do it.

I promise I'll now wait patiently for it's release (though I am curious as to a ballpark price.)

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I know that the new DIO32 board has digital inputs, But can they be configured to play, pause, stop and select different musical sequences if they are being played off my PC.

Just an example:

I/O 1 plays musical sequence 1

I/O 2 plays musical sequence 2

I/O 3 plays musical sequence 3

I/O 4 Pause

I/O 5 Stop

Or will the digital inputs only trigger a non musical sequence that is downloaded to the controller.

Steve

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Steve Constantino wrote:

I know that the new DIO32 board has digital inputs, But can they be configured to play, pause, stop and select different musical sequences if they are being played off my PC.

Just an example:

I/O 1 plays musical sequence 1

I/O 2 plays musical sequence 2

I/O 3 plays musical sequence 3

I/O 4 Pause

I/O 5 Stop

Or will the digital inputs only trigger a non musical sequence that is downloaded to the controller.

Steve



Steve,

You will be able to control things at the PC. There will not be a "pause" button but there will be the other things that you mentioned. You will be able to start musical sequences and stop them. There will be options that determine if a muical seqeunce can be interrupted by another button or not. As far as stopping it, you would do so by putting in short animation sequence (1/10 second long) that turns out the lights. It would be associated with your stop button. A button will be associated with a sequence thus the need for a "stop sequence" as described above.
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hi dan

i was wondering have you worked out a way to control the mc-tb08 with the Dio-32.

i remember you saying that the patch lead on the mc-tb08 is 10 pin and i think the dio-32 is 14.

what should i do about connetions and when will the dio-32 be available for sale.

thanks les m , uk

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lesm wrote:

hi dan

i was wondering have you worked out a way to control the mc-tb08 with the Dio-32.

i remember you saying that the patch lead on the mc-tb08 is 10 pin and i think the dio-32 is 14.

what should i do about connetions and when will the dio-32 be available for sale.

thanks les m , uk


Hi Les,

It will take a little rigging but the DIO32 will control the mc-tb08. It will require the 10 wire ribbon cable be spliced into the 16 wire ribbon cable that comes out of the DIO32. We can show you the correct wiring.

Dan
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  • 4 weeks later...

Is it safe to say that the DIO32 board and accessories will not be available for purchase until after the New Year?

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I wanted to update folks on my fountain experience this season as as as pose a question to LoR on their future fountain controller and pump line.

Back in the summer of 08 when I started working on my fountain plans and heard about LoR's future release, I choose not to wait (good thing) and went with a std 16 channel controller. I knew I wouldn't be able to vary the speed of my pumps but after testing in the pool I decided that was ok.

I used standard magnetic drive fountain pumps in hopes that I'd later be able to use them with LoR's future controller.

All in all, they looked pretty good and ran for "about" 6 weeks nightly but I did have to do repairs and at the end of the season, the pumps had all (literally) destroyed themselves.

Here's the issue. Magnetic drive pumps have a tendency to not always startup in the right direction. When the spin the wrong way, water flows in the reverse direction. The way the manufacture of the pumps I used prevents this is by including a small latch next to the impeller and when it spins the wrong way it catches and stops it. Not much of an issue when you use these for a fountain as you notice this right away and can unplug / plug it back in until it starts up correctly. Then you leave it that way, forever.

But, when you have a controller, turning the pumps on/off hundreds, if not thousands of times a night, you end up hitting that catch a LOT. Eventually, my pumps it it so many times the case cracked on two of them. I removed the catch and repaired the case to get me though the season but during the last week two more pumps had their catch rip right though the entire case and end up loose in the water. Oh well, lesson learned.

Anyway, my big question for LoR is how are you going to deal with this issue with the pumps you sell? One way would be to just not have a catch but regardless, a magnetic drive pump will not always start (say 50/50) in the right direction and that's going to impact the expected outcome.

Next year I think I'll look into how I can have just one always running larger pump feeding quick response valves I can somehow control. Any suggestions?

Thanks and Happy New Year!

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Not all pumps have that problem. Some solve it with a different type impeller, some with flow detectors, and lots of other ways.

Would not think LOR would sell pumps that could not stand the on/off duty cycle of what an LOR system would create.

But interesting that you had that problem and something for me to watch as I contemplate a water system as well.

Thanks for your post.

RW

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msbreton wrote:

I wanted to update folks on my fountain experience this season as as as pose a question to LoR on their future fountain controller and pump line.

Back in the summer of 08 when I started working on my fountain plans and heard about LoR's future release, I choose not to wait (good thing) and went with a std 16 channel controller. I knew I wouldn't be able to vary the speed of my pumps but after testing in the pool I decided that was ok.

I used standard magnetic drive fountain pumps in hopes that I'd later be able to use them with LoR's future controller.

All in all, they looked pretty good and ran for "about" 6 weeks nightly but I did have to do repairs and at the end of the season, the pumps had all (literally) destroyed themselves.

Here's the issue. Magnetic drive pumps have a tendency to not always startup in the right direction. When the spin the wrong way, water flows in the reverse direction. The way the manufacture of the pumps I used prevents this is by including a small latch next to the impeller and when it spins the wrong way it catches and stops it. Not much of an issue when you use these for a fountain as you notice this right away and can unplug / plug it back in until it starts up correctly. Then you leave it that way, forever.

But, when you have a controller, turning the pumps on/off hundreds, if not thousands of times a night, you end up hitting that catch a LOT. Eventually, my pumps it it so many times the case cracked on two of them. I removed the catch and repaired the case to get me though the season but during the last week two more pumps had their catch rip right though the entire case and end up loose in the water. Oh well, lesson learned.

Anyway, my big question for LoR is how are you going to deal with this issue with the pumps you sell? One way would be to just not have a catch but regardless, a magnetic drive pump will not always start (say 50/50) in the right direction and that's going to impact the expected outcome.

Next year I think I'll look into how I can have just one always running larger pump feeding quick response valves I can somehow control. Any suggestions?

Thanks and Happy New Year!


Why could you not just keep the pump running at a slow RPM? instead of ON/OFF just do a intensity like 100%/10%. this way pump rotation remains the same.

Just a thought.
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I have been planning on using one larger pump with a bypass/relief valve and just using solenoid controlled valves with heads.

But for a small display, I can see where you would want to use individual pumps and it probably would not be cool to have water dribbling out at 10% setting. Someone could try it though I guess.

Sure would like to get A LOT OF POSTS from people who have been tinkering with the fountains this year to get a feel for what to expect/ lessons learned/ best practices... etc.

I know it is a lot of work to post it and I thank you all in advance.

RW

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