Strobes and more strobes

[ebrown1972]

This year I am adding 100 Xenon strobes and 12 100 count sets of 5mm strobes. I have never used strobes but love the way they look in some of the videos I have seen of them. With that said, I decided to add 2 of these https://www.audiosavings.com/american-dj-mega-flash-dmx-800-watt-compact-dmx-strobe-light-w-sound-sensor-49967

I hope they won't be too much as far as the strobe effect goes. I think they will give a really good effect but hope they don't overpower everything else. If any of you are using these, let me know what you think of them, please. Thanks,

Eric

[Orville]

The only strobes I ever used were the type you find at Spirit Halloween Stores that screw into a standard lamp/porch light socket.

But looking at the strobes in your link, I couldn't determine if the microphone{sound sensor} could be turned off.  If it can, that'd be best, if not, any extraneous sounds may give you undesired or unwanted times the strobe would fire.  Like if you use outdoor speakers for your sound, or using an FM Transmitter and one of the vehicles has their radio up loud enough to trip the sound sensor or just any stray noise, planes, trains, buses if you have any that pass near enough to make enough noise to trip the strobes sound sensor and set it off at the most inopportune times during your show.

Just not sure I'd want a strobe that had a sound sensor built into it, unless it can be turned off completely, I'd try and avoid items that are sound activated/tripped.

Edited July 1, 2020 by Orville

[radioguy1007]

I agree with everything Orville said.  I also looked at the device photo and it is definitely not weatherproof.  You would need to place it in a weathertight enclosure.

[ebrown1972]

1 hour ago, Orville said:

The only strobes I ever used were the type you find at Spirit Halloween Stores that screw into a standard lamp/porch light socket.

But looking at the strobes in your link, I couldn't determine if the microphone{sound sensor} could be turned off.  If it can, that'd be best, if not, any extraneous sounds may give you undesired or unwanted times the strobe would fire.  Like if you use outdoor speakers for your sound, or using an FM Transmitter and one of the vehicles has their radio up loud enough to trip the sound sensor or just any stray noise, planes, trains, buses if you have any that pass near enough to make enough noise to trip the strobes sound sensor and set it off at the most inopportune times during your show.

Just not sure I'd want a strobe that had a sound sensor built into it, unless it can be turned off completely, I'd try and avoid items that are sound activated/tripped.

The units have a dipswitch on the back which when placed in dmx mode turns the sound sensor off. My concern with these units is the power they put out. There is no doubt they are super bright but I can always diffuse them by placing something in front of them if need be. Thanks

[ebrown1972]

1 hour ago, radioguy1007 said:

I agree with everything Orville said.  I also looked at the device photo and it is definitely not weatherproof.  You would need to place it in a weathertight enclosure.

These will be placed far back under my eaves so waterproofing should not be an issue. Thanks

[Orville]

1 hour ago, ebrown1972 said:

These will be placed far back under my eaves so waterproofing should not be an issue. Thanks

Apparently it doesn't rain as hard in your area as it does in Florida.  I've had things placed all the way back under house eaves that I thought would be protected from the rain, but wind shifts and some of our Thunderstorms/Rainstorms we get soaked out and ruined things I thought would be okay far back under the eaves. 

And I'm talking almost against the wall of the house.  

No matter where something is placed, if it's outdoors and it's not in a weatherproof enclosure, you may end up with something still getting wet and causing a short, which in turn could cause a fire and burn your home down.  

Anything I put outside now, no matter where or how far back it may be under an eave will always be put in a weatherproof enclosure of some kind

Fortunately nothing bad came of my error in not doing so, but I sure burned up some electronics in a very small amplifier I was using for my outdoor speakers.  This little amplifier was mounted under the eave of one of my former homes, and practically against the wall of the house.  One afternoon rainstorm completely toasted it.   I will never do that again, if it's not for outdoor use and I'm going to use it outdoors, it gets weatherproofed and then some.

 

[ebrown1972]

23 minutes ago, Orville said:

Apparently it doesn't rain as hard in your area as it does in Florida.  I've had things placed all the way back under house eaves that I thought would be protected from the rain, but wind shifts and some of our Thunderstorms/Rainstorms we get soaked out and ruined things I thought would be okay far back under the eaves. 

And I'm talking almost against the wall of the house.  

No matter where something is placed, if it's outdoors and it's not in a weatherproof enclosure, you may end up with something still getting wet and causing a short, which in turn could cause a fire and burn your home down.  

Anything I put outside now, no matter where or how far back it may be under an eave will always be put in a weatherproof enclosure of some kind

Fortunately nothing bad came of my error in not doing so, but I sure burned up some electronics in a very small amplifier I was using for my outdoor speakers.  This little amplifier was mounted under the eave of one of my former homes, and practically against the wall of the house.  One afternoon rainstorm completely toasted it.   I will never do that again, if it's not for outdoor use and I'm going to use it outdoors, it gets weatherproofed and then some.

 

Thanks Orville. I have inside cameras under my eaves with no weatherproofing for 2 years now with no issues. My eaves are only about 8 feet off of the ground so maybe that helps with keeping the water away.

[dibblejr]

One thing to consider and I didn’t test it for myself but at least for the 5mm mini strobes - do not use with any fades

That was a word of caution I received when I first purchased mini strobes.

I took it at face value since they cost quite a bit.

Not sure about the others. The only other strobe I got was with a 10’ tree kit I purchased in 2006 and I never used the kit

Last season I used the pole and base for a 360 RGB tree . Of course that wasn’t what it was when I purchased - it was Incan 

JR

[ebrown1972]

8 minutes ago, dibblejr said:

One thing to consider and I didn’t test it for myself but at least for the 5mm mini strobes - do not use with any fades

That was a word of caution I received when I first purchased mini strobes.

I took it at face value since they cost quite a bit.

Not sure about the others. The only other strobe I got was with a 10’ tree kit I purchased in 2006 and I never used the kit

Last season I used the pole and base for a 360 RGB tree . Of course that wasn’t what it was when I purchased - it was Incan 

JR

Yes, my 5mm strobes say not to fade. All of my 5mm and Xenon strobes will be at 100% power. Thanks,

Eric

[TheDucks]

3 hours ago, ebrown1972 said:

Yes, my 5mm strobes say not to fade. All of my 5mm and Xenon strobes will be at 100% power. Thanks,

Eric

If you have a Gen 3 AC controller use the HU to set the dimming curve for those channels to ON/OFF.  Should save you (I did a HU test one time on a Gen 2 and killed a 'smart string'  ouch!)

[ebrown1972]

24 minutes ago, TheDucks said:

If you have a Gen 3 AC controller use the HU to set the dimming curve for those channels to ON/OFF.  Should save you (I did a HU test one time on a Gen 2 and killed a 'smart string'  ouch!)

Yes, I do and yes I will set it up like that. Thanks

[Orville]

On 7/1/2020 at 11:21 AM, ebrown1972 said:

Thanks Orville. I have inside cameras under my eaves with no weatherproofing for 2 years now with no issues. My eaves are only about 8 feet off of the ground so maybe that helps with keeping the water away.

My eaves were at 8 foot, some areas were at 10 foot off the ground.   Still got to some of my stuff under them.   I'd say you've been lucky or you just don't get the high straight-line wind type rain storms that occur in Florida quite often.  Seems they soak out everything.

[ebrown1972]

On 7/1/2020 at 4:33 PM, TheDucks said:

If you have a Gen 3 AC controller use the HU to set the dimming curve for those channels to ON/OFF.  Should save you (I did a HU test one time on a Gen 2 and killed a 'smart string'  ouch!)

 

7 hours ago, Orville said:

My eaves were at 8 foot, some areas were at 10 foot off the ground.   Still got to some of my stuff under them.   I'd say you've been lucky or you just don't get the high straight-line wind type rain storms that occur in Florida quite often.  Seems they soak out everything.

I'd say you are right Orville. I live in Illinois and rarely get those types of rain storms although it can happen. I will keep what you have said in mind for sure and make a determination on what I should do. Thanks

[ebrown1972]

On 7/1/2020 at 4:33 PM, TheDucks said:

If you have a Gen 3 AC controller use the HU to set the dimming curve for those channels to ON/OFF.  Should save you (I did a HU test one time on a Gen 2 and killed a 'smart string'  ouch!)

So exactly where is the on/off setting in the HU utility? It has been a long time since I have done anything with AC controllers. Thanks,

Eric

[dibblejr]

1 hour ago, ebrown1972 said:

So exactly where is the on/off setting in the HU utility? It has been a long time since I have done anything with AC controllers. Thanks,

Eric

Not sure in S5 however in S4 when I inserted device I selected my LOR floods and inserted 2 non RGB channels On/Off

For and AC controller and non LOR device l like my other non RGB strobes, I just add the strobes just like any other string light. Add sequences whenever you want them on.

Hope that helps

JR

[k6ccc]

Here you go.  Open the Hardware Utility and select Advanced Configuration (the red arrow):

Then on the Advanced Configuration page, select the unit to modify (the green arrow).  Then check the box for the channels to change (the purple oval).  Then change the drop down for the configuration (the blue arrow).  Then Update Unit's Config (the orange arrow). 

[ebrown1972]

15 hours ago, k6ccc said:

Here you go.  Open the Hardware Utility and select Advanced Configuration (the red arrow):

Then on the Advanced Configuration page, select the unit to modify (the green arrow).  Then check the box for the channels to change (the purple oval).  Then change the drop down for the configuration (the blue arrow).  Then Update Unit's Config (the orange arrow). 

Thanks very much Jim. Greatly appreciated