Bob Wingert Posted September 21, 2010 Share Posted September 21, 2010 For Halloween I have all LED's except for my floods. Will be using several of the one's pictured below. Standard 85W INCAN Colored Floods. I've just started experimenting yest with dimming these things then I thought, I should ask first. Because the box doesn't say dimable can I still do it? They did work very nice, but again wasn't sure if i could be doing damage either to the light OR the LOR unit itself. It did seem when it came to dimming they almost had a very faint whistle to them?? Or a buzzing sound, its hard to explain what it sounded like. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jim6918 Posted September 21, 2010 Share Posted September 21, 2010 I have found that they dim very well. Used the GE brand last year for Halloween and Christmas both and used them to dim from 0 to 75% very nicely. Not sure if there was any recognizable light at below 10% though. I used two of them at Christmas for my Tune To sign. I dimmed the sign down during the sequence and brought it up during the intro and between sequences. Lasted the whole season. I didnt hear any buzzing in mine.Unless I am mistaken, the only problem seems to be with the CFL floods. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Wingert Posted September 21, 2010 Author Share Posted September 21, 2010 Thanks Jim! If your lasted the entire XMAS season, I should be fantastic with just using these for Halloween. My Green one definitely had a little hum/whistle when it was fading from 100%-0. Noticed it on the very last seconds before it went dim, I'd say around 30% or so it had that little sound. I will check all the other one's tonight and see if they are doing the same. Maybe i just have a defective one?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jim6918 Posted September 21, 2010 Share Posted September 21, 2010 pokrplr wrote: Thanks Jim! If your lasted the entire XMAS season, I should be fantastic with just using these for Halloween. My Green one definitely had a little hum/whistle when it was fading from 100%-0. Noticed it on the very last seconds before it went dim, I'd say around 30% or so it had that little sound. I will check all the other one's tonight and see if they are doing the same. Maybe i just have a defective one??I am definetely the last guy to answer this, but just wondering if youre are not getting a 60 Hz hum. Or since the filament is so heavy duty in these bulbs could it be vibrating at some other frequency?If you have Audacity, you can generate a 60 Hz (or any other frequency for that matter) tone using the Generate > Tone tabs. 60 Hz is pretty low though, not sure I would call it a whistle. More like a hum; maybe thats why they call it that. LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max-Paul Posted September 21, 2010 Share Posted September 21, 2010 Hey Jim and pokrplr,I think you are on the right track with the heavy filiment being the item that is making the noise. As for the whistle, that could be a product of the pulse width. And the filiment is acting like a mechanical oscolator (SP?) so a small pulse will cause it to osc. at a higher freq and a longer pulse will lower the osc. frequency. Well thats what I think is happening. So pokrplr, during a fade can you hear what might be discribed as a slide whistle? I really would not think you will have a problem other than the dogs might start to howl. Which would make a neat effect to your Halloween display. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Wingert Posted September 21, 2010 Author Share Posted September 21, 2010 Max-Paul wrote: Hey Jim and pokrplr, So pokrplr, during a fade can you hear what might be discribed as a slide whistle? I really would not think you will have a problem other than the dogs might start to howl. Which would make a neat effect to your Halloween display.Yes I can hear that and its on the way down (fading). My one dog is 15 and as they say on Christmas Vacation "You hear it? It's a funny squeaky sound. Uncle Lewis: You couldn't hear a dump truck driving through a nitroglycerin plant." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Adams Posted September 21, 2010 Share Posted September 21, 2010 I used them for Halloween the last 2 years. They work great except the paint on the blue one starts to flake off by the end of Halloween. But cheap enough to replace. I am switching to Rainbow floods this year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max-Paul Posted September 21, 2010 Share Posted September 21, 2010 Ok, so this is just a by-product of the PWM of the voltage on the filament. Might and that is a big might shorten the life a wee bit of the flood light. But according to Jim seems that he is having good luck with this set up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Wingert Posted September 21, 2010 Author Share Posted September 21, 2010 Max-Paul wrote: Ok, so this is just a by-product of the PWM of the voltage on the filament. Might and that is a big might shorten the life a wee bit of the flood light. But according to Jim seems that he is having good luck with this set up.And for $6 a globe, If i have to replace, it will be the LEAST of my expenses on this ever long lasting project! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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