Christmas light show Strobes

[Christopher2113]

ok so i have several of the christmas light show window curtian strobes which work great btw but when ever they are all going the touch light nonflorcent light when its on in my house flickers and same with the light above our sink which a florcent light that screws in i also have a digital alarm clock that seems to gradually gain time after or during my show

my show is totally on another breaker and i have many more strobes that i am not using that i planned on using but idk now what to do

so my question is has anyone else had this happen and if so is their any thing to stop it from happening

any advice is helpful

thanks

Christopher

[gizmomkr]

a couple things to try:

You said it the show "is on another breaker" not sure if that means your whole show is on 1 breaker, but you could try this - for whatever is feeding the strobes, move the breaker down one "slot".

In a standard panel, every other slot is tied to the same "phase" (most homes are 2 phase) moving down one slot should get the strobes to the other phase. It probably wont illiminate the problem, but it MIGHT, or might shift the flicker to another light you dont care about.

make sure your controller has a good ground. you could also try an isolated ground for that controller (you would have to run your own ground wire to a post or a cold water pipe or something like that)

On the "touch lamp" - this device works by sensing a change in impeadance when the fixture comes in contact with the human body. I dont have a schematic for one on hand, but I assume it makes a refference to ground or netural. I suspect the sudden burst of voltage when the flash fires is causing a disturbance in the line that is being picked up by the touch circuit in the lamp. Moving the strobes to another phase as stated above MAY fix the issue.

If the light above your sink is a screw in flourescent, and none of the above helps - change this light out for a regular incandescent for the next two monts ( I wont tell the tree huggers)

Finally, you could also try some surge supression. get a good surge protector (or 3) place one on the power feeding the controller that feeds the strobes. place another one on the items in your house that arent working right - like your lamp and alarm clock. At one point home depot was selling a unit that could be wired directly to the breaker pannel.

A surge protector would potentially absorb extra voltage I suspect may be "spiking" the line whne the strobe fires.

P.S. - A good surge protector should start at about 17.00 (and go up to a couple hundred) I think the 100.00 unit is overkill, but a 5 dollar walmart brand doesnt cut it in my book - I like the APC Brand.

Hope something here helps - post back and let us know, Im curious.

[Christopher2113]

thanks a lot it helps

i actually made a removble breaker box for my show it is 110 breaker box hooked up to a 220 breaker then inside our house is the breaker box for everything else so their is like 5 different breakers that things are running through lol i just didnt understand why these things where happening when the strobes flash

also i was wondering when the strobes fire is it caused more power to be pulled ore use more electricity

also is their a rule of how many can be connected to one strand

thanks ill try some grounding techniques

Christopher

p.s. ill try and get some pic of my box

[gizmomkr]

I dont think the power draw form the strobe is causing the issue. Compared to other devices in your house, the Dryer and Ac unit would suck up way more power then a handfull of strobes. I'm still leaning to noise or surge created by the strobe.

I dont know what the current draw of a strobe is - that would determin how many you could safely load on a circuit or piece of wire. I think I have seen at least 12 on a string.

[Christopher2113]

well if i counted correctly i have about 40 on one strand of spt2 wire and they seem to be doing all right

i didnt know if that might have been the problem but come to think about it i hooked all 30 on my mega tree up to one strand last year as well

yeah it sounds like surge to me as well cause when they are on thats when i notice the lights flicker and last year i only had 30 going and now this halloween i have about 70 . imaginge christimas i wanted to use much more i have 200 lol

[Christopher2113]

my removable breaker box still under construction

Attached files

[Christopher2113]

connection of my box

Attached files

[Christopher2113]

breaker on the house

Attached files

[Max-Paul]

I have to agree with gizmo. More than likely the strobes are putting a spike on the line. And a spike suppressor of good quality might be able to clean up the noise that the strobes are putting on the line. I am thinking you need to install one that will fit in a C.B. panel knock out and goes across the two hots and the ground.

[gizmomkr]

I think I just fell of my chair - saw a pig fly by, and hell froze. All at once.

I cant believe Max and I jst flat out agree on someting electrical.

[Max-Paul]

gizmomkr wrote:

I think I just fell of my chair - saw a pig fly by, and hell froze. All at once.

I cant believe Max and I jst flat out agree on someting electrical.

See, I have been telling you that I am all powerful. That was just a small demostration making a pig fly and freezing hell for you.

Have a good day gizmo. in your case the old saying hold true "Even a blind hog finds an acorn now and then." For a change, you where not trying to reinvent something or "Think out side of the box".

[-klb-]

I will comment that I don't know if the spike the strobes are inducing is enough to be picked up and absorbed by your normal surge suppressor, as they are just MOV devices, and they usually don't start conducting until you are quite a few volts over, nor will they do anything if the spike is near zero crossing, where most clocks are going to watch. They are most useful in minimizing lightning damage.

For the strobes, I think the best thing to try is a LC power line filter. For example a computer power strip that says Filtered, separate from any statement about surge suppression. You can also find ones to be hard wired. As a note, the MOV surge suppressors can come in a format that clips into breaker panel like a double breaker, with a neutral connection as well. But a true filter must be wired in line with everything on the dirty side down stream, and everything clean wired in upstream.

If you just have one dirty controller with strobes, one filter sized for 20A should be considerably cheaper than one for say 220V, 60A... Of course, if you really want to keep things clean, you could do both...

[Max-Paul]

Dont mean to sound wishy washy, but klb is correct. His is the better solution and frankly I should have noted and mentioned the inline version that he speaks of. Although installing such a unit might not be as easy, but then too some times the best solution is not always the easiest. As far as the spike suppressor, I would build my own out of 3 130VAC MOVs.

[jjdurrant]

I am running 14 on one strand of spt2.. each is about 4-5 ft apart.. no issues so far.

[Denise Brunner]

The X-10 system also makes a in line noise suppression system. I have used it and have had some good results. Might cut down on the spikes. Also when the strobes fire, it is from the charge in the capacitor inside of it, its not a sudden surge of power. But the firing of the tube does make a lot of electrical noise.

[-klb-]

The strobes are also highly non linear as a load. From what I remember, they tend to draw current from the zero crossing until part way up the curve from zero crossing, and not draw any more until the next zero crossing. One of these days I'll dig up the video of the scope traces and post somewhere, but likely not until after the holidays. But that non linear behavior can screw with the voltages around zero crossings, and possibly mess with zero crossing detectors. Also, thinking about it, it also influences the odds of where in the cycle the strobe trigger pulse will happen. It will likely not happen near the peak line voltages, but rather closer to the zero crossing, where the zero crossing detectors are most likely to be messed up by it...