couple of led question for a newbie

[Kevin Doucet]

ok, this is actually my first post, I ordered my first LOR and been reading alot on this forum, here's what I don't exactly understand,

1. I saw some post that says you have to terminate your strand if it's half wave, with a 47k 1 w resistor, does it mean it won't work if i don't do that? and how do I know if it's half wave or full wave. so basically how do i know if I need that terminator or not?

2. is any kind of led's work, i have the c7 from noma.

[Surfing4Dough]

You may or may not need snubbers (the resister you mention). I don't think this is a function of the half wave/full wave issue (I could be wrong on this though). The wave issue has more to do with a "vibration" of the light that happens with half wave stings. One way to describe it is that it almost looks like the lights are humming. Probably not noticeable to most. It becomes more visible when you shake the lit string. Mine are half wave and all work just fine.
The snubber issue has more to do with when you attach multiple LED strings together--maybe 4-6+. When you do, it seems that the LOR system causes a erratic blinking of the light string when you are fading down. Almost as if you accidentally threw in a 100% on block in the sequence in the middle of your fade. Some LED seem to do this more than others, but mostly has to do with how many you have connected together. The best way to find out is test them and connect a bunch of them together (as you would in your display) and try fading them to 0%. If they randomly blink, then a snubber would probably fix this. If you just have a couple strings attached together, it probably won't happen.

Good thread here that discusses the technical side of this:
http://forums.planetchristmas.com/showthread.php/37562-Easiest-Terminators-Snubbers-to-make

As far as other types of LEDs working, again the best thing to do is try testing them.

Welcome to the madness of LOR and make sure you ask lots of questions and contribute where you can.

[captainron19]

Yes - best thing to do is test the sets using your hardware control panel in the LOR Software then you will know exactly how well your lights fade. Connect different amounts of lights on each channel of your LOR unit to get an idea of how the power draw and the amount of LEDs affect your fade. I noticed a problem last year with my home depot c7's when they faded from 100% the lights would cut off completely at about 25% so I put snubbers in line with those sets.


As far as half wave / full wave ... LEDs flicker or turn on and off at a very high rate of speed with full wave LEDs they are turning on and off at a rate of 120 times per second which is not detectable by the human eye. Half Wave are actually flickering at a rate of 6o times per second (half of the full wave or as they are commonly refereed to as "rectified lights")

Actually some people actually have trouble noticing the "flicker" of the half wave while some people can notice it easily.

[Kevin Doucet]

Thanks for the info. I will be running test for sure. I shouldn't have any problem though, cause I don't have more then 3 set hook up together on 1 particular channel.

Was it just a problem with the fading effec?

[captainron19]

Kevin Doucet wrote:

Thanks for the info. I will be running test for sure. I shouldn't have any problem though, cause I don't have more then 3 set hook up together on 1 particular channel.

Was it just a problem with the fading effec?

Yes I only had a problem with the fade towards the end.... never noticed any problems with twinkle, shutter or steady on.

[sparky22]

Hi , I am new to Light O Rama to this year and would like to no how a snubbers or 47k 1 w resistor fixes this dimmer problem?

Also How do you find out what strings are half wave/full wave ?



Thanks,

[Bob Wingert]

Here's 16 pages of how to and why:

http://forums.planetchristmas.com/showthread.php/37562-Easiest-Terminators-Snubbers-to-make

[sparky22]

I have a maple tree that I have about 25 sets of led lights together on it and am having this dimming problem.

and have several open female ends. do I just need to add a 1 47k 1w resistor to one of the open female ends?

[Surfing4Dough]

sparky22 wrote:

I have a maple tree that I have about 25 sets of led lights together on it and am having this dimming problem.

and have several open female ends. do I just need to add a 1 47k 1w resistor to one of the open female ends?

My understanding is that you just need 1 snubber for an entire channel. It can be plugged in anywhere. Some people use Glade plug-ins as a "snubber" if you just need 1 or 2.

[Ti03]

Surfing4Dough wrote:

Some people use Glade plug-ins as a "snubber" if you just need 1 or 2.

Ahhhh! Scent-O-Rama! I can just see the commands now...fade fresh roses, twinkle summer breeze...

[lightzilla]

Kevin Doucet wrote:

ok, this is actually my first post, I ordered my first LOR and been reading a lot on this forum, here's what I don't exactly understand,

1. I saw some post that says you have to terminate your strand if it's half wave, with a 47k 1 w resistor, does it mean it won't work if i don't do that? and how do I know if it's half wave or full wave. so basically how do i know if I need that terminator or not?

2. is any kind of Leds work, i have the c7 from Noma.

Noma is carried by C Tire mostly in Canada. As far as C7 lights go, are you talking retro fit C7's or are you talking sealed C7 strings?

Retro fit C7s that CT carry may not dim or anything period. It may not say so on the package, so test a few out, if they do not dim then you will need to keep them burning steady.

If they are sealed C7's which I have not bought from CT yet, they should dim, but I own C7s from Superstore and they dim good. Testing is the key.

On the Canadian forum we talked about the best place to buy LEDs in Canada & CT is up high on the list, but H Depot is very close to dead last. They had a flicker issue but since I have not bought any lights from them in a couple years maybe perhaps it has been fixed.

Costco Canada sell the best LEDs in Canada period. Full wave , very bright, & they dim very good even with 8 strings together........well I do not need a snubber as of yet.

After you test those Noma C7 LEDs please let us know if the dim. It would be good to know if they are retro fit or sealed strings.

It would do us good in Canada to know this.

[sparky22]

Thanks for the info,

what is the name of the Canadian forum site,

[lightzilla]

sparky22 wrote:

Thanks for the info,

what is the name of the Canadian forum site,

I sent you a pm.

[Kevin Doucet]

[Kevin Doucet]

If the retrofit and sealedfit are what I think they are I have the sealedfit, the retrofit would be the bulb screw in the socket?

[robert seguin, jr.]

all set to make them and read the resistor pack that i bought and it is a 47 ohm resistor 1 watt, not sure it this will work

[Steven]

robert seguin, jr. wrote:

read the resistor pack that i bought and it is a 47 ohm resistor 1 watt, not sure it this will work

It will not. Depending on where you plug the 47Ω resistor in, it will either blow the fuse on your LED string, or blow the resistor, resulting in smoke that doesn't smell very good.

You need to return those and get 47kΩ (47,000Ω) resistors instead.

[robert seguin, jr.]

thanks for the information, i dont want to let the smoke out

[timmy]

Will the snubbers work if I fill the hole with liquid electrical tape or does it have to be silicone. I just tested them and they worked perfect. I could only find 47k 1/2watt resistors locally. If I turn the lights on steady for an hour will the resistors overheat? They are all LED. Each set consists of 14 strands of 70 count icicles.