Guest guest Posted October 15, 2006 Share Posted October 15, 2006 Hi, Does anyone know if it would be o.k. to use LOR with a power inverter? I would like to run an few lights with the LORV/media player program for a quick portable Halloween setup. If I don't overpower the inverter I would think it would be O.K. Anyone see a problem? Thought I had seen this somewhere in the past but it has magically disappeared Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 15, 2006 Share Posted October 15, 2006 I've seen a couple post in the past where LOR was used in a parade. That's right on a parade float. Do a search on this forum for LOR parade. I came up with a couple of hits. Here is a link to one of them.http://planetchristmas.mywowbb.com/view_topic.php?id=6016&forum_id=25&highlight=lor+parade Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 16, 2006 Share Posted October 16, 2006 Fyrzout wrote: Hi, Does anyone know if it would be o.k. to use LOR with a power inverter? I would like to run an few lights with the LORV/media player program for a quick portable Halloween setup. If I don't overpower the inverter I would think it would be O.K. Anyone see a problem? Thought I had seen this somewhere in the past but it has magically disappeared My only concern with an inverter would be fades.... They may get a little mucked up but you could experiment to see. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 16, 2006 Share Posted October 16, 2006 I ordered an inverter from Costco online last week, what a great one at a great price, $69.99 with 3 outlets, and it’s 1000 W. There are cheaper ones out there, but they don't have the power or the outlets. It’s hard to find inverters with 3 outlets. You use 2 outlets for the controller, and one for whatever else.http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11176889As you guys know, I do some pretty complex sequences, with lots of fast switching and fades in my songs. So I’ll let you know how well it works. It should be here this week. I plan to use this on October 28 at our church’s Harvest Party, where we are doing a “Trunk Or Treat” contest where we all open our trunks, decorate them, and give out candy, and the contest will decide who has the best decorations.How many other congregation members at my church do you think will have have their LORs with them! :waycool::waycool::waycool:(LOR now stands for either Light-O-Rama or Lots Of Ruck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 16, 2006 Share Posted October 16, 2006 That was my thought exactly. My kid is having a trunk or treat contest at his school. I figured with a couple of good halloween songs and the LORVis program it would be something quick but probably still impressive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 16, 2006 Share Posted October 16, 2006 Jeff if you don't mind me asking, What church do you go to, My church is doing a trunk or treat as well.Robogeek Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 16, 2006 Share Posted October 16, 2006 First Presbyterian Chruch Of Margate/Coral Springshttp://www.fpcmargate.org/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 16, 2006 Share Posted October 16, 2006 Thanks I was just wondering because I used to live down there and went to First Methodist of Pompano Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 16, 2006 Share Posted October 16, 2006 If your inverter puts out a sine wave, the fades should work. But they are expensive. 1KW would run several hundered $. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 17, 2006 Share Posted October 17, 2006 Usually, an inverter's output is not a pure sin wave, a square wave or worse, chopped sin wave. It may interfere with some of the functions, such as fade and dimming. Let us know how it works? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 17, 2006 Share Posted October 17, 2006 Well, instead of focusing on the sqaure wave or sine wave argument of the inverter's output, look at th epower input section of the LOR.I can't speak for Dan-O-Rama on how they implemented the power supply of the LOR controllers, but being an engineer by trade, I can tell you a classic power supply circuit usually has some type of correction and line conditioning. But who knows, I don't have their schematic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 17, 2006 Share Posted October 17, 2006 The LOR boards have a small linear power supply - if I remember correctly, using a 7805 regulator. That's not the problem though. The problem is a modified waveform affects the switching of the triacs, which is what causes the dimming problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 17, 2006 Share Posted October 17, 2006 The microcontroller also seems to have an A to D used to sense the Phase of the Sine wave Which theoretically could be programmed to compensate for the modified sine wave. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 17, 2006 Share Posted October 17, 2006 I had to use a 400watt version last year to test 2 lor board at a customer setup. the board did not like the 120v from the inverter I bought a Canadian Tire. Were did you guys find one that did work? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 17, 2006 Share Posted October 17, 2006 Stepkey, Explain what you mean by did not like?Did the board not work at all?Did it just have trouble with Fades? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 18, 2006 Share Posted October 18, 2006 it would cause the lights to flicker all the time, even on a full on mode it would flicker the lights. But that was with 100% LEDs in the display. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 18, 2006 Share Posted October 18, 2006 I guest my concern would be if any actual damage would be done to the board. With the LORVis program the fades looked ok because they were random with the beat of the music so there are no actual fades programed. It seem to look good to me for what I wanted - a quick setup for trunk or treat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 18, 2006 Share Posted October 18, 2006 Ok, let me complicate matters some more.Has anyone ever tried this on a gas powered generator? Wonder what that sine wave looks like! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 18, 2006 Share Posted October 18, 2006 Check out this threadhttp://planetchristmas.mywowbb.com/forum25/5281.htmlDarryl is the man. :waycool:Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 19, 2006 Share Posted October 19, 2006 jeffostroff wrote: Ok, let me complicate matters some more.Has anyone ever tried this on a gas powered generator? Wonder what that sine wave looks like!I could try, but pretty skiddish about potentially ruining a board... Maybe with a good UPS? They're known to clear up sine waves.... Thought? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 19, 2006 Share Posted October 19, 2006 EAB wrote: jeffostroff wrote: Ok, let me complicate matters some more.Has anyone ever tried this on a gas powered generator? Wonder what that sine wave looks like!I could try, but pretty skiddish about potentially ruining a board... Maybe with a good UPS? They're known to clear up sine waves.... Thought?Theoretically you could use a ups to clean up an inverter as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 20, 2006 Share Posted October 20, 2006 Ok, I got my new 1000 Watt inverter in the mail today from Costco.com. It's nice, it has 3 outlets. But just like we all predicted, the LOR can't handle fade down very good with this "not quite AC sinusoidal signal".In fact, all the fade downs tended to just flicker a bit. For my LED trees, the flickering was more of a strobe and the LED trees never quite turned off, and nearly renders your sequence useless, except for the lights that are just going on/off. Not sure I want to drag it to my church for the Harvest Party, it's not looking good enough for my perosnal quality control metrics.THe inverter output is what is known as a "modified sine wave", which means poor man's sine wave, which means it's a bunch of square waves shaped sort of like a sine wave. It's tricky and you have to use a true RMS meter to take readings on the output. A regular meter will not cut it.I still don;t know why LOR has a hard time with it, it's still a 60 cycle signal, so what f it has edges. Perhaps a good product feature on upcoming boards might be the ability to handle and condition input sinusoidal sqaure waves, otherwise, how can anyone take their LOR on the road?:devil:Tomorrow if I can free up some more minutes on my schedule, I'll hook up my high end Tripp Lite UPS and see if it too conditions the output of the inverter, to give me clean 60 cycle alternating current, or if it is putting out a modified sine wave (square wave) also. Wish me luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts