Two newb questions

[brian.t.lowery]

Planning my first display for next year and i have two questions that are probably asked quite often but i can't seem to find the answer too.

#1: Can you plug just any lights into a controller and have it give all the effects or do you need a special kind?

#2: How many strings can you plug into a single channel and have them act independently from eachother? or do you have to have a seperate channel for each string in order to get them to be individually programable?

Any help would be great. Thank you

[jajohnson]

#1 any light will do as long as the max amps are not surpassed on the circuit, but smaller lamps similar to xmas lights will give the best result, due to the time involved heating the lamp element. LED lights work the best,

#2 For individual results, each string must be dedicated to its own channel

[Rick Hughes]

I'll add that any light sets connected to LOR should not have their own integrated controllers.

For example, a light set which has a little control box which provides for a few different types of flashing should not be used with LOR.

There have been discussions of how to remove the light set control box and rewire it - but that's far beyond my experience.

[Cray Augsburg]

jajohnson wrote:

#2 For individual results, each string must be dedicated to its own channel

Just to make it a little clearer for the newbie, you can interconnect several light strings on one channel (up to the max for that channel). BUT, all those strings will follow the same command (effect) in the sequence. You cannot have multiple strings doing different things on the same channel, which is part of the OP's question.

[MikeA]

#1. Some LED lights ate not able to fade.

[huskernut]

and dont use CFLs

[brian.t.lowery]

Thanks. I was pretty sure of all this but it's nice to have it confirmed by people who actually have experience:)

[shfr26]

MikeA wrote:

#1. Some LED lights ate not able to fade.

Why would you eat them??