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Stobes


StephenJTaylor7

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What do you guys do with your strobes and the rain? We get a lot of rain where I am and I dont want to buy a ton of strobes and have the rain ruin them. Are they durable enough to withstand the weather???

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I hear some people having to drill holes for water to escape from their strobes. it seems that LED strobes are less likely to collect water inside because they don't heat up and cool down sucking in moisture through any small opening.

My best suggestion would be just to keep an eye on them after an exposed downpour and see what they are doing... if need be, you can just take a drill/rotor tool to them as necessary.

I, personally, don't suggest drilling holes in them unless you know you need to though.

I plan on buying 120 strobes (different colors) in the current CDI pre-sale. I have heard good things about their LEDs being water resistant.

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ace_master wrote:

I hear some people having to drill holes for water to escape from their strobes. it seems that LED strobes are less likely to collect water inside because they don't heat up and cool down sucking in moisture through any small opening.

My best suggestion would be just to keep an eye on them after an exposed downpour and see what they are doing... if need be, you can just take a drill/rotor tool to them as necessary.

I, personally, don't suggest drilling holes in them unless you know you need to though.

I plan on buying 120 strobes (different colors) in the current CDI pre-sale. I have heard good things about their LEDs being water resistant.

The water that gets into the strobes has very little to do with rain or the type bulb heating up. In fact, many of the strobes available (including CLS's) pass submerge testing. Rather, it is the humidity that is pulled in (since they water tight, but not air tight) and condenses due to the heating and cooling related to sun exposure (think of it as a mini-greenhouse). The millisecond that a strobe is on unlikely to generate enough heat to cause such condensation. Either way, since you put the weep hole on the part of the casing that hangs down (usually the edge of the end of the clear cap) rain won't enter that hole since it is on the bottom side. So as the manufacturer recommends, if using them outside, I definitely suggest having weep holes (I like melting holes with a solder gun--seems more steady and less likely to hit the bulb compared to drilling). I have had quite a few rainstorms without any water in them or failures.

I debated about going the LED route when they first came out, but glad I didn't after reading the reviews of actual display use. "They lack the pop of xenons," "they lack the randomness or speed," "they look just light flashing lights rather than strobes," "I'm replacing them with xenons next year," etc.

I'll also note that I have had zero failures since CLS's strobes' boards started being coated 1 1/2 years ago.
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ace_master wrote:

I plan on buying 120 strobes (different colors) in the current CDI pre-sale. I have heard good things about their LEDs being water resistant.

Hey Ace...

I bought quite a few strobes last year from CDI and am planning on selling them...most never used, the others were only out in the weather for one week...have four colors...Red, Green, Blue, White...

I THINK I have 20 of each color and 30 white...

$2.95 each plus shipping...

interested?


EDIT:

Sorry...they have sold...
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I love the LED strobes. You just have to know how to run them in LOR to keep them from flashing all at the same time. .65 sec at 20% power then to full. Everyone that has seen the display didn't see the faint glow before they randomized fire. So I f I am the only one that sees that. Im ok with it. Face the tops to the viewing area and they are the same brightness. However if they are viewed from the sides not so much. Plus I have used them for 2 years in all weather conditions and not one failure yet. I have dropped them from the roof and still keep working. I hear alot of crying about how they have to replace the xeons from failures. Xeons $6+ and LED's$3. It's the only LED's in my display.

http://vimeo.com/15896636 Here is an example of flashing all at once at 7 seconds and at 36 seconds flashing random by the above setting.

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friskybri wrote:

I love the LED strobes. You just have to know how to run them in LOR to keep them from flashing all at the same time. .65 sec at 20% power then to full. Everyone that has seen the display didn't see the faint glow before they randomized fire. So I f I am the only one that sees that. Im ok with it. Face the tops to the viewing area and they are the same brightness. However if they are viewed from the sides not so much. Plus I have used them for 2 years in all weather conditions and not one failure yet. I have dropped them from the roof and still keep working. I hear alot of crying about how they have to replace the xeons from failures. Xeons $6+ and LED's$3. It's the only LED's in my display.

http://vimeo.com/15896636 Here is an example of flashing all at once at 7 seconds and at 36 seconds flashing random by the above setting.

Man Thanks for that info! Im a noob too so i'm glad to stumble on this bit of information. I just got my 10 led strobes from CDI today. Thanks again!
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friskybri wrote:

I love the LED strobes. You just have to know how to run them in LOR to keep them from flashing all at the same time. .65 sec at 20% power then to full. Everyone that has seen the display didn't see the faint glow before they randomized fire. So I f I am the only one that sees that. Im ok with it. Face the tops to the viewing area and they are the same brightness. However if they are viewed from the sides not so much. Plus I have used them for 2 years in all weather conditions and not one failure yet. I have dropped them from the roof and still keep working. I hear alot of crying about how they have to replace the xeons from failures. Xeons $6+ and LED's$3. It's the only LED's in my display.

http://vimeo.com/15896636 Here is an example of flashing all at once at 7 seconds and at 36 seconds flashing random by the above setting.
ok, that is officially cool from a halloween perspective. if we need to take this offline we can but how did you do the big pumpkin on the roof? did you purchase that or was it part of some kit.
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friskybri wrote:

I love the LED strobes. You just have to know how to run them in LOR to keep them from flashing all at the same time. .65 sec at 20% power then to full. Everyone that has seen the display didn't see the faint glow before they randomized fire. So I f I am the only one that sees that. Im ok with it. Face the tops to the viewing area and they are the same brightness. However if they are viewed from the sides not so much. Plus I have used them for 2 years in all weather conditions and not one failure yet. I have dropped them from the roof and still keep working. I hear alot of crying about how they have to replace the xeons from failures. Xeons $6+ and LED's$3. It's the only LED's in my display.

http://vimeo.com/15896636 Here is an example of flashing all at once at 7 seconds and at 36 seconds flashing random by the above setting.

I can relate to this. I had about 15 fail this past season. Took them apart and it seems the traces on the boards have failed, while I have 2 seasons on my LED strobes with no problems. It's all in the placement.
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