Question About The Deluxe Dc Board Cmb16d-qc

[aaron]

I am thinking about getting some MR16 LED Floodlights (from christmasinkent.com) and was wondering if the Deluxe DC Board CMB16D-QC was the right controller for this job or if another controller will do the job better? I would like to stick with LOR.....

Second Questions:
What power source will be the best for this controller?

havent really messed with DC controllers much and these questions are probably dumb and/or easy to alot of ppl....thought i asked before i jumped into something i didnt know much about

Thanks in advance

Aaron

[Bowshock]

aaron wrote:

Second Questions:
What power source will be the best for this controller?

havent really messed with DC controllers much and these questions are probably dumb and/or easy to alot of ppl....thought i asked before i jumped into something i didnt know much about

Not dumb at all...I'm in the same position and can't wait to hear the answers you get.

[Surfing4Dough]

I will jump in here and try to help but there are others that will be able to speak more directly about the MR16 floods. From what I have seen, seems most are transitioning from this "older" technology for floods to the newer RGB floods, such as the Rainbow Floods http://www.christmasonmanor.com/rainbowfloodlight/rfl.htm . I went with the Rainbow Floods (RF) this year and got tons of questions/comments about them from visitors. I too was nervous about entering the DC world but it is easier than I thought. The RFs can be controlled by CMB16D-QC, 1 channel per color (R, G, , which then you mix to create any color want.

The DC board can be powered by a DC power supply such as this:
http://cgi.ebay.com/New-12V-DC-12A-145W-Regulated-Switching-Power-Supply-/110635581205?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19c264ff15
12V DC 12A 145W Regulated Switching Power Supply

You need to at least get the size (# of Amps) based on what you are going to be powering. For example, 1 RF maxes at 1.06A. (You can piggyback 2 on each other, and each set takes 3 channels, so could easily have 5 sets of RFs on one DC board, so 10.6A needed to power all those). You attach a power cord to this power supply which you plug into the wall. And you connect this power supply to your DC controller. And then you attach the floods to your DC controller. The RFs connect just using cat5 to carry the power (which is why attached RJ45 jacks to my DC board so I didn't have to strip all the tiny wires inside the cat5 bundle). You can read more specifics here for RFs: http://lightorama.mywowbb.com/view_topic.php?id=22648

Here are some pics of my DC board setup, in an enclosure with a power supply:






This video showcases my use of Rainbow Floods and Spots fairly well: http://vimeo.com/17630588

Ask any additional questions you might have. Like I said I can't comment specifically on the MR16 floods but after reading here quite a bit realized that they had many disadvantages, and saw quite a few MR16 users switching to RFs.

[Bowshock]

Great info!!

And thanks for the pics and links to a power supply!

[dschultz56]

I love how you combined the Christmas Story from Charlie Brown Christmas with that song. That was a great combination!!! Where did you get the reading of the Christmas Story?

[aaron]

Surfing4Dough,

Thanks for all the info and help on this subject....you have a really nice display, i just watched all of your videos the other day.

i was thinkin about getting into RFs but i thought that the MR16 leds would have been easier for me at first but i like the way you can get any color by the RFs.....since you have the Rfs,whats the throw of the light.....i have a pretty tall house, somewhere from 18-20 ft that i need to wash out with color, do you think RFs would reach up that high??

thanks again for all the info and help

aaron

[Guest guest]

I used the CIK spots in place of my landscape lights this year, and the blue spots, strategically placed got rave reviews. Used red and green on some palms, blue on some small trees and the front porch arches. I give them solid thumbs up, good product, fast shipping.

I did build 4 rainbow floods and never put them out..just ran out of time. That said, would give solid thumbs up to the product, and especially to Greg's support. These two guys exemplify good customer service and no BS..others (won't mention names..) could learn from them.

The spots are more on and off, and dimmable, the rainbow floods are for various colors that you create with the RGB capability, and you would definitely need a DC card for any effects..

You could switch the spots with a DC card, but I just left them on my landscape light timer...as I didn't want to dim them.

I was so happy with the CIK spots, I've now replaced all of my normal MR16s landscape spots with their white LED spots for the off-season.

As I see it, you are looking at two different products..single color spots versus an RGB flood. From what you are describing, RFs seem more appropriate, but my learning was to double them up, two boards per enclosure, to get what I wanted. And again, I just ran out of time to get them implemented into the design, but will be using them next year.

[Surfing4Dough]

aaron wrote:

Surfing4Dough,

Thanks for all the info and help on this subject....you have a really nice display, i just watched all of your videos the other day.

i was thinkin about getting into RFs but i thought that the MR16 leds would have been easier for me at first but i like the way you can get any color by the RFs.....since you have the Rfs,whats the throw of the light.....i have a pretty tall house, somewhere from 18-20 ft that i need to wash out with color, do you think RFs would reach up that high??

thanks again for all the info and help

aaron

You might look here and see some photos of a wall wash with the RF. http://www.christmasonmanor.com/rainbowfloodlight/rfl.htm
I think Greg (ponddude) indicated that those photos were taken of a single flood about 15 feet away from the house. For the effect I wanted, I only tried them about 2-3 feet away from the house shooting nearly vertical. Quite a few people are putting 2 RFs in a single enclosure to intensify the color. The RF data sheet advertises that a single RF "broadcasts over 20ft of color" for whatever that is worth. I haven't seen MR16s in person, but the videos I saw of them they broadcast a fairly narrow beam of light which seemed to cause a sharp circle of light to be on the house rather than a wash . Maybe there are different types though.

The RFs were very easy to work with (like I said earlier I was nervous about entering the DC realm). And Greg will provide great support (as well as others here).

Now the soon-to-arrive LOR Cosmic Color Floods (CCF) sound like they are going to be significantly more powerful, but appear they will be pricey.

[scubado]

Old computer power supplies are great for working with the DC card and usually free. I prefer at least a 350W. You want to try to have double the wattage than what you need so the PS can run cool. You can also use more than one PS on a card for high demand use. I have 2000 leds running on 12V and dozen 10W leds running off my system. This is also my landscaping lighting year round.

If you like building your own lights, the 10W leds on Ebay are awesome to use. White, green and blue run on 12V direct, the red run on ~7V and need a resistor to run on 12V system.

[rmturner54]

I used 3 RBF's this year in place of 9 MR16 floods (3 of each color). The RBF's do a much better job of wall washing. Great product and excellent support. THe MR16s are better for accent lighting. DOnt get me wrong, I still used the MR16s, but to accent certain areas of the house.I am as work right now but will post pictures of my DC controller w/power supply. And some pics of the RBF's.