Introducing Seasonal Entertainment

[Dan C]

ogamoga wrote:

the connection I am refering to is from the power supply to the lor board...you were talking about floods and it is the cat 5 cable that powers the floods...so just to be clear, one more time, I am refering to the connection between the power supply and the lor board and want to know if I can use the wires from a power coard

Ok, thought you were referring to the latter.

[ogamoga]

Its fine...but anyone...thoguht is that would be okay

[Surfing4Dough]

ogamoga wrote:

Ok like this one its 16awg...i would just split it open and use the cables from there I think because it is cheap and easy

Also this site is great for cables of all types...preaty cheap

http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10228&cs_id=1022802&p_id=5297&seq=1&format=1#largeimage

That is how I powered my power supply (meaning electrical outlet to the power supply) (possibly was a 14gauge wire though). What you use to get to the DC board kinda depends on how much you are going to be powering (plus some room for expansion). This past year's floods only drew 1.06A when fully on, so I was running one of those and a couple spots, so my draw was only ~2A total. Therefore, I just used SPT2 cord to go between my power supply and DC board. Now this year's floods are more powerful, and I am adding more, so I may need to upgrade this to thicker gauge wire to accommodate this. As Greg mentioned above:
Rainbow Wall Runner: 1.04 amps
Rainbow Flood Light: 2.16 amps
Rainbow Spotlight: .64 amps

So figure out how many amps will be your max draw (how many floods, spots, etc), and reference a page such as this: http://www.planetchristmas.com/WireSize.htm to determine what gauge wire you should use. This run of wire will probably be very short (<1ft) so that helps too. My guess is that you have an old extension cord laying around that is maybe worn or something that you could cut a good 1 foot section out of it and use it.

[Ponddude]

I was able to take some pictures of the new floods and spotlights in action. I will put out this disclaimer before everyone starts asking...

My LED supplier sent me the wrong LEDs, so the circles you see in the pictures will not exist in the production run of the lights. These LEDs only have a 70 degree viewing angle, when they should have 110 degree viewing angle. I caught this early enough so the supplier is going to make the changes.

Here is a spotlight, in its enclosure, exactly 10 feet from the wall:

Orange:


Purple:


Here is the new floodlight. It is exactly 16 feet from the wall:

Blue:


Purple:


Red:




For even more comparison, here is a shot of last years spotlights...



...and last years flood...



I will have pictures of the flood with pigtails by tomorrow.

[Dan C]

Wow, those are bright! I just placed my order too. I would assume I will get the new correct wider leds?

[Dan C]

Darn double post!

[Ponddude]

Dan C wrote:

Wow, those are bright! I just placed my order too. I would assume I will get the new correct wider leds?

Yes, the LEDs the lights ship with will have a 110 degree viewing angle, which is what they should be.

[Guest guest]

Very cool.

is there a high confidence that these will be ready for sale by mid-summer..or maybe sooner?

[Guest guest]

Duh..need to read better.

Looks like they are available now, for some reason was thinking not until mid-summer..

[rgardner518]

Unless I missed something, which I always do......... When does your 2011 presale start, and end?

[Ponddude]

It started on February 21st and ends at 8pm EST on March 13th.

These floods, that are pictured, are what you are ordering now. The new, fully enclosed flood, will be available in the summer. That may be where the confusion is coming from...2 different floods.

[Guest guest]

Ponddude wrote:

It started on February 21st and ends at 8pm EST on March 13th.

These floods, that are pictured, are what you are ordering now. The new, fully enclosed flood, will be available in the summer. That may be where the confusion is coming from...2 different floods.

Ok, so now I AM confused (not difficult..)..

The one I just ordered today will be the new floods, better LEDs, brighter, etc, correct?

Will the new "fully enclosed" flood simply be this board, but already in an enclosure...or something different?

[Dan C]

Greg, I think you are making a great product here and even though the cost went up, I still think it is very reasonable for the quality.

I do have one question, you mentioned that your supplier sent narrow 70 deg. angle led's instead of wide 110 deg. angle. I can understand why you would want the wider angle for the flood lights, but for the spot lights wouldn't the narrow angle be a better choice, ie, "Spot light"?

Maybe that is what you are doing and I just didn't understand.

[lightzilla]

I probably missed it in reading, but can those replaceable C7 & C9 bulbs be dimmed?

[Ponddude]

Don...The "new" flood I am speaking of is a fully enclosed, DMX, constant current light that features 54 .5 watt Super Flux LEDs. It is completely different than the current flood. I don't really want to speak too much about it until the details are completely ironed out and I know what we will be offering...sit tight...just realize it is completely different than the current Rainbow Flood. We probably will rename it as well...any suggestions?

Dan...The issue with using LEDs with a smaller lighting angle, is just what you see in the pictures I posted. The lights create rings of color that do not blend well on the surface they project on. You really are seeing each LED producing its beam of light and than the overlap...which isn't pretty. So, we have always used the 110 degree angle, even with the spotlights. The increased angle doesn't really do much to the light disbursement, rather it just "smooths" out the light is projecting.

lightzilla...unfortunately, the LEDs we are offering this year are not dimmable. I am working directly with the manufacturer of the LEDs, as they are completely new to the holiday industry, but not the lighting industry. In fact, they are supplying the stringers to Costco and Target this year. I got on their radar a little too late at the end of last year to get working dimmable bulbs that work with LOR , d-Light and Animated Lighting controllers. They are working on it though and we will have them next year.:?

[Surfing4Dough]

Ponddude wrote:

We probably will rename it as well...any suggestions?

Mega-Rainbow Flood
Rainbow Mega-Flood
Rainbow Tsunami or Rainbow Tidal Wave (since is it going to be bigger/better/more powerful than a flood)
Rainbow Super Flood
Rainbow Power Flood
Rainbow Blast (and the spot could be a Rainbow Burst)
Rainbow Light Bright Flood

(DMX could be added to the ends of any of those names to indicate that it is DMX).

[Guest guest]

Ponddude wrote:

Don...The "new" flood I am speaking of is a fully enclosed, DMX, constant current light that features 54 .5 watt Super Flux LEDs. It is completely different than the current flood. I don't really want to speak too much about it until the details are completely ironed out and I know what we will be offering...sit tight...just realize it is completely different than the current Rainbow Flood. We probably will rename it as well...any suggestions?

So my knowledge of DMX is. well, I can spell DMX..but assuming this is a DMX-only device, would make sense to name it as such. The "DMX Flood" or DMX Rainbow Flood"....

Of course, all of us non-DMX guys will be jealous, but we'll get over it..

[Guest guest]

Surfing4Dough wrote:

Ponddude wrote:

We probably will rename it as well...any suggestions?

Mega-Rainbow Flood
Rainbow Mega-Flood
Rainbow Tsunami or Rainbow Tidal Wave (since is it going to be bigger/better/more powerful than a flood)
Rainbow Super Flood
Rainbow Power Flood
Rainbow Blast (and the spot could be a Rainbow Burst)
Rainbow Light Bright Flood

(DMX could be added to the ends of any of those names to indicate that it is DMX).

I agree the DMX-only distinction is critical...and it would seem intuitive these are a rainbow type flood...so maybe "flood" stays with the non-DMX stuff, and "wave" becomes the DMX flavor..so maybe the "DMX Wave"..

But then, think of the fun of saying "yea, I had a couple tsunamis right here in my front yard.."...:shock:

Or, maybe, Greg has a naming contest and offers a store shopping spree for the winner (hint, hint..)...:cool:

[Surfing4Dough]

Ponddude wrote:

Don...The "new" flood I am speaking of is a fully enclosed, DMX, constant current light that features 54 .5 watt Super Flux LEDs. It is completely different than the current flood. I don't really want to speak too much about it ...

Good luck on that now that you mentioned it here. Watch out for the barrage of questions now.



Dan C wrote:

I do have one question, you mentioned that your supplier sent narrow 70 deg. angle led's instead of wide 110 deg. angle. I can understand why you would want the wider angle for the flood lights, but for the spot lights wouldn't the narrow angle be a better choice, ie, "Spot light"?

Ponddude wrote:

Dan...The issue with using LEDs with a smaller lighting angle, is just what you see in the pictures I posted. The lights create rings of color that do not blend well on the surface they project on. You really are seeing each LED producing its beam of light and than the overlap...which isn't pretty. So, we have always used the 110 degree angle, even with the spotlights. The increased angle doesn't really do much to the light disbursement, rather it just "smooths" out the light is projecting.

I figured that if the spread of the spot light is too much (which in the pictures it kinda appears more like a flood), that I will just seat it a little deeper in a enclosure which will probably narrow the beam. Since these are 2" round boards now, it appears they will fit in most landscape lighting spot enclosures, which will be nice, and cheaper. Unfortunately the pre-assembled spot enclosure from SE is a bit pricey.

[Ponddude]

Don't forget that our enclosures are not your typical landscaping light enclosures. They are rated to be completely submerged in water and I personally plan on using 5 of them, with a Brain to put on a light show every night in my pond. Of course my pond is completely frozen right now, so I can't go out and take pictures and videos, but they are coming.