Rainbow Spot wiring

[Robsaus]

I received my new rainbow Spot from Greg the other day and I can't figure out how to wire a Cate5 cable to the board. Im using my 16 Ch DC board that is wired for the Rainbow flood which all used a Positive and a Neg from the board for each set of LEDs. The new spot only has One neg ( Com) and 3 positives ( R G on the board. Has anyone wire them straight to a cate5 cable? Thanks Robsaus.

[Donny M. Carter]

The positive is share between all channels on the LOR controller and must DC controllers for that matter. You only need to wire one positive wire per channel. The only thing that matters is the negative side. So for example if you were using channels 1, 2 and 3 for your first spotlight, it would go like this...

Channel 1 + Black wire
Channel 1 - Red wire
Channel 2 + empty
Channel 2 - Green wire
Channel 3 + empty
Channel 3 - Blue wire

[vipzach]

Donny M. Carter wrote:

The positive is share between all channels on the LOR controller and must DC controllers for that matter. You only need to wire one positive wire per channel. The only thing that matters is the negative side. So for example if you were using channels 1, 2 and 3 for your first spotlight, it would go like this...

Channel 1 + Black wire
Channel 1 - Red wire
Channel 2 + empty
Channel 2 - Green wire
Channel 3 + empty
Channel 3 - Blue wire

Maybe I am wrong, but........

I would not have wired it like this.

[JBullard]

Follow the wiring instructions Greg has posted

http://seasonalentertainmentllc.com/store/attachment.php?id_attachment=42

[JBullard]

vipzach wrote:

Donny M. Carter wrote:

The positive is share between all channels on the LOR controller and must DC controllers for that matter. You only need to wire one positive wire per channel. The only thing that matters is the negative side. So for example if you were using channels 1, 2 and 3 for your first spotlight, it would go like this...

Channel 1 + Black wire
Channel 1 - Red wire
Channel 2 + empty
Channel 2 - Green wire
Channel 3 + empty
Channel 3 - Blue wire

Maybe I am wrong, but........

I would not have wired it like this.

Donny is correct

[Dan C]

Sounds like Robsaus is using Cat cable. I used the same. Although Donny is right you only need one Positive for the whole light (thats the Common) on the rgb boards. then a single wire for each red, green, and blue Negative.

I wired mine a like this.

RGB Board side: DC Board side
Common to all 3 orange, blue and green striped wires then on the dc board one each to channel 1,2,3 Positive. (this balances the amperage between 3 wires rather than running all amps on a single 24ga. wire.
Red - orange solid color wire - channel 1 neg.
Blue - blue solid color wire - channel 2 neg.
Green - green solid color wire - channel 3 neg.

brown and brown striped are not used.

[Ponddude]

Everybody so far is correct. Dan has it correct for the cat-5 wiring and the document that John posted is for the pigtail wiring onto the LOR DC controller.

Also, realize that the wiring that Dan posted is the standard wiring we use. (It is the "B" standard of wiring in the networking world). The reason that is important is if you plan on using the Rainbow Brain with modular jacks as that is how the jacks are wired. If you never plan on using the Rainbow Brain (WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU! ) than you can really use any wiring scheme you want. Just remember that all our Rainbow lights share a common positive plane and are switched on the negative side.

[Robsaus]

Thanks everyone, I will try that this weekend. RobSaus

[vipzach]

Well, as usual, you guys are smarter than me.

[Surfing4Dough]

Has anybody been able to find extension cables that attach to the 4-pin pigtails that come with the Rainbow products (such as shown in the pic below)? I know Greg sells 6m ones, but looking for something longer (and cheaper if possible). If not using these, what else are people using (other than cat5)? Like the water-tight connections of the pigtails but this route may not be cost effective. Like to see other ideas.

[Guest guest]

I picked up 1000 feet of 4 wire cable on ebay several months ago for a good price and will be crafting some custom extension cables. By the time mine make their way from controller to rainbow flood (and yes, applies to spots also, of course), I'm looking at 25-50 feet or so for each, so didn't expect to be able to buy anything already built.