Adding 200 channels to LOR

[Guest guest]

Sorry for the double post - Not sure which forum to post it.

I'm using LOR and am thinking of making a 50 light 4 color star with C9s. That would be 200 channles. My thought is to mount a triac at every socket instead of bringing the power to the control box.

Here's my question. I'm using LOR, can can I just mount a triac at very light? Or waht additional circuitry do I need? Any idea on the cost?

Thanks

[Guest guest]

Douggg wrote:

Sorry for the double post - Not sure which forum to post it.

I'm using LOR and am thinking of making a 50 light 4 color star with C9s. That would be 200 channles. My thought is to mount a triac at every socket instead of bringing the power to the control box.

Here's my question. I'm using LOR, can can I just mount a triac at very light? Or waht additional circuitry do I need? Any idea on the cost?

Thanks

Hey Doug,

You will have to ask Dan for sure, but I think they will have a board where you can add more triac board. Boy you are going to have a lot of wires going to that star. If it gets to costly, think about putting two bulbs per channel. Also build it in LOR animation screen and see if you can do what you want. Either way that is a lot of work. Good Luck!!!

[Guest guest]

With LOR software I think it would be easy to make routines and just do cut and pastes. Or am I on drugs?

Do you know if LOR makes schematics avalable for their controllers? I want to use triacs for diming, fades and spakle effects. Thought I would toss in a few strobes too.

As for construction I thought I would mout the triacs at the sockets and bring a control wire to the circuit at the bottom.

ANy more ideas?

[Guest guest]

Why not just make some custom cables coming from the star. If your talking about only having 1 C9 light per channel then why not just use 201 wires for all this. Each light is only going to take either 7 or 9 watts so you could use some pretty thin wire. Then all you need to bring in is possibly one 12 awg wire for the common. I have a feeling it would be alot easier to bring 201 wires to one location rather then trying to mount a bunch of triacs on the star itself, little alone making sure each triac is sealed up good from the weather.

Man I can't wait to see this thou after you make it.

Another thought to consider. I know there have been several in the past that have talked about trying to make this work and not sure if anyone has succeeded yet. Last year I remember people talking about making a board that would allow you to control several objects (in this case lights) with only one channel. It had to do with relays set after the controller that switched to the item you wanted to control at that time. The only downfall I think is I am not sure if you would be able to ever have all items on at the same time, but its another thought.

[Guest guest]

Thanks for your reply. My thought was to use a string of C9 lights. If I cut one lead and install the triac, all I have to do is run one 24 gauge wire to the triac. The weight, size and realestate of 200 - 24 gauge wires is substantinally less than 16 or 18 gauge wire. Also thing of the time/cost saving. I already have the soket wired and all I have to do is snale the wire back and forth soldering a triac in triac at every socket. As for the weatherizing. I've been exposing all my circuits to the elements for several years with no ill effects. I make sure all are plugged into GFI and test the GFI's weekly. I've had one GFI fail.

[Guest guest]

Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't see why you need thicker wire coming from the triac then from wire going to the triac.

[Guest guest]

seems if you had too many small wires bundled together wouldnt you possibly run into issues with capacitance from the cable making the triacs wig out?

-Christopher

[Guest guest]

Mutual inductance? Dan at LOR said people are using opto isolators and hinted that something is in the works.

An Opto iso is an LED pointed at a photo transister or maybe an its an or acting as an photo triac.

As the LED lights and becomes brighter the amount brightness of the LED controlls the 110/220v output. Brighter LED, brighter lights. It should have all the characteristics of a triac and no heat sink is required. The on state is non zero crossing and but max amperage is 1.5. Do a Google search for MOC 3009. I found a nice ppt slide deck from an ee class at Purdue.

In my mind this would be perfect for strobes, one lighters or possible entire strings of LCD lights.

Oh one more thing. They are inexpensive. I think triacs are about $3.00 each, these are about $1.00, with Goolge I found them for $0.35 each. LOR runs about $10 a channel. I'm thinking using these we might see low amp channel prices at $5.00 or less.

It's an opto ISOLATOR meaning the low voltage is isolated from the 110v side. Even if the chip were to have a meltdown, it would be highly unlikely the 110v side would ever com in contact with the low v side.

Has anyone used these with LOR?

And one more thing. Instead of running a 16 or 18 gauage wire from a control box to a light. These guys could be mounted in-line with a strandof lights and a pair of 24 gauage wires is all that is needed from the control box to the string of lights. Depending on how you arrange poser to your display, it could save you a bunch on wire costs. The control wire could be 4 conductor phone cable. I picked up a 1,000 foot spool for 20. It's a lot less then 18 guage zip cord.

[Guest guest]

I highly doubt Dan at LOR will share his schematic. Think about it. He might as well give you the source code for the software too.



You can find standard Triac circuits on the net. I think even PC still have it some where here.

It won't do dimming/fading though.

[Guest guest]

I understand, but I don't think anythig is copywrited or properitary.

I'm using a DIO card with SSRs with LOR software. LOR did not make the card or any of the electronics I am using. LOR software works with it. Why couldn't someone make make a board control box that is compatable with LOR?

What he is selling is a finished tested product and included is support and a guarnetee. Something I am more then willing to pay for and have. If I didn't think he had a better product or that his services were woth while I would have: written my own or used or used Vixen or Comet.

In this instance, LOR does not have a product that meets my needs. Since every display is custom and we share ideas with each other I was looking for a solution from somone else.

I hope we all continue to support Dan and LOR so he continues to develpoe and improve his product. He has my business and will contiue to have it.

As a footnote, I offered to buy kits from LOR to see if I could modify them.

[Guest guest]

I think you may have missed interpreted what I have said. Maybe I miss-understood what you are looking for...

I have built my own SSR circuits that work with a DIO96 port board before I purchased LOR circuits and software.

LOR software will work with your existing DIO board provided you are using the proper drivers.

I still use my home-built SSR circuits and my DIO-96 board that is compatible with LOR.

These circuits are used for props I have no need to fade/dim, etc., so it works quite well.

I gained the LOR features, and still use my SSR circuits all with LOR.

[Guest guest]

John,

No problem I'm not that great at writing what I am trying to express. Let me try again.

I was a Dasher user up until about 3 weeks ago. I have a 48 port DIO card worked great for Dasher and is working perfectly for LOR. But as I'm sure you know, DIO cards can't perform several functions. I'm more into animation then lights and music. The DIO card works perfectly for that.

I'm thinking about building 200 light star (50 lights/4 colors). Instead of running 200 18 gauges wires all over the place, (think of the weight and size of the bundles of wires), I thought I would run a stings of lights and then cut the "hot" lead at each socket and install a triac or opto isolator. Then for the control lead, all I need to do is run phone/cat5 wire to the the control lead of every triac.

I could buy 13 of LORs 16 channel kits, but even that's going to be bulky. I was asking if somone has made a higher density controller that is feature compatable (shimmer, fades, sparkel) with LOR.

Or has anyone tried separating the triacs or opto isolators from the LOR card.

What would be ideal is if LOR would sell a board without the triacs/opto isolators allowing them to be placed somewhere else. Since I don't have any LOR cards, I can't tell. I was hoping someone had already given this a try. Guess I'll be the first.

Hope I've cleared up any confusion. I'm not trying to put LOR out of business or sugest that anyone take business away from them. At this time they don't have a product that meets my needs and requirements. Just trying to find a solution.