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Australian LOR Setup (240v) Questions


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Hi Guys,

I'm in Sydney, Australia and hoping to do a big xmas light show next year. Of course over here we use 240v power.

What sort of lights can I attach to a LOR controller? Can they be full voltage (eg, 110v or 240v)? or do they have to be 24v?

It's just some of my lights are direct connect to the wall (eg rope lights) while most are 24v with a transformer plug attached to step down the voltage (eg, led lights, regular string lights etc).

If anyone in a 240v area has any experience with LOR i'd love to hear from you. Even if you just have some ideas on this.

Cheers

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I'm from Brisbane. This year I purchased 2 of 16 channel LOR controllers to test and have been generally very happy. Before purchase, Dan warned that there have been instances of transformers failing as a result of LOR switching and dimming. He also advised that the 16 channel controllers can have 2 separate power feeds and it would be possible to power 8 channels with a low voltage (eg 24V AC) however the other 8 channels would require the mains voltage as this also feeds the on board electronics. I have not tried the separate power voltages as everything I have tried works OK with 240V supply.

As a result of the warnings, I undertook a series of tests with transformer operated light strings and measured transformer temperature rise rates for various switching rates and dimming combinations. I found no adverse effects on the transformers tested from dimming, however, rapid continuous switching (>2-3/sec) did result in increased temperatures in the transformers.

For this year's display, I have limited the LOR usage to animations. This has worked without problems. All my channels are controlling the 240V AC supply to the lights. Some are direct 240V rope lights, but most are transformer coupled strings. I suggest avoiding LOR for strings with built in controllers.

At this stage I expect to purchase additional channels of LOR for next years display.

Hope this helps - Geoff

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Thanks for all that info. That's put me in the right direction. Hello to everyone in the across the pond section. I'm posting to both places to move the conversation over there.

So would you suggest using primarily rope lights?

If I do use 24v lights with transformers would it be worth chopping out the little "8 channel" control box to avoid problems? I read a few people are just buying us lights and installing a a 240-110 transformer but I'd rather avoid that if possible.

I'll also post this in the "across the pond" section and hopefully continue the conversation there.



thanks guys.

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This has been great for me as well. I live over in New Zealand. I was planning to get LOR this year, but ran out of $$$. :)

My lights on my tree, (the ones I want to animate) have no controller box and plug straight into mains power (240v) So I guess they will be fine.

Thanks again for taking the time to answer this. Cheers!!!

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Nightflyer wrote:

Hi Guys,

I'm in Sydney, Australia and hoping to do a big xmas light show next year. Of course over here we use 240v power.

What sort of lights can I attach to a LOR controller? Can they be full voltage (eg, 110v or 240v)? or do they have to be 24v?

It's just some of my lights are direct connect to the wall (eg rope lights) while most are 24v with a transformer plug attached to step down the voltage (eg, led lights, regular string lights etc).

If anyone in a 240v area has any experience with LOR i'd love to hear from you. Even if you just have some ideas on this.

Cheers

I have heard of people using Animated Lighting equipment and they actually used DIMMING to emulate 24 volts for lighting. I think there may be an issue with the amount of amps made available or maybe not I dont know but the AL software has a way to set the top voltage to all circuits. For example here in USA, I find most bulbs light up 98% brightness at 95 volts as opposed to full 120 house current, so to save on electric bill and stop causing power fluctuations in the house, I set my maximum voltages to 95 volts. This saves us 20% of the electric bill with no loss to the show's effectiveness but it also helps us not trip breakers and blow fuses at same time.
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