Guest guest Posted December 17, 2006 Share Posted December 17, 2006 Hey guys-I am planning to go with LOR next year- and just trying to figure out how to accomplish this. My roof lines carry about 14amps total (I run 20 amp circuits). If I want them ALL to stay in sequence together- and operate off one channel, how do I wire that up? Can I have one circuit dedicated to one channel in LOR? Do I just have that one circuit wire directly into my LOR box, then out to the lights? Or, do I have to span this across multiple channels?Thanks for the help... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 17, 2006 Share Posted December 17, 2006 Not done it myself but hook up the lights to a SSR. Then the LOR controls the SSR to come on and off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 17, 2006 Share Posted December 17, 2006 Well, the triacs are rated at 16 amps, so, theoretically, if you only used one triac per bank, you could put 14 amps on it, although that's pushing the limits. Best option is probably an SSR or using multiple channels. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 17, 2006 Share Posted December 17, 2006 You don't.I believe that there is a max. of 8amps per a single channel. Check the instructions, LOR web site and the Wiki. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 17, 2006 Share Posted December 17, 2006 Robin wrote: You don't.I believe that there is a max. of 8amps per a single channel. Check the instructions, LOR web site and the Wiki.That's mainly due to heat buildup from the other triacs and limitted heat sink space. They are actually 16 amp triacs. I think 14 amp is pushing the limits, but you *can* go a bit above 8 if you have the larger heat sinks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 17, 2006 Share Posted December 17, 2006 Ok then go to the FAQ on the LOR website!!!!"Never put more than 8amps on a channel"Thank you Robin for saving my controller.:] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 17, 2006 Share Posted December 17, 2006 You could easily split the lights up onto two channels, and turn them on and off simultaneously. I do that in a lot of parts of my sequences, though not for power reasons, just because I want that part of the song to have two channels doing the exact same thing at the same time.D.T. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 17, 2006 Share Posted December 17, 2006 You can try and go the SSR method but you will not be able to dim, just off and on.I had this same problem this year because my entire roof line takes 13 amps per color and I have 3 colors, Red, White, & Green which takes a total of 29 amps. I had to split it up on 6 channels, 2 channels per color so each channel was around 7 amps. What then gets tricky is you can only have 15 amps per side on a controller. If I put 2 of my channels from the roof on the same controller, I was at 14 amps and only had 1 more amp for 6 channels. I ended up only putting 1 roof channel per side of my controllers (I have 5 controllers) so I would have sufficient amps for the other channels. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 17, 2006 Share Posted December 17, 2006 As long as the SSR doesn't have zero cross detection, it will dim fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 18, 2006 Share Posted December 18, 2006 Yea , I would use a few channels to do this. Like channel 1 and 9 .The triacs can hold a load at 8 Amps but can surge to 16Amps for a few seconds. I would say you are at risk of blowing a triac if using one channel. And you wont be able to hook much to the rest of the channels only having 4 Amps left to use on that side of the controller.Just food for thoughtMike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 18, 2006 Share Posted December 18, 2006 ok- soo...When the power comes into the LOR unit- does it all come off of ONE outlet/circuit? Or, can I hook up multiple circuits to the input? So for example- obviously my roof lines have to be on their own circuit due to how much power they draw in. Do I have a separate input into the controller just for that circuit itself? Then all my other outputs can run off of other circuits as well?Mike- I'm also here in Gilbert- where's your display, and how many channels you running? I'd like to come check it out.Thanks guys! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 18, 2006 Share Posted December 18, 2006 Being a "newbie", what is an SSR?Sally Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 18, 2006 Share Posted December 18, 2006 A SSR is a Solid State Relay. They have different ratings so check you voltages and currents on both sides. I have not found it bad to buy one with a "higher than you might ever use" current rating :smile: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 18, 2006 Share Posted December 18, 2006 Do I just google "solid state relay" and product info will display? Is it something I can buy at say, a Radio Shack? Does it need to be built?So many questions....I think I need an electricity 101 class!Sally Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 18, 2006 Share Posted December 18, 2006 A relay is a switch. You can have a small amount of current turn on/off the switch- but when it's on, it uses an outside current to power the thing.So for this- you can have LOR turn ON the switch, but when it goes on, it doesn't use the current that was used to turn it on, it uses a separate power cord to actually power the lights. When the LOR says 'turn off', it closes the switch and shuts off the power to the lights. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 18, 2006 Share Posted December 18, 2006 Okay...so the LOR channel only turns it on, what is being turned on is plugged into an alternate power source not the LOR controller. Correct?S Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 21, 2006 Share Posted December 21, 2006 I don't get it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 22, 2006 Share Posted December 22, 2006 what is a good ssr to use with a LOR controller. right now I'm using a mechanical relay (ice cube) a little bit noisy...Jared Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 22, 2006 Share Posted December 22, 2006 azspecter wrote: ok- soo...When the power comes into the LOR unit- does it all come off of ONE outlet/circuit? Or, can I hook up multiple circuits to the input? So for example- obviously my roof lines have to be on their own circuit due to how much power they draw in. Do I have a separate input into the controller just for that circuit itself? Then all my other outputs can run off of other circuits as well?Thanks guys!If you have the 16 channel controller, yes, their are two inputs, each for 8 channels. Each side has a fuse and I think the right side controlls the logic side of the controller. So if you do spilt the circuts then you can get your 20 amp on the 8 channels but you might have to use 2 or 3 of them. Or use all 8 for more effect, or a relay to save channels.--Daniel L Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 22, 2006 Share Posted December 22, 2006 Yeah, I think a relay is the way to go. That way, I can just use 1-2 channels for my entire roofline- and not max out my controller and waste channels. Anyone know of a good relay that will allow dimming, twinkling, etc?Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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