bretk Posted January 29, 2012 Share Posted January 29, 2012 All, Greg sent me a string of his new warm white lights to try. Here's what I think so far.The strand seems to be very well constructed, on par with the other sealed LEDs marketed by Cdi and others. They are full wave and dim very well, I have had them running scince they got here Friday with no issues. Spacing is a consistent 4" and color is a nice warm incandescent type white. I personally use cool white, and hope that Greg considers adding these to his color selection (hint:cool:). The bulbs at M5 as said, not the M6 but IMO at night it's hard to distinguish. All in all, a good deal for the price and another nice option out there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evan.a Posted January 29, 2012 Share Posted January 29, 2012 Thanks for sharing,here's the link.http://forums.lightorama.com/forum81/32140.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 30, 2012 Share Posted January 30, 2012 Since there is already a review thread started here, I'll just post my results in this thread as well.I got my Warm White, C6/100 Count Full-Wave, Sealed LED, green wire strand in today(Monday-Jan. 30, 2012) from Greg at Seasonal Entertainment via UPS.I have been testing them, here's the results of my testing:Tested via the LOR Hardware Utility, CTB16PC Generation 2 Boards#1. Full Brightness - Excellent#2. Shimmer - Excellent#3. Twinkle - Excellent#4. *Fades Up and Down - Not as expected, in the first section(next to the male/female pass through plug) 50 of the LED's flicker mildy at a Fade Intensity of 8-12 seconds, it gets more noticable as the fade timing is increased, as the fades do get longer (12 seconds and higher) the flicker is very noticeable on the first section of 50 LED's, the second section of 50 LEDs show mild flickering at the slower/longer fade rate. Fast fades are not a problem.*NOTE: You may/may not have this issue with the CTB16PC Generation 3 Controllers, since I don't have a GEN3 CTB16PC controller to test them with, I can't verify if the flicker issue would be resolved with a GEN3 CTB16PC controller or not. So if you are using a GEN1 or GEN2 CTB16PC Controller, it may require a snubber to stop the flickering effect during a very slow fade up or down.Other than the very slow fade issues I encountered above, the C6 Warm White LED, Full-Wave, 100 CT strand did perform very well, the LED's are all uniformly lit and look very nice. The strand appears to be very well constructed to withstand outdoor use.Yes, I'd recommend them for use. Just be aware that you may need a snubber for older controllers (GEN1/GEN2 CTB16PC or GEN1/GEN 2 LOR1602/1602W). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rstately Posted January 30, 2012 Share Posted January 30, 2012 Hey Orville, one thing to try is rotate the plug on the lights 180 degree's to see if it's the polarity? other than that I'm surprised your having this problem,,, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ponddude Posted January 30, 2012 Share Posted January 30, 2012 Thank you everyone for the reviews. There are a few more strands we sent out to people so I encourage everyone to listen to the customers who are actually testing them. Everyone's opinions are of their own. I just asked that the people who got the samples give their honest opinions.Orville, while I certainly do not doubt that you are seeing what you are seeing, I personally did not see it. I tested the lights on the Gen 1 and Gen 2 controllers of the PC series, a Showtime controller and the Lynx Express. I will say that the Lynx did perform extremely well but they have built in snubbers, much like the Gen 3 PC controllers now do. I will also note that you are going to be extremely hard pressed to find any strand of LED lights that fade perfectly without a snubber. It is just the nature of the beast and the reason why so many controllers, including those now at LOR, are adding snubbers on board to eliminate that problem.I thank everyone for their comments on the lights and encourge more to people to join in. Also, for those of you that got smaples, if you can, pass them around to other people who may want to do some testing of their own. We don't have anymore of the samples we ordered on handle anymore Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pstigerfan Posted January 30, 2012 Share Posted January 30, 2012 I just received my sample C6 Warm White strand and am happy so far with the results I am seeing. I've still got some more testing to do on them, but so far, it looks like I'll be putting my order in by the end of the week.I'd be happy to pass my sample strand on to anyone who wasn't fortunate to receive one from Greg. Just shoot me a PM with your information and I'll pass it on when I'm finished with it.Paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 30, 2012 Share Posted January 30, 2012 I actually have some purple LED button style LEDs I bought at Big Lots in 2010. These don't have any of the warts on the strand, these fade up and down perfectly and smoothly on both my GEN 1 and GEN 2 CTB16PC Controllers WITHOUT any type of snubber at all.That's why I was surprised at the Full-Wave LED strings showing this effect, which looks like the "shimmer" effect.I tried them on all 5 of my controllers to see if it may have been just the one controller, all showed the same issue with the fade up or down.I have one GEN 1 and 4 GEN 2 CTB16PC Controllers, so I could only post the results I got usingmy controllers.Don't know what may be different in my controllers, but I do get a flicker/shimmer effect on slow drawn out fades in either up or down. I connected the purple LED strands and they faded perfectly without no flicker/shimmer on very slow drawn out fades. And I'd guess these may be 1/2 Wave, but they don't have any flicker t them, not even when I "shake" them while looking at them.So if these worked on the same controllers you have, that does puzzle me because I'd think they would work the same on the same type controllers.Thr 4 CTB16PC Controllers I have were all purchased from January to March of 2010. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 30, 2012 Share Posted January 30, 2012 rstately wrote: Hey Orville, one thing to try is rotate the plug on the lights 180 degree's to see if it's the polarity? other than that I'm surprised your having this problem,,,Yep, tried that too. It was the first thing I thought of, just forgot to post that in my review. But didn't matter, either way, same problem with the fade up/down on slow drawn out fades, the slower the fade, the more pronounced the flicker/shimmer effect is.I definitely did not think a full-wave strand would have this issue at all, so I was very surprised that this is occurring on my controllers, which apparently Greg has tested them on the same type I have and didn't have the problem.So this one has me puzzled, especially when a Big Lots unsealed Purple Button type strand works perfecty with the same fade up and down settings.I plugged them in side by side, Purple on Channel 1, C6 WW on Channel 2 and the purples fades fine, only get the flicker on the C6 strand. And yes, I even tried switching them around on different channels and controllers as well as the plug roatation, same issue no matter what or how I plugged them in.Definitely puzzling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest wbottomley Posted January 30, 2012 Share Posted January 30, 2012 Just as an FYI... There's only two types of controllers. The original ones and Gen2 which are labeled Gen3. You may have different versions of a generation which can make a big difference.What firmware version are loaded onto these controllers? This would give a better review if that information is known. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Surfing4Dough Posted January 30, 2012 Share Posted January 30, 2012 Orville wrote: I actually have some purple LED button style LEDs I bought at Big Lots in 2010. These don't have any of the warts on the strand, these fade up and down perfectly and smoothly on both my GEN 1 and GEN 2 CTB16PC Controllers WITHOUT any type of snubber at all.That's why I was surprised at the Full-Wave LED strings showing this effect, which looks like the "shimmer" effect.I tried them on all 5 of my controllers to see if it may have been just the one controller, all showed the same issue with the fade up or down.I have one GEN 1 and 4 GEN 2 CTB16PC Controllers, so I could only post the results I got usingmy controllers.Don't know what may be different in my controllers, but I do get a flicker/shimmer effect on slow drawn out fades in either up or down. I connected the purple LED strands and they faded perfectly without no flicker/shimmer on very slow drawn out fades. And I'd guess these may be 1/2 Wave, but they don't have any flicker t them, not even when I "shake" them while looking at them.So if these worked on the same controllers you have, that does puzzle me because I'd think they would work the same on the same type controllers.Thr 4 CTB16PC Controllers I have were all purchased from January to March of 2010.Were the purple LEDs a 100ct string? That is the only way you can truly be comparing apples to apples. The fading/snubber issue becomes noticeable the longer the line is. I suspect your purples are less than 100ct since I thought most of what Big Lots sold were 35ct, 50ct, 60ct, and some 70cts. I don't think the fading/snubber issue has much to do with the half-wave/full-wave difference. That is a different issue altogether. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bretk Posted January 30, 2012 Author Share Posted January 30, 2012 I have not noticed any shimmer probs with a slow fade on my gen 2 controllers (one wow lights ctb16pc and one 1602 board) but that is just for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 30, 2012 Share Posted January 30, 2012 Surfing4Dough wrote: Orville wrote: I actually have some purple LED button style LEDs I bought at Big Lots in 2010. These don't have any of the warts on the strand, these fade up and down perfectly and smoothly on both my GEN 1 and GEN 2 CTB16PC Controllers WITHOUT any type of snubber at all.That's why I was surprised at the Full-Wave LED strings showing this effect, which looks like the "shimmer" effect.I tried them on all 5 of my controllers to see if it may have been just the one controller, all showed the same issue with the fade up or down.I have one GEN 1 and 4 GEN 2 CTB16PC Controllers, so I could only post the results I got usingmy controllers.Don't know what may be different in my controllers, but I do get a flicker/shimmer effect on slow drawn out fades in either up or down. I connected the purple LED strands and they faded perfectly without no flicker/shimmer on very slow drawn out fades. And I'd guess these may be 1/2 Wave, but they don't have any flicker t them, not even when I "shake" them while looking at them.So if these worked on the same controllers you have, that does puzzle me because I'd think they would work the same on the same type controllers.Thr 4 CTB16PC Controllers I have were all purchased from January to March of 2010.Were the purple LEDs a 100ct string? That is the only way you can truly be comparing apples to apples. The fading/snubber issue becomes noticeable the longer the line is. I suspect your purples are less than 100ct since I thought most of what Big Lots sold were 35ct, 50ct, 60ct, and some 70cts. I don't think the fading/snubber issue has much to do with the half-wave/full-wave difference. That is a different issue altogether.35 Count, but have 3 strands (105 LEDS) hardwired (tied) together to create one long strand. So there are 5 more LED's on the purple strand and they have no problems at all. Definitely puzzling to me.What's even more puzzling is I tried to capture it on video, but my camera just can't seem to pick it up during the fade up/down. I see it, my wife sees it, as the LED's start fading slowly up, or just as they slowly fade off, but the stupid camera doesn't seem to want to pick it up. (Nikon CoolPix II - 5 Megapixel) It's an older camera and just can't pick this up for whatever reason and I've tried every setting available on the video aspects to try and video what I and my wife are seeing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Surfing4Dough Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 Orville wrote: Surfing4Dough wrote: Orville wrote: I actually have some purple LED button style LEDs I bought at Big Lots in 2010. These don't have any of the warts on the strand, these fade up and down perfectly and smoothly on both my GEN 1 and GEN 2 CTB16PC Controllers WITHOUT any type of snubber at all.That's why I was surprised at the Full-Wave LED strings showing this effect, which looks like the "shimmer" effect.I tried them on all 5 of my controllers to see if it may have been just the one controller, all showed the same issue with the fade up or down.I have one GEN 1 and 4 GEN 2 CTB16PC Controllers, so I could only post the results I got usingmy controllers.Don't know what may be different in my controllers, but I do get a flicker/shimmer effect on slow drawn out fades in either up or down. I connected the purple LED strands and they faded perfectly without no flicker/shimmer on very slow drawn out fades. And I'd guess these may be 1/2 Wave, but they don't have any flicker t them, not even when I "shake" them while looking at them.So if these worked on the same controllers you have, that does puzzle me because I'd think they would work the same on the same type controllers.Thr 4 CTB16PC Controllers I have were all purchased from January to March of 2010.Were the purple LEDs a 100ct string? That is the only way you can truly be comparing apples to apples. The fading/snubber issue becomes noticeable the longer the line is. I suspect your purples are less than 100ct since I thought most of what Big Lots sold were 35ct, 50ct, 60ct, and some 70cts. I don't think the fading/snubber issue has much to do with the half-wave/full-wave difference. That is a different issue altogether.35 Count, but have 3 strands (105 LEDS) hardwired (tied) together to create one long strand. So there are 5 more LED's on the purple strand and they have no problems at all. Definitely puzzling to me.What's even more puzzling is I tried to capture it on video, but my camera just can't seem to pick it up during the fade up/down. I see it, my wife sees it, as the LED's start fading slowly up, or just as they slowly fade off, but the stupid camera doesn't seem to want to pick it up. (Nikon CoolPix II - 5 Megapixel) It's an older camera and just can't pick this up for whatever reason and I've tried every setting available on the video aspects to try and video what I and my wife are seeing.Appears that you are "seeing things" (Ironically, seems that usually it is the other way around.)Must have something to do with speed of light differences going through the camera lens. (sorry, couldn't resist all of these) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 Firmware in my CTB16PC Controllers:GEN 1 Board: FW: 4.32 (no further FW update for this controller that I've seen.)GEN 2 Boards: FW: 4.40 (haven't seen any further FW updates for these controllers.)And I do keep watching for any additional firmware updates for them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WilliamS Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 Depending on how many FPS your camera can capture vs how many flashes or flickers per second are actaully being output. If your camera only records at 24 or so as most do, and its flickering at 50hz if you do see it would only be if they synced perfectly and it would still be random at best. I know when I recorded my house in 30fps it would hardly catch the shimmer it would like like a lopsided fade in poor terms. In 60fps it came out as a shimmer.I got lucky as all my Lowes strings fade without issue, my neighbors have an outside decoration I added to the end of a channel that was made of LED's and it did not like to fade. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 Okay, I was finally able to capture the flicker effect with my camera as the stand fades slowly off.This is the fade "flicker" issue I encountered when using a slow fade. This is a Full-Wave 100 Count Warm White LED Sealed Strand I received for testing from Seasonal Entertainment.Direct URL to Video on Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/35973125Password to view video: SE-TEST_2012NOTE: at the time of this posting, there is a 19 minute wait time before the video will be available for viewing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 Sorry the video quality isn't very good, but it's the best I could do with my camera's video option. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest wbottomley Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 Orville wrote:Firmware in my CTB16PC Controllers:GEN 1 Board: FW: 4.32 (no further FW update for this controller that I've seen.)GEN 2 Boards: FW: 4.40 (haven't seen any further FW updates for these controllers.)And I do keep watching for any additional firmware updates for them.What version is your boards? V1, V2, V5, or etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 wbottomley wrote: Orville wrote:Firmware in my CTB16PC Controllers:GEN 1 Board: FW: 4.32 (no further FW update for this controller that I've seen.)GEN 2 Boards: FW: 4.40 (haven't seen any further FW updates for these controllers.)And I do keep watching for any additional firmware updates for them.What version is your boards? V1, V2, V5, or etc.1 = V14 = V2That's what I was calling GEN 1 and GEN 2 boards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest wbottomley Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 Orville wrote:wbottomley wrote: Orville wrote:Firmware in my CTB16PC Controllers:GEN 1 Board: FW: 4.32 (no further FW update for this controller that I've seen.)GEN 2 Boards: FW: 4.40 (haven't seen any further FW updates for these controllers.)And I do keep watching for any additional firmware updates for them.What version is your boards? V1, V2, V5, or etc.1 = V14 = V2That's what I was calling GEN 1 and GEN 2 boards.And... that's where you were wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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