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Sequencing Strobe Lights


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Posted

I was wondering how everyone sequences their strobe lights. When they are on are they: on, twinkling, shimmering, fading, etc. Any help would be great.

Thanks!

Posted

100% or nothing.

Posted (edited)

The guys are right... your typical strobe should be either 100% on, or off. No fades, no twinkles or shimmers. DMX strobes are a different story, but I don't think you're asking about those.

D.T.

Edited by DownTown
Posted

100% or nothing.

+1

Posted

LED strobes can be pre-charged at 15% to 20% for a few milliseconds to make them appear more random when you need them. Just make sure you are only doing that to LED strobes since incandescent strobes don't care for that type of treatment.

Posted

LED strobes can be pre-charged at 15% to 20% for a few milliseconds to make them appear more random when you need them. Just make sure you are only doing that to LED strobes since incandescent strobes don't care for that type of treatment.

Agreed. Precharge the LEDs. You may want to dig them out now and hook them up to the controller to determine the precharge time. I do about .1 seconds at 10%. That usually works pretty good.

Posted

just to be clear if i have my strobes set for example 1.35 min i should have the strobe set on 10% at 1.34 to get a random flash from them i have 25 on 2 different strings

Posted (edited)

Agreed. Precharge the LEDs. You may want to dig them out now and hook them up to the controller to determine the precharge time. I do about .1 seconds at 10%. That usually works pretty good.

The flip side is you can have all(or almost all) of them flash on demand... which is kinda cool imho. :) I've done it with our mega tree star that has 23 strobes on it.

Edited by Jeffrey
  • 5 months later...
Posted

So, I know this is a bit of an old thread, but I've just got my 10 pack of Xenon strobes, and not sure how to get them fire randomly. I am planning to put them on my "mega" tree and was hoping to only have to dedicate a single channel for them. But when I trigger them, they all flash in unison for at least the first 2 seconds and then begin to randomize. Is there any way to precharge them to get a more random effect? Or is my only option to dedicate 4 or 5 channels to them?

Guest wbottomley
Posted

Your stuck with what you have unless you split them up on two different channels.

Posted

I know people have somewhat successfully accomplished randomizing LED strobes by giving them 16% intensity for half a second or so prior to full on, but I don't recall seeing a report from anyone trying the same with xenon tube models. Maybe someone who's tried it will chime in with their results.

Posted (edited)

So, I know this is a bit of an old thread, but I've just got my 10 pack of Xenon strobes, and not sure how to get them fire randomly. I am planning to put them on my "mega" tree and was hoping to only have to dedicate a single channel for them. But when I trigger them, they all flash in unison for at least the first 2 seconds and then begin to randomize. Is there any way to precharge them to get a more random effect? Or is my only option to dedicate 4 or 5 channels to them?

You could get them to be semi random. On the sequence editor for about .1-.2 of a second have it on a 100% power then off for .2 of a second then on for as long as you need it to be on.

You will have to play around with it to determine the proper amount of time. Just remember that you can not fade or shimmer or twinkle.

Edited by TitusCarnathan
Posted

I use LED strobes (not the popular choice) but they work great and are very bright.

Anyhow, I have 2 types. About a 50/50 split. Some are 1 flash per second and the others are 3/4 flash per second. That gives me the random effect that I want.

Posted
So, I know this is a bit of an old thread, but I've just got my 10 pack of Xenon strobes, and not sure how to get them fire randomly. I am planning to put them on my "mega" tree and was hoping to only have to dedicate a single channel for them. But when I trigger them, they all flash in unison for at least the first 2 seconds and then begin to randomize. Is there any way to precharge them to get a more random effect? Or is my only option to dedicate 4 or 5 channels to them?

Usually this is only used for LED strobes, but you can try precharging them. Basically this means turning them on at an intensity of 10% to 20% for a few seconds before you want them to go off.

Posted

So, I know this is a bit of an old thread, but I've just got my 10 pack of Xenon strobes, and not sure how to get them fire randomly. I am planning to put them on my "mega" tree and was hoping to only have to dedicate a single channel for them. But when I trigger them, they all flash in unison for at least the first 2 seconds and then begin to randomize. Is there any way to precharge them to get a more random effect? Or is my only option to dedicate 4 or 5 channels to them?

I had that problem last year so this year I ordered some faster ones and mixed the two on the same string randomly. Worked very well..

Posted

Usually this is only used for LED strobes, but you can try precharging them. Basically this means turning them on at an intensity of 10% to 20% for a few seconds before you want them to go off.

That might damage the xenon ones.

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

That might damage the xenon ones.

I just turned mine on at 100% for 0.1 sec about 0.5 sec before I wanted them to fire.

The odd one would fire but for the most part it did help some what !

Dave

Guest
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