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10w RGB Flood Light - Reverse Engineering


Dave H1

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Tim,

My reason is because I'm not using DMX. $20 per LED flood with free shipping can't be beat.

And I've compared these RGB LED floods to the Rainbow Floods and the Rainbow floods can't match the 10W floods.

AND, the price on the 10W LED floods beat the Rainbow Floods as well.

I'm just speaking for myself on my reason here and my comparison.

 

Just curious, how much lower is the shipping with Ray with multiple items? Because $25 or more on shipping per item keeps me from ordering from him. If he had an online calculator that would show what shipping of multiple items would be without haggling for it, then at least I could see what the shipping is prior to ordering. But free shipping is hard to beat when your on a budget.

I agree with you, there really isn't any comparison between the RBs and the 12V floods from Ray.  I was trying to remain ambiguous to be kind ;)

As for the shipping discount - it's pretty dramatic.  You can probably order 4 floods for maybe $10 more shipping than one.  To be sure, just drop him a note on Ali, he will get back to you within a day or so.

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I agree with you, there really isn't any comparison between the RBs and the 12V floods from Ray.  I was trying to remain ambiguous to be kind ;)

As for the shipping discount - it's pretty dramatic.  You can probably order 4 floods for maybe $10 more shipping than one.  To be sure, just drop him a note on Ali, he will get back to you within a day or so.

Thanks Tim,

 

As for the comparison, I don't mean to slam the Rainbow floods as I have dozens of them, but in the world of technology, you gotta keep up with the new stuff out there. And man is it hard to keep up with new products coming out now days.

 

As for Ray,

I might check that out. I learn new stuff every day, which is one reason I'm here.

Edited by Santas Helper
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Thanks Tim,

 

As for the comparison, I don't mean to slam the Rainbow floods as I have dozens of them, but in the world of technology, you gotta keep up with the new stuff out there. And man is it hard to keep up with new products coming out now days.

 

As for Ray,

I might check that out. I learn new stuff every day, which is one reason I'm here.

Thats what's fustrating about the fast paced technology.  You find a new bright led, design a fixture to make use of it, get it UL approved, make lots of them and then it's obsolete before you can sell them.  Household led lighting and flashlights are way behind in technology.

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Thats what's fustrating about the fast paced technology.  You find a new bright led, design a fixture to make use of it, get it UL approved, make lots of them and then it's obsolete before you can sell them.  Household led lighting and flashlights are way behind in technology.

 

Isn't that the truth!!!

 

Although I have a 10W flashlight (Stanely FATMAX) that kicks some serious flashlight butt. :D

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  • 5 weeks later...
 

it definately won't be the ones that Holidaycoro sells.

 

 

Jim, care to enlighten me as to why?  I have been considering this for floods on my house this year as it seemed the easiest way to get there.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks Tim for your post.  I wasn't aware there were DMX versions of these floods.  I don't buy from Ray.  I like Ebay a lot better, but they don't have DMX versions on Ebay.  I also wouldn't be able to build to sell for that price.  I might try to see if I can get the controller used in the flood, it definately won't be the ones that Holidaycoro sells.

 

Jim -

 

I just noticed this reference to our controllers and would like to know if there is any issue we can remedy or provide more information on.  We want all of our customers to be 100% happy with their products and it doesn't sound like that is the case with your purchase.  Please feel free to respond here or to our private support ticket request.

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Jim, care to enlighten me as to why?  I have been considering this for floods on my house this year as it seemed the easiest way to get there.

 

Paul -

 

We reached out to Jim four days ago but did not hear back.  We would like you and everyone else to know that we take all issues of quality or functionality seriously.  We expend more man hours in supporting our customers and their solutions/projects than we do for any other single process including marketing or order processing.  We always try to keep the lines of communcation open through our feeback system, review system, support email and phone line  - should any customer ever have an issue with our products, all we ask is that we are given a shot to resolve your problem and keep you as a happy customer.

 

Thanks,

David

HolidayCoro.com

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Hi David,

 

I never heard from him either, so I don't know what the issue was. 

 

I just placed an order for your equipment and built them here in the last couple of days.  I want to get these outside and installed to see what they look like at night.  So far, the only issue I've had was the DMX programmer wasn't very straight fwd, but I was able to setup my second flood.

 

So, no problems that I am aware of.

Thanks!
Paul

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Hi David,

 

I never heard from him either, so I don't know what the issue was. 

 

I just placed an order for your equipment and built them here in the last couple of days.  I want to get these outside and installed to see what they look like at night.  So far, the only issue I've had was the DMX programmer wasn't very straight fwd, but I was able to setup my second flood.

 

So, no problems that I am aware of.

Thanks!

Paul

 

Paul -

 

Thanks for the feedback.  Can you tell me what issues on the DMX programmer we could improve to make it easier to program the controllers?

 

Thanks,

David

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I found I had to use the change button instead of the write button.  I had originally tried to enter a new address and just write it to the controller, but that seemed to fail each time.  So I then tried the change button and changed it to 4, restarted the program and pressed read to verify that the channels started at 4.

 

I also didn't see a way to set the test cycle function after setting the channel on the controller to 4.

 

Perhaps a simpler interface.  Scan for the device and do a read at startup, I don't see a need to have read and write buttons there.  Report the channel configuration and the test cycle function in read only controls.  The have a single edit box for the new channel number start, a drop down list for the new test cycle mode and a single 'Set' button.  After the set completes, read the device and update the read only controls.

 

Perhaps there is more functionality in the program than I am aware of.  For example, I have no idea what the sliders on the right hand side are supposed to do.

 

Anyway - that's my feedback.  Hope it helps!

 

Thanks!
Paul

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Jim -

 

I just noticed this reference to our controllers and would like to know if there is any issue we can remedy or provide more information on.  We want all of our customers to be 100% happy with their products and it doesn't sound like that is the case with your purchase.  Please feel free to respond here or to our private support ticket request.

Hey guys, sorry for the confusion.  David, I owe you an apology.  I don't have anything against your products.  It was past my bedtime when I posted that and didn't word my thoughts correctly.  I believe what meant to say was, I can't use the three channel controllers for my floods because they are four color floods.  If I were using RGB then yes, the three channel controllers would work just fine for my application.  What gets very tricky is if you want to run 20W or more then the three channel contollers would not work unless the right led was being used.

 

I've been in Boulder, Colorado the last two weeks, so I've had very limited time on the forum.

Edited by scubado
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  • 2 months later...

Hi Guys,

I have the 30 w RGBs and apparently are not the one Jim suggest. Since I'm novice in all this can some of you explain what type of resistor should I use? The same of the 10w above? The driver it has as you can see in the picture the resistor build- in and i guess will be easy for me buy them new. Im planing to use a DMX512 system. I'll really appreciate your recommendations! Thanks

 

[Admin Edit: The original links provided in this post were not functional.]

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  • 3 months later...

Dave,

 

This test was for 10W floods and connecting to the LOR DC controller, which for me is perfect for a nice wash on the house.

I found out there is at least two different versions of the 10W LED flood (could be more). The only difference is the placement of circuitry inside.

I took some pics and posted them on PhotoBucket (link provided below).

I labeled the two floods, "Type A" and "Type B".

Type A was easier to deal with, just pull off the back, pull out the power module and circuitry, connect the colored Cat5 wires and used the included resistor on the red wire for the red LED and the rest direct to the LOR DC controller. All three colors ran great.

Type B was a little different. The power module was in the back and the circuitry is in the front so I had to remove both the back cover and the front lense.

I removed the back cover and cut and pulled out the power module, leave the cover off and feed the Cat5 cable thru the hole where the power cable was.

Removed the front lense and reflector and there is the circuitry board. This type had "3" resistors, not "1" like Type A. After running voltage tests, I knew to keep all three resistors in tact and just cut the circuit board in half leaving the 3 resistors together. This made it easier to connect the RGB wires (in my case Cat5 wires) which I ran thru the back cover and thru the main body, connect the wires and close everything up. Again, all three colors ran great.

Hopefully the pics will help in understanding what I did.

I used Cat5 as a test and could have used Zip cord (SPT1 or 2). I think I will stick with the Cat5 just because I can pig tail it for easy connection and so I only have one wire assy going to each flood versus two wires if I used zip cord. Plus the Cat5 wires are color coded so it was easier to know what colors to attach to what channel on the controller.

For the CAT5 wires, I used orange for red, blue for blue and green for green. For the fourth wire I just chose one of the white wires (with a blue stripe in my case). This way I know which one to use at each end. The rest of the wires I just cut off at each end.

The Photobucket link is here. I tried to label them for what they were.

 

Hope that helps and if you have any questions, I will do my best to answer them.

 

I must add, I compared these to other floods I have and these cover a larger area and are much brighter. I can only imagine how the 20W, 30W and 50W floods look, which I may play with them as well.

 

please note: I directly connected the flood to test with the controller because I didn't have a CAT5 coupler.

 

It's been awhile since I last posted anything on this subject.

I've been playing around alittle with the LED 10W RGB floods and found alittle more tweeking to make it a little easier.

I was first entertaining using 3 three resistors for the three colors. After taking voltage reading of each color directly from the LEDs and then from the resistors, it occured to me that, using an adjustable 12v DC power supply, I can eliminate two of the resistors, one on the green and one on the blue by adjusting the voltage down to around 11 to 11.5 volts and still have the same results and only use the resistor for the red. This is a safer level of volts for the blue and green since around 11 volts is what these two colors run off of.

 

I also ran into a "Type C" flood which is similar to "Type A" where as you just remove the back cover but there is a complete module molded in hard plastic instead of the exposed circuit board as in "Type A". I simply cut the wires on both ends of the module and removed the module/wiring. Then I have the 4 wires only coming from the LED. I attached an 18ohm 1W resistor which i purchased from ebay here http://www.ebay.com/itm/111075017744?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649#ht_1312wt_1124 to the red wire for the red LEDs. The connected the CAT5 wires as described earlier. This was a little easier than messing with circuit boards in either "Type A or B" and shortened the time to a complete hack of the flood.

I've hacked about 25 floods and about another 10 or so more to go. So far they are testing pretty good with no problems as of yet.

With running 11 to 11.5v DC and using a 18ohm resistor for the red, I am keeping my voltage levels to the LEDs where they need to be. 6.5v DC for the red and 11v DC for the green and blue.

I will update my photobucket with up to date pics of the "Type C" hack.

 

Just to clarify, there is no official "Type" label to each different flood. I'm just pointing out the difference in different typs of floods I'm running into.

 

I'm sure there are other ways and ideas, but I'm happy so far with this and looks like it might get me the results I'm looking for.

Once my display is up and running, I will provide a video of what I'm doing with these.

 

Hope this helps a few since I have seen the topic come up a couple times recently.

 

Tom

 

And a word of safety for anyone purchasing these floods and see/use a ground (third) wire when hooking up directly to 110v in the unhacked condition.

The ground wire on the inside of the back cover IS NOT CONNECTED.

I ran into this with all three types. Just wanted to make folks aware of that.

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Discovered the missing ground too - I usually swap the wire anyway so it was not much of an issue. Only catch was to find a spot to connect the ground reliable...

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Discovered the missing ground too - I usually swap the wire anyway so it was not much of an issue. Only catch was to find a spot to connect the ground reliable...

 

I'm talkin the ground wire was there (3 wires seen on the outside), just not connected on the inside. It gives folks a false thought thinking if they connect that third wire, they think they are grounding the item when in fact they aren't.

Some floods just have the two wires with no ground wire included (or missing)

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  • 5 months later...

Hey i know this an older topic, but i recently found similar 10w RGB floods online for just over $10 a piece which makes them very affordable for me, but they require hacking as mentioned above the one i have that i "experimented" with before reading the forums of course, was your type C which had only one LED controller unit with a remote Eye sticking out of some black resin like stuff. So I just cut the wires off of it then extended the 4 wires from the LED unit and wired them into my CMB24D controller card, which is where i think i made the mistake when i turned it on i think i blew out the Red in the RGB set up... as i get blue and i get green, so of course when i couldnt do it on my own i reasearched and found this thread. Just wondering what resistors i should use for this as i wil be hooking it up to the LOR CMB24D i have a few others that i have not "experimented" with and want to make sure i dont destroy any more due to my own stupidy of not reading first. I also am going to be using RGB ribbons to the controller, hopefully will have 4 RGB channels for the Ribbons and 4 RGB channels for the floods, with the LOR 16 channel controller running the animations yes i only have 1 CTB16PC controller and 1 CMB24D at this time as i am new to the whole light o rama universe and want to take baby steps into building my display so that the hobby stays fun and doesnt feel like a second job. But i do love the new RGB lights and since i already have a few of the Dumb ribbons on my house for the holidays, and around the deck for accent lighting, i figured i would incorporate them (the ones on the house not the deck) into a LOR display. Please bear with me as i am very green in the area of wiring and soldering but am getting better, as i had to custom fit the RGB ribbons on the house and deck. 

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Hey i know this an older topic, but i recently found similar 10w RGB floods online for just over $10 a piece which makes them very affordable for me, but they require hacking as mentioned above the one i have that i "experimented" with before reading the forums of course, was your type C which had only one LED controller unit with a remote Eye sticking out of some black resin like stuff. So I just cut the wires off of it then extended the 4 wires from the LED unit and wired them into my CMB24D controller card, which is where i think i made the mistake when i turned it on i think i blew out the Red in the RGB set up... as i get blue and i get green, so of course when i couldnt do it on my own i reasearched and found this thread. Just wondering what resistors i should use for this as i wil be hooking it up to the LOR CMB24D i have a few others that i have not "experimented" with and want to make sure i dont destroy any more due to my own stupidy of not reading first.

Welcome aboard Matt,

It does sound like you blew the red LEDs.

First, what power are you running to the CMB24D?

I'm using an adjustable power supply and have it adjusted to about 11 VDC.

With this voltage I can safely run the blue & green LEDs without a resistor and the red with an 18 ohm 1W resistor

The green and blue LEDs run on 3.3 vdc while the red LEDs are lower at around 2.6 each. With the 10W floods, there is typically 3 LEDs of each color.

So 3.3 x 3 equals 9.9 which works fine with 11vdc in my situation. So try using an 18ohm resistor with your red LEDs and you should be fine. Attach at the end of the red wire and tape any bare metal so not to ground on the housing.

Question, did your flood come with w circuit board with resistors on it? If so, you might be able to get away with using them. But it just depends on which 10w flood you got. I know of three different versions that vary on the circuitry on the inside.

 

And BTW, I've blown several LEDs in these floods figuring out what voltage or resistor works best.

Jim on here also is very knowledgeable on LED floods as well.

 

Good luck and ask questions if your stumped on anything.

And I just wanted to add (since I haven't posted on this thread since before the holidays).

The floods I hacked (30 of them) worked flawlessly all season long.

More will be included this next season. :)

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Santa's helper, Just wondering how long are those Cat5 wires you are using for the power to your 10W floods? I mean we are talking what 22 or 24 ga wire here and it will start to have a voltage drop. Maybe that is why you can get by running 11 volts out of your P.S.. Yet the blue and Green need 9.9 volts per your post.

 

Wonder what is the max forward current for these 10W LED? Simple Ohm's law would have me guessing around 1 Amp.

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MP,

 

The length varies but from 5 feet to 25 feet on the tower and 10 to 40 feet on the arch.

If there is a voltage drop, I'm not noticing it from the closer floods to the further floods.

 

And yes, around 1 amp if I remember right.

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Tom,  Are you doubling up the wires in the cat5?  Up here, I can't really use cat wire, it becomes brittle in cold weather.  If I set it out on a warm day I can't touch it unless it's warm out.  I've had the out jacket break on me several times.  Anyone else have this issue?  If not, what cat wire are you using?

 

I agree with the above posts, there are some where the green and blue can handle up to 12V.

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