Tom B. Posted October 30, 2007 Share Posted October 30, 2007 Has anyone tested the new CMB16D with MR16 LED Floods?They do not fade ... we have either all on or off. Only one flood is attached to each channel. They are 2 Watt LED Floods from BestHongKong via Wirekat on Planetchristmas.They look great ... but do not fade.Any ideas?Thanks,T. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LightORamaDan Posted October 31, 2007 Share Posted October 31, 2007 We are not sure why that brand does not fade. We did test it with LED spots from Action Lighting and they did fade. T. is going to send us one of the LEDs to play withDan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-klb- Posted November 2, 2007 Share Posted November 2, 2007 Jeff Millard wrote: Some of the MR 16 LEDs use a cap to limit current. -klb- gave a pretty good description of what happens when a cap is used in this thread.JeffAfter my Christmas display comes down, I intend look into what exactly was going on with some CF black lights in my Halloween display. When either of the black lights was turned on, any dimmed channels went full brightness. Right now I can not think of any explanation that completely fits from a phase angle perspective, and I would think if it was related to dv/dt (which should not be the case with snubberless triacs), it would turn on channels that were off, not just dimmed.Once I have stuff down, I will hook up one of my controllers and the florescent black lights and an incandescent load, and hook it all up to my scope. Hopefully that will give some insight on the CF issue.My description on the Cap limited behavior is aimed primarily at the LED failure mode that some have described, and why the LED fails. I don't know if in all cases the phase angle dimming is actually firing as expected, or if there is yet another misbehavior happening as well. If I get my hands on some LED's with issues by the time I look into the CF lamps impacting other channels, I will investigate the LED issues as well, to see if I can confirm that the phase angle control is working as expected, and that it is a harmonic issue causing the failure to dim.Since I am only looking to do on/off control on the CF, it may be possible to add some filtration, or otherwise eliminate that problem.On capacitively limited LED strings, I don't think there is any general way to successfully phase angle dim them without some risk of over current and LED failure. - Kevin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terrypowerz Posted November 5, 2007 Share Posted November 5, 2007 Tom,I am going to guess that it is an issue with the frequency of the oscillator on the PWM verses the possible capacitor value in the bulbs.I had read your other post on this and it is the only conclusion I can come up with.I am sure LOR will get it figured out pretty quickly if this is the case! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richardh Posted November 6, 2007 Share Posted November 6, 2007 I am also having this problem with the new DC board not fading the MR16 LED Floods. These are the ones that I got on the group buy from wirecat that Tom B. also has.The Red will fade a little and at 1% they are about 75% brightness. The Green do not fade at all. At 1% they are just as bright as they are at 100%. I hooked these floods up to a power supply that allows me to adjust the voltage from 3V to 12v. As I would turn down the voltage, the intensity would go down like you would expect. They work great.I hooked up a volt meter to a LOR DC Channel and my meter confirmed that the voltage was changing correctly on the LOR channels as I changed the intensity on the DC LOR Board.People are using another brand of DC Boards with no problems with these Floods.-Richard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richardh Posted November 7, 2007 Share Posted November 7, 2007 Did LOR get one of these floods yet? If not I can send them one. I have 80 of these floods and if I can't get the LOR DC board to work with them, I have to order a different brand of DC controller (that just so happens to work with the LOR signal). I really don't want to spend the cash since I bought the LOR one but I have no other options. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wirekat Posted November 7, 2007 Share Posted November 7, 2007 Just an FYI - The MR16 I got for the group buy were from a manufacturer in China called Easy LED.We did extensive testing of these before the group but unfortunately we were not using the LOR DC board (it wasn't released yet) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richardh Posted November 16, 2007 Share Posted November 16, 2007 D-Light board giving me the same problems as the LOR Board. Instead of trying to follow two threads, see this post.http://planetchristmas.mywowbb.com/forum12/17638.html=== End of Transmission Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom B. Posted December 3, 2007 Author Share Posted December 3, 2007 Dan,Have you had any more time to look into why these LED Floods (I sent you a sample) aren't fading ... or better yet ... have you and your elves been able to work on a fix?Thanks,T Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richardh Posted December 3, 2007 Share Posted December 3, 2007 Tom B. wrote: Dan,Have you had any more time to look into why these LED Floods (I sent you a sample) aren't fading ... or better yet ... have you and your elves been able to work on a fix?Thanks,TThere were two batches of these LED floods and the 2nd batch don't fade right out of the box.More info can be had at the thread athttp://planetchristmas.mywowbb.com/forum12/17638.htmlBasically you need to put a resistor on each LED for it to work correctly. I tested these floods out with a d-light board and a LOR board and they behave exactly the same so this is not a LOR issue only. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LightORamaDan Posted December 3, 2007 Share Posted December 3, 2007 Tom B. wrote: Dan,Have you had any more time to look into why these LED Floods (I sent you a sample) aren't fading ... or better yet ... have you and your elves been able to work on a fix?Thanks,TAn engineer has made some firmware modificaiton but they are not stable. It is unfortunate that this came up so late in the year when there is so little spare time... No promises but it is getting some attention.Dan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom B. Posted January 14, 2008 Author Share Posted January 14, 2008 Dan,Any luck on this problem?Thanks,T. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Denny Posted January 15, 2008 Share Posted January 15, 2008 Tom,Wirekat said on another forum that there were two different orders of these MR16 floods. The first order worked fine, but when he placed the second order, the factory changed the value of one resistor in the floodlight without letting him know. This caused the MR16s in the second order to not dim. FYI, he is considering a third order of these MR16s now and they will be manufactured according to the original specs.Edit: to correct spelling Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LightORamaDan Posted January 15, 2008 Share Posted January 15, 2008 Tom B. wrote: Dan,Any luck on this problem?Thanks,T.Hi Tom,We were just about finished with the modifictions to support those LEDs but ran out of time for this season. Wish we had known about it a few weeks earlier and we would have pushed to get it finished for the 2007 season but it was a LOT of work to support them.Anyhow, we can dim them and we will have a firmware change to support dimming of this style LED. You will have to select the type of LED used and configure the CMB16D in the Hardware Utility. Release date TBD.Dan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom B. Posted January 15, 2008 Author Share Posted January 15, 2008 Dan,Thanks, and I'm glad you found a solution. It'll be fun adding this capability to my show.All the best,TomPS: It was a great season ... My thanks to you and your associates! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris A Posted January 15, 2008 Share Posted January 15, 2008 Dan,Is it going to be possible to dim different styles of Mr-16 flood lights? For example, The first order from Wirekat were easily dimmable while the second batch was not. The new firmware patch will solve the problem of the second batch but can I still use the first batch also with the same controller?Thanks, Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LightORamaDan Posted January 15, 2008 Share Posted January 15, 2008 Chris A wrote: Dan,Is it going to be possible to dim different styles of Mr-16 flood lights? For example, The first order from Wirekat were easily dimmable while the second batch was not. The new firmware patch will solve the problem of the second batch but can I still use the first batch also with the same controller?Thanks, ChrisChris,The CMB16D will be able to control both types of LED flood lights BUT one particular card my be limited to a certian type of LED so all 16 channels would need to be the same. The best case senerio will be that you will be able to set it up so that channels 1-8 can be one type of LED and the other 8 channels could be a different type BUT we may not have be be ale to do it that way.Dan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmturner54 Posted July 30, 2008 Share Posted July 30, 2008 Dan,Any update on the firmware change for dimming the MR16 floods.Thanks,Richard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LightORamaDan Posted July 31, 2008 Share Posted July 31, 2008 Hi,That project has been on hold but we will dig it out and try and get it working for this season. As I recall, it was close.... We could dim the okay but there were some bugs that had to be fixed.Dan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmturner54 Posted July 31, 2008 Share Posted July 31, 2008 Thanks Dan,I am new to this. The DC board that I rcvd from the sale was very simple to set up and start using. Was turning lights on and off within minutes of setting up. Fantastic product.I have noticed the same indications as everyone else.After about 50% intensity, the brightness change is not noticelable.It does react to dimming better with the resistor in series with the LED, but of courseas all have stated, does not react like a normal incandescant bulb. This does not surprise about LED'sAt about 1% intensity just like all have stated it shuts off completely.All said,I am quiet pleased with I am seeing. It dims enough to serve the purpose for my plans of this year.Thanks for a wonderful product. I have yet to play with the AC board. But expect the same quality results.Richard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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