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Incandescent vs LED time-in.


philnuffer

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Due to the slower "light up" time of an incandescent bulb compared to an LED bulb, is it necessary to change the sequence by giving those bulbs that are incandescent more time to get fully bright? Should I add, say, a tenth of a second to allow them to get bright?

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Depends on the weather.  Electrons seem to travel faster in the cold, so adjust accordingly depending on what your weather is like.

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While it is true that incandescent bulbs take longer to light, the difference can't be detected by humans, so I wouldn't worry about it.

 

They do take longer if lit at a low (e.g. 10%) dim level, or if the bulbs are really big, like those massive flood lights or projector bulbs.

 

On the other end, incandescent bulbs take even longer to go dark after the channel is turned off, which explains why the shimmer effect looks "softer" compared to an LED string.

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Thanks, folks. I am aware that electrons slow down to 185,000mps when cold. lol. The info on dimming is good to know. the slower dimming would effect sequential lights like an arch and make the flow from end to end smoother. So, maybe that is why I keep seeing people on-line using incandescent in building loops, rather than LEDs.

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 The info on dimming is good to know. the slower dimming would effect sequential lights like an arch and make the flow from end to end smoother. So, maybe that is why I keep seeing people on-line using incandescent in building loops, rather than LEDs.

 

If anything, more and more folks are converting from incans to LED. the smooth flow of arches and such can be created with fades up and/or down in the sequence.

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We've moved to almost all LED and only have fading issues with older controllers and SOME LED strings. Snubbers took care of that.

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Thanks, folks. i was thinking about this last night and realized that the ramp-up/ramp-down would take care of smoothing between light sections. Don't know why I didn't think of that before, but my excuse is that this is my first year in the field and, with a limited budget, am for now using left over lights from static displays over the last 50 some years. As they burn out I am replacing them with LEDs. As a retired electronic technician and programmer, I find the field fascinating and will be building my display up as I go. Since I live at 7,000 feet and have winds of 45-55 MPH on a normal basis, my display also has to be robust. I really appreciate the input from you "old timers."

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