Duke Posted January 2, 2008 Share Posted January 2, 2008 I'm curious as to why there are no 8 channel deluxe kits available?I am planning my '08 display and they sure would come in handy for controller placement for some of the features that are located away from the main display and also reduce the length and number of extension cords required. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duke Posted January 7, 2008 Author Share Posted January 7, 2008 *bump* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Fischer Posted January 7, 2008 Share Posted January 7, 2008 CTB-08's come pre-assembled with heatsink for $110 or so... The only thing that would keep me from completely endorsing them is the lack of downloadable firmware upgrades...We use 80 channels on CTB-08's in our display...-Tim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duke Posted January 7, 2008 Author Share Posted January 7, 2008 Wow, that is a bummer. I was hoping to use these for controlling individual arches and poles. I was going to disguise them as present boxes and also use them as an anchor point at one end of each arch or bottom of a pole. The logistics would have been great. Non upgradeable firmware? Not great at all. Also, a 16 channel kit is about $150. I was hoping the 8 channel would be in kit form at a much lower price. Channels per $ just isn't there. Back to the drawing board. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Fischer Posted January 7, 2008 Share Posted January 7, 2008 Duke wrote: Non upgradeable firmware? Not great at all.It's upgradable, just not downloadable. You need to get replacement chips from LOR.-Tim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duke Posted January 8, 2008 Author Share Posted January 8, 2008 Tim, thanks for clearing that up. The problem stil lies with channels per $. I'm struggle between paying that kind of money for just 8 channels -vs- paying and additional $50 and getting 16 channels. I may just bite the bullet and get the 16 channel controller. I may need the additional channels in the future but they would be wasted if I stick to my plan for '08. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vic Fortenbach Posted January 8, 2008 Share Posted January 8, 2008 If you don't require the dimming function on a LOR channel, there is always the DASHER option.Price per channel is less than $5.00, you do need to be handy with a soldering iron.Check out the LOR WIKI or search DASHER for more info. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Fischer Posted January 8, 2008 Share Posted January 8, 2008 Duke wrote: Tim, thanks for clearing that up. The problem stil lies with channels per $. I'm struggle between paying that kind of money for just 8 channels -vs- paying and additional $50 and getting 16 channels. I may just bite the bullet and get the 16 channel controller. I may need the additional channels in the future but they would be wasted if I stick to my plan for '08.Yeah, it's a cost vs. convenience thing. When I bought most of my CTB-08's, the were actually the low-price leader in cost-per-channel... But that was before the CTB16PC shook up the game...I will say it's really convenient to be able to put an 8-channel box in the middle of 8 mini-trees (4 in each direction) and never run more than about 15' of extension cord...-Tim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Heatherly Posted January 9, 2008 Share Posted January 9, 2008 I know it's posted here, but has anybody tried to ask LOR directly about an 8 channel kit?Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockyct Posted January 10, 2008 Share Posted January 10, 2008 Mike Heatherly wrote: I know it's posted here, but has anybody tried to ask LOR directly about an 8 channel kit?MikeI'm sure if it economically made sense to them, they would put out one. My guess is that they don't really sell many 8 channel boards, so there's pretty small of a market for them. A lot of work went into the 16 channel kits documentation wise so I can understand them not wanting to spend the work for a limited market. Besides, you probably wouldn't save more than about $15. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LightORamaDan Posted January 11, 2008 Share Posted January 11, 2008 rockyct wrote: Mike Heatherly wrote: I know it's posted here, but has anybody tried to ask LOR directly about an 8 channel kit?MikeI'm sure if it economically made sense to them, they would put out one. My guess is that they don't really sell many 8 channel boards, so there's pretty small of a market for them. A lot of work went into the 16 channel kits documentation wise so I can understand them not wanting to spend the work for a limited market. Besides, you probably wouldn't save more than about $15.As Rockyct said it is really an economic thing. Less than 5% of our sales are 8 channel cards. We have no plans for a kit for current 8 channel cards. However there may be more/different DIY solder kits available later this year. (no additional informaion is available) what a tease.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Fischer Posted January 11, 2008 Share Posted January 11, 2008 LightORamaDan wrote: As Rockyct said it is really an economic thing. Less than 5% of our sales are 8 channel cards. We have no plans for a kit for current 8 channel cards. However there may be more/different DIY solder kits available later this year. (no additional informaion is available) what a tease....(Tim sits on Santa's lap and asks for a DIY iDMX1000...) :cool:-Tim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Heatherly Posted January 11, 2008 Share Posted January 11, 2008 LightORamaDan wrote: rockyct wrote: Mike Heatherly wrote: I know it's posted here, but has anybody tried to ask LOR directly about an 8 channel kit?MikeI'm sure if it economically made sense to them, they would put out one. My guess is that they don't really sell many 8 channel boards, so there's pretty small of a market for them. A lot of work went into the 16 channel kits documentation wise so I can understand them not wanting to spend the work for a limited market. Besides, you probably wouldn't save more than about $15.As Rockyct said it is really an economic thing. Less than 5% of our sales are 8 channel cards. We have no plans for a kit for current 8 channel cards. However there may be more/different DIY solder kits available later this year. (no additional informaion is available) what a tease....Thanks, Dan for the answer and the tease...Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duke Posted January 14, 2008 Author Share Posted January 14, 2008 OK, how about kits in 32, 64, 128, 256 channels on a single board?Or better yet, a main backplane board and single channel plug-in modules.That way you could sell different size backplanes and "grow as you go" so to speak.This really isn't a new concept. I see it in industrial machine controllers every day.They simply add more racks of IO. Each rack can have differnt IO modules that are plugged into a slot. (Allen Bradley and several others make them) In this case you would purchase a 16 to 256 channel backplane and buy the triac/SSCR modules as required. The output lugs would be on the module as well. The EEPROM would be swappable and the backplanes would come with a transformer sized for the max number of modules. I would picture it to be like a breaker panel with the modules as the breakers. Just snap em in and add wire.Talk about extremes!!!!!!(Dan, if you guys adopt my modular concept I don't need credit for the idea..... a loaded 256 channel backplane would suffice) BIG:D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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