Multi lights

[Bad-Magic]

Posted this on planet christmas but lack of replies atm.
Well i just went out to the shop and all they had left was multifunctional minis. Since they are multifunctional and i'm thinking of purchasing LOR i need to know which wires i cut off from the multi box and solder together so it isn't stuffing up during a show..
http://img112.imageshack.us/img112/6848/img1618ud9.jpg

[Steven]

It appears the controller has two wires input and 3 output to the bulbs. It also appears from the picture that the 2 input wires go to a plug. Where does that plug go?

It also appears that the wires that lead to the bulbs are easily traced. This may be helpful to figure out how the bulbs are wired.

How many channels of bulbs are there? If there are 4, then there are probably diodes that let the controller power 4 with 3 wires. If this is the case, it gets a little more difficult.

[Dr. Jones]

I would trace the wires out. Looks like one wire is the common and the other 2 would go to alternate lamps. if this is how they are wired, then it would take 2 channel per strand.

if not, then i would open up the controller and see how it is wired.

Chris

[Geoff Harvey]

Hi Bad Magic

With the Australian Woolworths multis running from 24V transformers, you can either disable the controller ( see various posts on the Aussi LOR users group eg http://groups.google.com/group/Aussie-LOR-Users/browse_thread/thread/e02c42c5d274a701/006a960ccdbe2f76?lnk=gst&q=controller#006a960ccdbe2f76 ) or you can remove the controller completely and connect the AC supply directly to the lights.

To do the latter, you need to identify which of the 3 wires to the lights is the common. Connect this to 1 of the ac input wires, and the other 2 channels (wires) connect to the other AC wire. My experience with these controllers in previous years showed that there was usually one wire with a little extra length coming out of the box - this one is the common. If you cut it with the lights set at 'steady on', then both channels (all lights) will go out. If you open the terminal cover as in your photo, the common wire is the one closest to the AC input wires.

You can test for which is the common using a multimeter - for lights steady on, you will get the same voltage from the common to each channel output, but zero voltage between the two wires which are the outputs to the two channels. Note that last time I cut out these controllers, the outputs to the lights were DC as the controller incorporated a rectifier.

Hope this helps - Geoff