LOR 10w Floods

[ericm]

I am thinking of picking some up in the spring sale if they do go on sale.  I have a few questions since it will be my first time into anything RGB.

1.  I read they come with 16' lines, can you simply extend the wire by soldering or similar type of extension? or do you have to use the wire extensions that LOR sales?

2.  I have read about power loss and adding power infusion on long lines in pixels and RGB devices, Will I have to worry about this if I have say one of the floods about 75' from the controller?

3.  What is good power supply to get for these?

Edited March 14, 2016 by ericm

[larryk5]

1) LOR does sell the extensions for the floods, or you could make your own. I used LOR's since they are the same ends and I didn't have to mess around with putting my own together.

2) I have 8 of the floods and ran one of the 8, 50+ feet without problems. I'm also using LOR's controller for them.

3) LOR sells a 200w PS that will work fine with 8 floods. I used a 350w PS I had from Holiday Coro and it worked fine.

 

[EmmienLightFan]

Light-O-Rama sell cables for the floods.

You could make your own, and save a little, but they won't be as nice. I once used the cheap 4 core RGB wire you cab get on Ebay because I needed it quickly. I just soldered it onto the pigtail which comes with the floodlight.

This depends on what you decide for question 1. Dumb RGB is different. You can't just connect a run back to the power supply, as varying power is what is dimming the LED.

The lower gauge wire you use, the longer you can go. I assume that LarryK5 was using LOR extensions when he mentioned 50+ feet.

 

There are many power supplies.

The cheapest are the ones found on HolidayCoro and Ebay. They are quite cheap, but you are lucky if you get two seasons out of them, especially if they are running above 80% of their maximum rated load. These power supplies are getting better all the time, and cheaper! A few years ago anyone who said they would buy a Chinese power supply from Ebay would be laughed at, but now they are quite popular. HolidayCoro is better to buy from than Ebay, as you get some support.

The next step up is the Fake Meanwell supplies. They can be purchased from Ray Wu and Paul Zhang (I'm getting all my supplies from him for 2016) and are priced in between the proper Meanwell ones and the Ebay ones, although are very similar to the Meanwell ones, and incredibly well built.

 

Meanwell is a very good brand for power supplies. They are quite expensive, but very well made.

The Light-O-Rama 200 watt one is an easy and reasonably priced option. If I could afford it then I would have used that one.

Edited March 14, 2016 by EmmienLightFan

[larryk5]

2 hours ago, EmmienLightFan said:

The lower gauge wire you use, the longer you can go. I assume that LarryK5 was using LOR extensions when he mentioned 50+ feet.

Yes! I'm using the LOR extensions! I've used the Holiday Coro PS's for 3+ years and haven't had a problem. I would probably use better ones if they ran year round!

[arw01]

I used the LOR extensions too, prefer nice cables to home made if they are not just stupid more expensive.  The pigtail to the board is an easy place to add an extension onto if you go that route.

I used the KO meanwells on mine, work fine, Also have some real Meanwells, and picked up some Costel ones off ebay that are really big at full 50 amps cheap a bit ago.

[EmmienLightFan]