New products to be delivered in August September 2008

[LightORamaJohn]

Here are the products to be delivered in August & September:

1) DIO32 32-channel digital controller with daughter boards. The DIO32 has four 8-port headers. Each 8-port header (8 channel group) is individually configurable as digital output(32 channels max), digital input(8 channels max), relay control(32 channels max), low power AC dimming(32 channels max), high power AC dimming (32 channels max). The daughter boards are: 8 channel SPDT relay, each relay 16 amps @120 vac; 16 channel dimming, 40 amps total @ 12/24/120/240 vac; 8 channel dimming, 60 amps total @ 120/240 vac; 16 channel connection daughter board for custom projects.

2) An isolated USB adapter. Completely isolates the PC from the network. Can be used for added protection but was developed for large scale installations with multiple LOR networks.

3) Network Repeater. Used to extend the network beyond 4,000' or to create network topologies other than a daisy chain. (Star networks, 'Y', ...)

4) 9 channel fountain controller. Controls up to 3 PMSM pumps and 6 channels of LED lighting. Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor pumps are the type most commonly used in fountains and ponds. Both pumps and lights controlled from barely on to full power. LOR plans to offer both submersible pumps and submersible LED lighting.

5)Chime-O-Matic. A 25 note catherdral chime system with 5 volume levels with full LOR control and 6 inputs. The inputs are two digital, two phone ring sense and two doorbell sense.

We have not yet gotten quantity price points for these products so I can't provide prices here. We will put each device on sale for the first week when it is introduced because we don't have the prices for a pre-order during the June sale.

There are other devices in various stages of development, but I am unwilling at this point to reveal any information about them until we can provide delivery dates.
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Edit: Forgot to mention that the DIO32 has headers on it allowing 16 servos to be controlled by two of the 8-channel ports.

[Guest wbottomley]

Thank you John!

That's great news!

[sparky741]

YES!!! Even more things for a lighting maniac(like myself!) to buy! Woo-hoo!

[Ponddude]

I am very impressed. The fountain controller looks like so much fun!!

Greg

[Denny]

August & September delivery, great. Gives me time to save up some more moola and still get them on sale!

[Michael B]

Thanks for the info. It will be interesting to see what else is in the works.

Michael Beason

[James Shelby]

Ponddude wrote:

I am very impressed. The fountain controller looks like so much fun!!

Greg

I'm going to second that, I'm thinking of 2009 now. Please Dan give us two years between new items, that will give give us time to buy it and build it without any distractions.

[Bob Densic]

Any chance we may see LOR offer some fast acting water valves? I'd love to build a computer controlled graphic waterfall in my house. Tie it in to a couple of LOR controllers... Nice!

[Dennis Cherry]

Bob Densic wrote:

Any chance we may see LOR offer some fast acting water valves? I'd love to build a computer controlled graphic waterfall in my house. Tie it in to a couple of LOR controllers... Nice!

Cal Pumps makes one. You get three pumps and three islands with three MR-16 lights per island. The controller is not that good but the pump lights and islands are fine.

The pumps are just regular small pond pumps with water tight connectors.

Used this two years ago in a Christmas display.

http://www.calpump.com/products.asp?category=34

Check it out.

[Bob Densic]

Thanks Dennis. I'll look into those. I think we'll need something quicker to control a single small jetted oriface. Specifically I'm trying to recreate something similar to this.

http://www.pevnickdesign.com/

Much smaller scale of course. In order to get the graphics to appear clean, we'll need response times in the hundredths of a second.

[-klb-]

I'm not sure how much pressure they are using there... Some of the patters show quite a bit of stretch from gravity acceleration, but other's don't seem to...

If it is just gravity acceleration, it may be a row of orifices in the supply tray with an array of solenoids pulling needle valves out of the orifices, and allowing the low pressure from the depth of the tray to push the water through the orifice.

Beyond that, the next step is direct solenoid valves, rather than the water piloted valves that are so common. In a small enough valve, the solenoid and return spring is capable of enough pressure to start and stop the flow without using the force multiplication of a water driven diaphragm. There are at least a couple of down sides to this approach. First, I doubt they are using much pressure, or in combination with gravity, your elements would be moving down way to fast.. With low pressure, if there is much length to your valved plumbing, the inertia is going to be a problem.. The end of your stream may reach the ground before the start of your stream.. Similarly, any mismatch in plumbing length from one nozzle to another is also going to cause problems...

For some reason, I think I had seen a patent on the gravity fed design when I was looking around a year or two ago.. Not sure exactly what part of it was not considered existing practice...

- Kevin

[Steve Constantino]

I know that the new DIO32 board has digital inputs, But can they be configured to play, pause, stop and select different sequences if they are being played off my PC.

Steve

[msbreton]

Is there any way we can get more details on the fountain controller early? How will it connect to the LoR network? Will it work with S2 now or will there need to be an S2 upgrade? Will pumps be sold at the same time from LoR or should we plan on using any magnetic pump?

Sorry for all the questions but I'm in the middle of putting together plans to add a simple 4 pump water effect to my show this year and I'm very excited to see this. Just in time too as I was just about to order 3 more pumps.

I'll hold off for now in hopes to hearing more soon.

-Mike

[LightORamaJohn]

msbreton wrote:

Is there any way we can get more details on the fountain controller early? How will it connect to the LoR network? Will it work with S2 now or will there need to be an S2 upgrade? Will pumps be sold at the same time from LoR or should we plan on using any magnetic pump?

-Mike

It appears on the LOR network just like any other LOR controller. It has unit address switches and network connections just like a LOR1602W. The first three channels control three 120 VAC sockets designed for Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motors (PMSM.) You must not plug other types of devices into these sockets. The pump motor is part of the circuit.

PMSM refers to the motor technology and is the type commonly used in pond pumps. The type of motor to impeller connection (magnetic or solid) is not relevant. We are negotiating with a US distributor to sell pumps that we know work well. We have found that Split-tube PMSM pumps that have rigidly (not magnetically) attached impellers work very well and are very efficient.

This controller does not require S2. The channels are manipulated just like lighting channels except that twinkle and shimmer are not supported because they would be really rough on the motors. On, off, %level and fade up/down work as expected.

[msbreton]

Thanks for the info.

Will the fountain controler connect to an existing 16 channel box via CAT5?

-Mike

[LightORamaJohn]

msbreton wrote:

Thanks for the info.

Will the fountain controler connect to an existing 16 channel box via CAT5?

-Mike

Yes, all of our controllers connect together using Cat5 cable. You can have any mix of LOR controllers on one LOR network.

[msbreton]

Thanks again John.

Last question. I have a 16 chan unit on order specificly to drive some pumps (on / off). I've been testing one pump like this with several of my existing seqs for a while now and it seems to work well.

BUT

You new product sounds like a better way to go. Do you agree that it is a better way to control pumps or given the same pump type could I use a standard 16 chan unit to get the same results at maybe a higher cost due to the number of chans?

The reason I'm asking is, if the new product is *the* way to go for pump control, I may want to cancel my order for the 16 chan and redirect those funds to the fountain controller.

Thanks again for your responses!

[buynow42]

if your looking for pumps this site has the best prices ive found.

http://www.oceanmistmaker.com/pumpwholesales.html



hope this helps

art:P

[FandomFilms]

I'm working on putting some servos into my display for this year. When will the DIO32 board specs be available to check out? Any more information on this product would be great.

[Ponddude]

Yeah, August is rapidly closing. Any ideas when the new stuff will be released, or at least when more information will be provided?