Trouble with C9 Strobes

[Sctiger]

I've been considering adding strobes to the mix for some time now. As in most cases, I tend to research things to death. I came across a warning on one site that said : "When using strobes with light controllers, turning them on and off rapidly or using them with fading or lower intensities can damage them."

Has anyone had any experience with this?

 

Edited September 5, 2020 by Sctiger

[k6ccc]

Yes, strobes should ONLY be either on or off - NEVER dimmed.

I don't specifically know about turning them on and off rapidly, but normally you would not need to do that.  I would guess that like an air conditioner, once you turn them off, you should wait some amount of time - although I would think that anything more than 10 seconds would be fine.

 

[dibblejr]

I haven't had any burn out from turning them on and off rapidly in a sequence, that is what they do.

However I do know to never dim / fade them.

JR

[TheDucks]

They have Electronics to make them flash. Doing odd things to the power is not cool.

Most high frequency switching supplies (what is used in many electronics these days), have an 'inrush limiter' to soften charging the filter capacitors (input and output) and the current on the switch semiconductors. This needs time to reset.

FWIW Gen 3 controllers have a ON/Off dimming curve which can save these kinds of devices that ONLY want to see 120V (or nothing)

[Godney]

Well i hate to differ wiith you Gentlemen, but i use LED C9 strobes in my mega tree  which fades from 10% to 100% and the strobes have worked fine for about the past 6 years never have to replace a single one the all the originals i purchased that long ago

[TheDucks]

3 minutes ago, Godney said:

Well i hate to differ wiith you Gentlemen, but i use LED C9 strobes in my mega tree  which fades from 10% to 100% and the strobes have worked fine for about the past 6 years never have to replace a single one the all the originals i purchased that long ago

I hate it when folk say 'But I do that all the time'

Advice given is general 'Best Practice'. Stuff that works with MOST models without smoke. 

Absolutely, you are free to ignore advice. We tried

[ItsMeBobO]

What kind of strobes are you looking at?  I have purchased various kinds.  Some are terrible.     But for all of them you dont need to do any rapid power flipping in the sequence,  just on for duration of the strobe effect then off.

[Sctiger]

I was looking at the C9 strobe sets that wowlights has. Always open for recommendations though.

https://wowlights.com/ProductList.asp?Category=14