Question about LOR RGB Floods and extension limits

[dblack]

I am considering adding the RGB 10W flood package. I see that the flood lights have a 16' cable on them, and you can get 10' and 20' extensions. I'm not sure if 36' of extension (flood light + 20' extension) will reach to my #8 flood light. I can't really put the controller any closer and I'm trying to keep all wires together where they have to cross the driveway, so I'm limited in the wire routing, too.

My question is can I connect a 20' and a 10' extension for that one light or is that a bad idea?

[k6ccc]

Yes.  I am running as much as 55 feet of cable between controllers and dumb RGB elements - including the 10W floods.

 

[dgrant]

I run an RGB star from a good 80 feet away however, I'm using 16Awg cable to reduce line loss.

[TheDucks]

3 hours ago, dblack said:

I am considering adding the RGB 10W flood package. I see that the flood lights have a 16' cable on them, and you can get 10' and 20' extensions. I'm not sure if 36' of extension (flood light + 20' extension) will reach to my #8 flood light. I can't really put the controller any closer and I'm trying to keep all wires together where they have to cross the driveway, so I'm limited in the wire routing, too.

My question is can I connect a 20' and a 10' extension for that one light or is that a bad idea?

No prob. It is a 10W (when white) flood. That is less than 1A on the +12 lead (and about .33 on each of the others.

FWIW I do put my 'Y' close to the card, then run the extensions (if needed). Yes, a CMB 24 can easily do 3 floods per port (if the banks PSU allows the current demand). I have a number of doubled up floods on LOR cables

[dblack]

Great, thanks all!

[dblack]

Did some measuring today. My longest run would need to be roughly 58' from the controller. If the light has 16' then I'd need 2 20' extensions and a 10' as well. I don't think I can get by with 56' so I think the additional 10' is needed.

The controller will probably already be on a 50' extension cord from the outlet, so just confirming these distances are all ok.

[k6ccc]

Should not be a problem

 

[TheDucks]

2 hours ago, dblack said:

Did some measuring today. My longest run would need to be roughly 58' from the controller. If the light has 16' then I'd need 2 20' extensions and a 10' as well. I don't think I can get by with 56' so I think the additional 10' is needed.

The controller will probably already be on a 50' extension cord from the outlet, so just confirming these distances are all ok.

The AC cord does not count. When we talk about Length it is the Port to the (first smart) Light. You might buy some 18ga Quad speaker cable And make 1 piece.

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B003KPYRJM/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1  (100' roll of white) I used this when I was doing dumb bullets on the ridge.

[dblack]

9 hours ago, TheDucks said:

The AC cord does not count. When we talk about Length it is the Port to the (first smart) Light. You might buy some 18ga Quad speaker cable And make 1 piece.

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B003KPYRJM/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1  (100' roll of white) I used this when I was doing dumb bullets on the ridge.

Interesting. I hadn't even considered making my own extensions for the floods. I see LOR sells dangles but they look like they'd hook to a control box. I don't see separate dangles with male and female ends. Where do you recommend purchasing dangles from and would they be compatible with the LOR dangles?

Second question, does it matter how the dangle wires attach to the roll in the link you posted, as long as the connection is the same at both ends (e.g., middle dangle wire to blue wire, striped wire to green, etc.)?

[TheDucks]

2 hours ago, dblack said:

Interesting. I hadn't even considered making my own extensions for the floods. I see LOR sells dangles but they look like they'd hook to a control box. I don't see separate dangles with male and female ends. Where do you recommend purchasing dangles from and would they be compatible with the LOR dangles?

Second question, does it matter how the dangle wires attach to the roll in the link you posted, as long as the connection is the same at both ends (e.g., middle dangle wire to blue wire, striped wire to green, etc.)?

Consistency (and notes in a file)! I have 2 ways I made mine.  Just make a map of how it is wired Since LOR uses Bk and Red on the floods, , that simply leaves Yellow and Green wires to map)

1) I standardized on HC Ezplug/xlights for ports that are not dedicated to LOR floods, so 1 end is EZplug and the other is the LOR dangle spliced in.

2) If I wanted an extra long LOR<>LOR flood cable, I cut one of their extensions in hah and spliced that (NOTE the colors were not the same as the dangle, buzz it out using the dangle as a feed .

I have tried these IP rated junction blocks, https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B083HSF3K6/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1

I had to shim (wrap in black tape) the LOR cable to get a firm seal. So far, that one has worked OK.  I also  use ferrels on all wire ends. (get the kit wit the crimper, then mark which sizes you use the most of ) for any wire that goes under a screw clamp (those Green terminals)

[Little_b]

You can do it several different ways.  Here's a couple of examples that I've done.

The "Standard" connectors from https://www.diyledexpress.com/ fit the LOR Flood Light Cables.  I've used the extensions and made my own with the Male and Female Pigtail Connectors.  I have soldered on similar (18/4 or 16/4) speaker wire to create my own extensions.  I've also cut off the connector from the Flood Light and soldered on some wire to extend it and connect it directly to the CMB24D Board.  Now one thing to keep in mind, the pigtail wire colors from diyledexpress don't always match the Flood Light pins.  You do have to find which ones lines up.  Just because the pigtail color is red, doesn't necessarily mean it lines up with the red on the Flood Light Wire.  Hopefully this makes sense.  

Keep in mind the longer the run, the risk of Voltage drop increases.  I have a couple long runs in my setup and I used 16AWD Wire to help combat this.  I'm trying to remember what the length is and I think it's about 60ft away.  The only time I see a brightness difference in my spots is when it's fully white. But even then, it's not too noticeable.

[k6ccc]

All of my dumb RGB are permanent installations.  I cut off any connectors on the lights and solder 4 conductor 16 AWG speaker cable to it.  Each conductor is covered in small heat shrink tubing, and then the whole splice point is covered with two layers of the heat shrink tubing that has the goo inside.  The first layer extends a quarter inch or so past the point where the outer jacket of the cable is cut, and the second layer extends a quarter inch or so past the first layer.  The cable I'm using has red, green, black, and white wire.  I use them as red = red, green = green, black = blue, & white = common positive.  Almost all the wire is installed in PVC conduit.  This is the cable I use:  https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=4042

 

[Orville]

6 hours ago, TheDucks said:

Consistency (and notes in a file)! I have 2 ways I made mine.  Just make a map of how it is wired Since LOR uses Bk and Red on the floods, , that simply leaves Yellow and Green wires to map)

1) I standardized on HC Ezplug/xlights for ports that are not dedicated to LOR floods, so 1 end is EZplug and the other is the LOR dangle spliced in.

2) If I wanted an extra long LOR<>LOR flood cable, I cut one of their extensions in hah and spliced that (NOTE the colors were not the same as the dangle, buzz it out using the dangle as a feed .

I have tried these IP rated junction blocks, https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B083HSF3K6/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1

I had to shim (wrap in black tape) the LOR cable to get a firm seal. So far, that one has worked OK.  I also  use ferrels on all wire ends. (get the kit wit the crimper, then mark which sizes you use the most of ) for any wire that goes under a screw clamp (those Green terminals)

H.C. sells an EZplug to LOR adapter cable and even an LOR controller to H.C. EZplug LOR lights.  I use both these adapter cables with my Pixie16D V4 that has the H.C. EZplug {Xconnect} plugs on them to my 12 LOR lights, since the LOR Singing Trees are LOR plugs, I bought the H.C. to LOR 12V rated adapter cables to use with them.  Worked perfectly.  I bought H.C> Smart Floods, 10W RGB from H.C. so no adapter needed with them from my Pixie16, the runs to my 2 LOR singing trees was around 75 feet for Zuzu, and 120 feet to Ralphie from the Pixie16, remember the LOR Singing Trees require two runs of cables to each tree, and each tree uses 2 ports on the Pixie16, so 75 feet to Zuzu equals two runs of the same, which is a total of 150 feet of extension cables divided by 2 runs, Ralphie is also 2 ports, and 120 feet of extender cables times 2 runs for a total of 2450 feet of extender cables, which would be 6 ~ 20 foot cables, plus with the Singing LOR trees you will need 2 H.C. conversion cables for each LOR tree, in my case a total of 4 conversion H.C. EZplug to LOR light connection conversion cables. 

 and H.C. to LOR conversion cables {Singing LOR Trees}Then I have 8 H.C. 10W Smart RGB floods, 4 on two different ports for a total of 8 RGB 12V H.C. Smart Floods, one of the cables from the Pixie16 had to be 150' to the 2 floods mounted on the back of my house and then another 10 feet between those 2 floods, so the total was 160 feet to my last floodlight.  Never had an issue, I used 7 ~ 20 foot cables, and 2 ~  10' cable, my ramp mounted floodlights, 6 floods had several variations of cables, Floods 1-4 on Port 1 was 1 ~ 20 foot and 1 ~10 foot to FL #1, then 5 ~ foot from FL #1 to FL3#, then 1 ~ 10 foot from FL #3 to FL #4 and FL #4 output was capped off with the H.C. cap for the last plug{output plug} in the chain to keep water, moisture, dust, dirt, debris and mud splash out of the output connector.   Floods on Port #2 had floods #5-8, from Pixie16 to first flood was a 1 ~ 5 foot to FL #5, from FL #5 to FL #6 was 1 ~ 10 foot cable{15 feet}, FL #6 to Fl#7 was 7 ~ 20 foot cables{140 feet} and 1 ~ 10 foot cable {150 feet Flood #7}, and FL #7 to FL#8 was 1 ~  10 foot cable {150 feet + 10 feet = total 160 feet to last flood #8} and FL #8 output port also was capped off, the same as FL #4 on Port 1 for the same reasons.   Everything with extender cables worked perfectly, no problems at all.

The conversion cables are about 1 to possibly 2 feet long from connector to connector, they are a short connector, and you need to be sure you get the right one, one is H.C. to LOR lights {LOR connector that outputs commands to the light strand, the other is LOR Controller to H.C. EZplug or LOR Controller output to H.C. EZplug.  These are only available for 12V smart or dumb lights, there are no 5V versions as 5V strands and controllers are not apt to play well with extender cables, so these are strictly 12V only use.  However, these do come in 3 wire and 4 wire configurations, depending on your RGB light strand. H.C. 10W Smart RGB floods only require the extender cables to get their power and commands from, they do not require a cat5 cable to each flood or a separate power supply for each flood, just plug in the extender cables need from controller to first flood and to each additional flood.  Makes my wiring up my floods so easy, only having to deal with a single cable to each one in a daisy chain and no cat5 to worry about getting near or crossing power cords.

 

So, if the LOR floods are 12V, you should be able to extend them as I have with my H.C. floods.