LED 3 color rope light dimming question...

[rickharp]

LED 3 color rope light dimming question...


For my house this year I bought 164 reel of 3 color LED rope light, like this link:

http://www.birddogdistributing.com/color-changing-rope-light-controller-p-766.html

It comes with a very minimal controller, that I never used, but I did notice that the plugin cord adaptor had a bridge recitifer, similar to this one:

RECTIFIER,NTE170,BR8D,SI 1000V,2A,SINGLE PHASE,BRIDGE



The rope light specs are:

Energy efficient--only consumes 1.5 watts per foot and is Dimmable (65 feet equals 98 watts)

My setup: I use the lightorama 16 channel controller. When i tested it i used a 10 foot strand and it was dimmable. This long strand, rather these two 65' long strands plugged into the same circuit, do not dim, but go out completely at an intensity setting of about 5%. I've experimented a bit and see that if i only use one length of the 65 foot section, it will dim, but when i use them both, it wont dim. i suspect the watts max out the triac's.

remember, there is no bridge rectifier in my wiring, i just go right into the rope lite.

Options: buy another controller to be able to accomodate the 3 extra channels needed, or inquire of you if some sort of diode, snubber or rectifier would work.

ps, i converted my 32 channel mega tree to LED's this year, and couldn't be happier. Travis at seasonal impressions is great.

[Steven]

Rick, I got your PM.

I would try a snubber. I had a problem where I have 9 channels on one controller connected to LEDs of identical manufacture, but 3 different colors. I had dimming trouble only on one of the strings of about 500 red LEDs. This string (along with the same number of blue and green on 3 separate channels) was at the end of a 100-foot SPT1 extension cord.

I put a 22kΩ snubber on the red string and it now dims fine.

I also heard somewhere that running an LED string without a half or full-wave rectifier could potentially subject individual LEDs to a high reverse voltage, which could shorten their life. This depends on the number of LEDs in series.

[rickharp]

can i create my own snubber. is it simply a resister across the leads at the end of a string. thanks for the reply.

[Dennis Cherry]

rickharp wrote:

can i create my own snubber. is it simply a resister across the leads at the end of a string. thanks for the reply.

i would not go lower than 33K on the snubber, the wattage for the resistor gets to high and is really not needed.

Use a resistor between 33K 2 watt an 47 K 1 watt and your problem will go away.

I am using 47K and it is doing a great job on my 16,000 LED lights.

Fades up and down and intensity works fine without doing and modifications to the sequences.