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Posted

For those of you who use the "Easy Light Linkers", how has your experience been? Was the setup difficult or could anyone do it? How did they hold up over the course of the season? Did the communications between controllers ever fail? Do you have to have a clear line of sight between the two units?

Would you recommend them over using the Cat5 cable?

I'm considering buying some this year for a display I'm creating but I'm a little intimidated by them. Any opinions/reviews would be very helpful. Thanks!

I can't wait for the sale!
Brian

Posted

Hi Brian, I'll start the replies.

I used four of them last year - 1 transmitter and 3 receivers. They worked flawlessly. Truly "plug and play"

I had my PC and the transmitter in my dining room and my receiver on the front porch which connected to other controllers by cable. Communications from transmitter to receiver was pretty much directly through the wall.

I had a receiver at each of the houses on either side of me. One on their front porch, the other was on a second floor porch. Distance to each was about 100'

One possible issue was that I had a short and very fast sequence of on/off commands either .1 or .05 second which involved a lot of channels. That seemed to get muddled a bit. I didn't investigate it much, but simplified those few seconds of the sequence. I was using the standard network speed - possibly a faster speed would have been better.

This year I will be using more receivers and eliminating most of the cable runs between controllers.

Rick

Posted

Hi,
I would wholeheartedly recommend theELLs.
I have used them since their release, and they have performed splendidly.
Mine have been used in various positions around our (admittedly small) property, transmitter in the house and receivers (3) outside; some definately NOT line-of-sight. All have worked flawlessly. So easy to use, I cannot imagine being without them; they afford maximum flexibility. I say don't hesitate, go for it!

Martin

Posted

Brian,

I have a pair of them that I used last season; no problems at all. I used one in my train powered by a 12 volt battery -- worked flawlessly.

Posted

I've been using a pair for 3 seasons now with no problems. Truly the only "plug and Play" device I have ever seen. I used 14 of them at a City installation last season and they worked flawlessly! Wicked range and fantastic response!

-Evan

Posted

I think the ELLS are fabulous. I have 4 of them in my display that I have used for 3 years. Three of my clients also use from 4 to 6 ELLS in their commercial installations and they all worked very well last year with just one exception.

In all cases mentioned above, the line of sight range varied from 150 feet to 300 feet. Do a search on the forum and you will see other threads about the ELLS and suggestions for setting them up. I recall creating one of those threads to mention hints for setup (like keeping short cat5 cables to the ELLs, and keeping them off the ground).

Having said the above, I did hear back from one client in January who said that one ELL stopped operating in the last two days of their display. After they opened up the unit, it was rusted out inside the cat5 connection so they are probably going to need to buy a replacement this year. In their area, they get some seasonal rain and snow during Christmas. I am at a loss to understand why it rusted out since I personally mounted the ELL solidly to a steel rail in a vertical position and ensured that I had a "drip-loop" in the cable. The only thing I can think of is a humidity problem. I will have a better idea after seeing what the other ELLs look like next week when they arrive.

Posted

I have used 1 pair since 2007. I got a bit creative mounting one by using a wire tie to attach it to the luggage rack on the top of my van (which does not move from our driveway in the winter :)). The other is in the porch of the house across the street. They have always worked perfectly, although I was unable to upgrade the firmware on the controller across the street.

You can see the setup in this map. The van is parked to the left of the white sedan. One ELL is attached to the van at the lower left in this view. The neighbor's house across the street has a car and a truck in the driveway. The path to their porch goes to the left. We can see from the scale that the distance between the ELLs is 35 meters.

Posted

Steven wrote

You can see the setup in this map.
How cool is that to have both a Satellite picture and Street pictures to describe your set up. Too bad your lights arent up. Your house and two across the street have people in them which is very unusual from what I have come across. Who is that kneeling on the sidewalk?
Posted

ItsMeBobO wrote:

Your house and two across the street have people in them which is very unusual from what I have come across. Who is that kneeling on the sidewalk?

The Google Street View vehicle drove down our street on a Tuesday (trash day) morning (the shadows show the sun is in the east). It was obviously not in December(!) but kind of looks like a summer day, although it's hard to tell what season it is in California!

The Street View picture actually has 4(!) people: The two walking on front of my house I don't know. Ron, in the hat standing by the white picket fence, is one of my light display collaborators and a Union electrician currently out of work due to an injury.

The guy kneeling near his truck is Mike, a retired accountant. Mike isn't interested in joining our display, but I may offer to decorate his house for him this year, since it seems he doesn't like doing it. If he says ok, then we'll have another house!!
Posted

I'd like to thank everyone who took the time to respond. I appreciate the information. I'm glad they are easy to set up. I'll probably give them a shot this year. Thanks again to everyone.

Brian

Posted

I understand the ELLs run at 56k speed, so has anyone had issues with it not keeping up with the sequence? Just wondering since I bought a pair during the sale. Thanks!



Tim

Posted

The default speed for LOR shows is 56K. Very few people ever change that setting. There is park in Florida that has about 600 channels (with 50 ELLs) and they are working okay.

Posted

LightORamaDan wrote:

The default speed for LOR shows is 56K. Very few people ever change that setting. There is park in Florida that has about 600 channels (with 50 ELLs) and they are working okay.


That explains part of my problem last year. I had set the speed up on mine and had some stuttering. I couldn't change them last year, because I would have had to drag my laptop all over a couple of acres. (11 ELL's) But when I packed them away, I reset all of them to 56K. We'll see what that does to them..

Operator error.. ain't it a wonderful thing??
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