joshua Posted July 13, 2009 Posted July 13, 2009 OK i know that their were some issues with using the ctb08 and leds, but i belive their is fix also. If so what is so i dont have to buy the 08 d?
Ponddude Posted July 13, 2009 Posted July 13, 2009 There is always an issue with LED's and any LOR product. That is simply because they draw so little power. I use about 90% LED's in my display. I just have to put some sort of load at the end of the string. Usually I just make plug and a C-9 bulb at the end of every string to create that load. That will allow you to fade the lights easily and not have any issues.
-klb- Posted July 13, 2009 Posted July 13, 2009 There are also some differences in how different firmware levels work on some hardware. On the PC series cards, with just a half wave string on a channel, there was a brightness disconnect around 50% that went away just upgrading the firmware to 4.30. I have no idea how the CTB08 firmware compares with the PC series firmware, with respect to this. Of course, the PC series 4.30 came out early December last year, so it is not that old..But, the ability to flash firmware onto the board may be one of the better reasons to go for the D version. The other version requires replacing a chip to change the firmware. I haven't been watching too close, so I don't know if they really upgrade the firmware on the D version more often, but it would not surprise me.
LightORamaDan Posted July 13, 2009 Posted July 13, 2009 Ponddude wrote: There is always an issue with LED's and any LOR product. That is simply because they draw so little power. I use about 90% LED's in my display. I just have to put some sort of load at the end of the string. Usually I just make plug and a C-9 bulb at the end of every string to create that load. That will allow you to fade the lights easily and not have any issues.This is not totally accurate. Tons of people use LEDs with no issue and without any additional load required. Others need to put ghost loads on their strings to get good fades. It depends a lot on the LEDs.LED manufactures make changes every year and we are never sure if the LEDs will work well until we try them. However some of the LED retailers are now testing their LEDs with LOR.Dan
joshua Posted July 13, 2009 Author Posted July 13, 2009 Thanks Dan for the info. i will dig out a box and test to see if they work or not.
joshua Posted July 14, 2009 Author Posted July 14, 2009 well i tried a few strands and found that they work at 88% intensity but not 90 and they would not shimmer. so i guess next i will dig out some old c-9s and test the load.
LightORamaDan Posted July 15, 2009 Posted July 15, 2009 joshua wrote: well i tried a few strands and found that they work at 88% intensity but not 90 and they would not shimmer. so i guess next i will dig out some old c-9s and test the load.What type of controller are you using. Is this an old CTB08?Dan
joshua Posted July 15, 2009 Author Posted July 15, 2009 yes it is, about 5 years old. my first controller
LightORamaDan Posted July 15, 2009 Posted July 15, 2009 Okay... That is the way they worked. You can get a new chip for that controller and it will handle LEDs much better. Send an email to support@lightorama.com to get a replacement chip.Dan
Steven Posted July 16, 2009 Posted July 16, 2009 Does the new CTB08 chip support fading shimmer/twinkle?
joshua Posted July 20, 2009 Author Posted July 20, 2009 LightORamaDan wrote: Okay... That is the way they worked. You can get a new chip for that controller and it will handle LEDs much better. Send an email to support@lightorama.com to get a replacement chip.Danok got my new chip today and installed it. having a problem with LOR trying to find the unit. so i set the unit id and now it says - 01 unknown controller???what do i do now? by the way the LEDS work great.
cmoore60 Posted July 20, 2009 Posted July 20, 2009 The unknown you are seeing is simply saying the hardware utility does not recognize the code returned from the controller when queried. I assume you have 2.3.8 software.Chuck
-klb- Posted July 21, 2009 Posted July 21, 2009 joshua wrote: LightORamaDan wrote: Okay... That is the way they worked. You can get a new chip for that controller and it will handle LEDs much better. Send an email to support@lightorama.com to get a replacement chip.Danok got my new chip today and installed it. having a problem with LOR trying to find the unit. so i set the unit id and now it says - 01 unknown controller???what do i do now? by the way the LEDS work great.Just for grins, did you try again after exiting and launching the hardware utility again?
joshua Posted July 22, 2009 Author Posted July 22, 2009 yes i did. and reset the unit id several times
terrypowerz Posted July 22, 2009 Posted July 22, 2009 joshua wrote: yes i did. and reset the unit id several times I have a couple of CTB08's that do the same thing with updated chips... I just ignore it and program the desired ID and they work fine
joshua Posted July 22, 2009 Author Posted July 22, 2009 that is what i figured, as long as they work i don't care! just wanted to make sure i wasn't doing anything wrong.
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