RobDaddy Posted November 8, 2009 Share Posted November 8, 2009 LED lights do not fade like traditional lights. I thought I read somewhere that you can do a modification to the LED lights to make them fade on and off gradually like the traditional light?Any ideas? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-klb- Posted November 8, 2009 Share Posted November 8, 2009 Which specific LED lights are you using? What behavior are you getting? The response curves are going to be different no matter what you do.Some issues can be cleared up having a little true resistive load on the channel, but you will still get more intensity at the low end than incandescent. Where 5% on an incandescent is barely visible up close, 5% on an LED will often be fairly visible, but definitely will show a continuous increase all the way up to full power.Some specific types of LED's have separate issues. The MR16 12V lamps that WireKat imports have specific issues with dimming that can be somewhat mitigated with a resistor, or current regulator in series. The non dimmable retrofit C7 and C9's have no real fix. The 2008 CDI LED strings had issues even separately from dimming, but made much worse by dimming. Some people reported various solutions, but the real way to handle them was to send them back for replacements. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max-Paul Posted November 9, 2009 Share Posted November 9, 2009 Hi RobDaddy,Before I received my first LED strings. I converted some 18" sprial trees to LED. I learned very quickly that using the hardware utility that 50% was about 100% output from these trees. And I think it is about 15% is like 0% output from the trees. I have had to adapt to these values in my mind while programming my seq. I think that there is some place that you can actually program this into either the hardware or LOR. But I am to lazy to find were that is at.Good luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobDaddy Posted November 12, 2009 Author Share Posted November 12, 2009 Thanks, I am using Philips mini LED lights. I will limit the fade intensity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toddmoon Posted November 13, 2009 Share Posted November 13, 2009 Does using fade on the LEDs shorten the life of the LEDs? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Simmons Posted November 13, 2009 Share Posted November 13, 2009 For some LED's it does. Some store brands (last year's Sylvania product through Mills Fleet Farm for example) don't hold up well to fades or reduced intensities. There was a big online vendor whose lights had serious issues last year also - some sets reportedly even burst into flames. Fortunately, most are gonna be okay though. If you can, test them before you commit to buying any serious quantity or keep your receipt and check one set out as soon as you buy it.Set up a set of lights in the yard somewhere and fade it up and down all night long. If the lights are still working okay in the morning they'll be fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-klb- Posted November 13, 2009 Share Posted November 13, 2009 If, when you test dimming them, they actually get brighter at some point in the fade, that is a very bad sign for their life span when dimmed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobDaddy Posted November 14, 2009 Author Share Posted November 14, 2009 Burst into flames????? That might be usefull for next Halloween. heheheheThanks for the info. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RaceMedic Posted March 24, 2010 Share Posted March 24, 2010 OK ?! I have a BUNCH of LEDs on order and have just finished sequencing 5 songs with a lot of fading etc.So am I to understand LEDs won't fade well ... everything I have read up to now says they do !?Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toddmoon Posted March 24, 2010 Share Posted March 24, 2010 I will let the experts respond to this one with all of their technical lingo. I have not had any issues with the LED's that I have purchased. I am going on my 4th year with the same LED's and I have been using all of the programming effects on them and they have worked just fine and as best as I can tell the lights look just as good as the first night I fired them up. Attached files Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Simmons Posted March 24, 2010 Share Posted March 24, 2010 I'm not an expert with a bunch of technical lingo, but I do have some experience with LED's. Where you have one set connected to a channel it/they will fade ok. (Be advised though that the fade rate and intensities are different from incandescents.) Where you start running into problems is when you have multiple sets connected to one channel. That's where snubbers are needed. I don't know the actual threshold of how many lightsets or "bulbs" before problems occur, but the more lights on a channel the more noticeable the problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dennis Cherry Posted March 24, 2010 Share Posted March 24, 2010 True LED's fade differently.LED's are much faster to turn ON & OFF.You normally find the LED's fade the best between 10-70% after 70% you will not see much difference.My recommendation is try fading up and down between 0-70% Did this last year on my Bethlehem Star which has 500 LED's and liked the fades much better.Do not try this inside your house and up close, it might not look right. Your elements are outside in the dark and you are a long distance from the elements, that is the way to check the affects.Basic ON can still be 100% if you want, also mixing LED's and incandescence elements in your display you might find the LED's will lead the incandescence lights slightly if you are a perfectionists.just my 2.020 cents worth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toddmoon Posted March 24, 2010 Share Posted March 24, 2010 Ok you did not use a bunch of technical lingo but if you do not qualify as an expert I am not sure who would! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulXmas Posted March 25, 2010 Share Posted March 25, 2010 RobDaddy wrote: Burst into flames????? That might be usefull for next Halloween. heheheheThanks for the info.Really! I like to get a few sets of those!(only problem I think the flames would be a one time thing). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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