eldoradoboy Posted December 14, 2009 Share Posted December 14, 2009 im working on a mini tree design and test that would use an LED RGB bulb... this bulb can be changed color by closing different sets of contacts.. actuall they are analog inputs 0-5 volt to the bulb however im only looking for the 16 colors and it can be set up to work from dry contact closure.. this bulb has external power source ..im looking for a way to "close a circuit" with an LOR... im hoping not to use relays because they are physical and will wear out.. and I dont want to have to make boards.. i just want to wire up and go..I realize this guy wont dim at first.. but for my testing thats Ok...right now its just an idea-Christopher Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-klb- Posted December 14, 2009 Share Posted December 14, 2009 Any links to product specifications, so we can see if there are better ways do do this, like maybe the LOR DC card? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eldoradoboy Posted December 14, 2009 Author Share Posted December 14, 2009 I could do it with an LOR DC card except for the fact the LOR DC card needs to be powered by more than the max 5 volts the the light's inputs can take in... and the mains to the bulb fixture are to be 12-18 VDC..each R,G,B can be controlled by a 0-5 VDC signal.. then it can dim.. or if a complete closure is used the color goes to full bright.. ..im liking the looks of this device but need to find a way to test it to see if it will have any latency of its own from the time I tell it go on until it actually does.. if there is latency it will not work for sequencing.....I only have paper information on it nothing from the internet.. I do not own a scanner... of course it is from china... im actually looking at them for my Home accent Lighting and then got the idea.. wow could i use it in my christmas lights...-Christopher Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-klb- Posted December 14, 2009 Share Posted December 14, 2009 The DC card can be powered separately from the lights. It has a barrel connector to power the logic, if the lights are lower voltage.One thing that may apply here though is that the DC card switches the negative lead, so you have to be able to configure or use the fixture with a common positive lead. If the lamp is wired common negative, there is no way the DC card can control it directly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eldoradoboy Posted December 14, 2009 Author Share Posted December 14, 2009 good point!.. ill have to see if i can figure that out... whern I get a sample ill work on whether it uses a common negative.. im going to guess that it probably does....UNLESS I can get lucky and the logic for the analog inouts is isolated from the power supply, nothing states that the logic control and the power must have a common ground.. however it would need to pull a reference to 0 for the analog input somehow...of coruse since its china i doubt im going to get very much technical info on it...however if the bulb is simply looking for a 0 - 5 volt signal and is powered separately from the LOR controller it would seem that I dont need to worry about the bulb's power and the logic inputs.....-Christopher Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBullard Posted December 15, 2009 Share Posted December 15, 2009 Chris,I might be missing something but it seems like the servodog product would provide the contact closure function you need.http://store.lightorama.com/servodog.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Fischer Posted December 15, 2009 Share Posted December 15, 2009 I've been using a relay to fire my "Zap" strobes for 7 seasons now. They aren't fired *that* often, but several dozen times an hour. No issues (my setup provides a low-voltage DC pulse to the strobes, but could just as easily be a dry contact closure. These days a DC board would be more suitable for my task, but it's been in use long before the DC board was a twinkle in Dan's eye ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eldoradoboy Posted December 15, 2009 Author Share Posted December 15, 2009 well looks like this light is not going to be my choice for anything christmas.. china responded back to an email about the product and stated that it is "soft on" "soft off" or as they call it slow on slow off... and each input is only polled about every 50 milliseconds so that pretty much makes it useless for anything but static display elements.. or in my original plan interior accent lighting as i dont care about speed and such...from full on to full off is "up to but not necessarily 1000 ms" and same for full off to full on....they didnt respond on whether the ground was isolated for signal and powering the chips.. my guess is not.....-Christopher Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts