About to be New User of LOR

S

Silvo

New elf
Joined
Dec 24, 2010
Messages
9
Location
Western Sydney
hi all,

this post could easily fit into the I'm new to LOR section, but i couldn't figure out how to post there.

after this year i've decided that i want to get animated in my christmas lights. i've got a great bunch of neighbours, and we often compete on who can have the best static display, but time to crank it up.

i've spent the past month or so reading my little head off. there is sooooo much out there, with a great community behind it.

i've pretty much decided i want to keep it fairly easy to begin with, by easy i mean something off the shelf as best as i can get it. LOR seems to fit that idea.

This year i pretty much replaced my incans for LED Lights. mainly from BigW.

i've made a couple of mini-trees - which are good because almost no-one in my suburb has them.!

i'm fairly handy with building things and electrical soldering etc.. i would call my skills basic there. i'm not shy to a bit of work though.

my question..

i've read a bit about dc controllers and power supplies. i'm trying to figure out if i should just go straight for the dc controllers and skip the 240v right from the start. i think ill be giving a crack at somewhere between 16 and 32 channels.

i've read that if you go the 240v option, you need to add some extra load into the channel in some cases in order to get the lights to show correctly, for me, this seems the hardest part to figure out. If anyone could explain it that would be great as it's a roadblock for me at the moment.

with DC controllers and power supplies there is a heap of information on here already geared around running big w lights at the correct voltages for display. which is why i'm leaning that way at the moment.

any comments would be helpful.. thanks
dan
 
Hi Dan. Welcome to ACL.

I would go for low voltage (DC) personally, as it is a much safer in both hooking up and general operation points of view. You say you're not adverse to a bit of DIY, so I'm sure you'll have no problem.

Things are changing rapidly in the low voltage world, and we're all working on making it easier for people to use OTS (off the shelf) strings and other items in their sequenced displays.
 
Hi Silvo.

If you are looking at taking it further, it's best you get into DC straight off. I jumped in this year, and i've never soldered before. All you need is some wire strippers, crimpers and joiners.

Low voltage is safer, and a lot cheaper than having power boards and extension leads.

You probably would have read some of the guys running AC are looking at switching to DC next year due to the amount of issues with all the rain.

Sounds like you have done your research already.

Wait for the LOR Jan clearance sales, or even better savings mid year. (depending on aussie dollar!)

I've found BigW lights and DC LOR boards a good way to get started.

-daunce
 
Hi Silvo. I did my first attempt this year and used 3 240v 16ch LOR's. while it was easy to just plug and play 240v strings and rope lights I found the most expense was in buying extension leads, they were also harder to conceal the leads. I will keep my 240v boxes for a part of the display next year but will definitely going low voltage purely because of the range of controllers you can get now.
 
Welcome to ACL. I believe that you should go straight for DC voltage, its a much safer hobbiest voltage which allows you safely run your show. This year with all the rain a few members had issues with water and 240v, these issues are much easier to manage and will not cause the power to trip when using DC voltage. In the end there isnt much more to learn about using DC voltage as the therory is the same. LED lights also conduct electricity one way and as such are perfectly suited for DC. Using AC strings can alo make it hard to control the dimming of the lights. The only benifit to using AC is that it is more plug and play than DC, but then using DC is far safer and forgiving if you do make a mistake.
 
thanks for the feedback, DC does sound like the way to go.

i've spent a bit more of yesterday focusing on DC threads and information, i'm convinced. now it's time to wait for the LOR sales !


dan
 
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