Calculating power supply

Watson24

New elf
Joined
Apr 20, 2019
Messages
1
Hey everyone,

Im quite new to all this, however am diving head first into it all. I am looking at getting the Light-O-Rama Residential 16 channel controller. My question is about calculating the power supply to ensure I don't blow my house up! This is probably such a basic question for all you pro's, however, when looking at the Voltage of my lights, should I be focusing on the 'output' DC voltage which is lower and hovers around 10V-40V or the 'input/rated' AC voltage which is around 110V-250V range. Any advice or help for the basics would be great! thanks
 

AAH

I love blinky lights :)
Community project designer
Joined
Dec 27, 2010
Messages
4,188
Location
Eaglehawk
Welcome to ACL. Grab a copy of the ACL101 and have a read if you haven't already.
Going with a LOR AC controller is pretty much the single most expensive way to get into computer controlled lighting.
Depending on the type of lights that you have there is every chance that they can't be dimmed with an AC controller. If they have a plugpack on them it is just about a given that they can't be controlled via an AC dimmer. AC dimmers are suitable for mains voltage incandescent lights that are still quite common in the US and also to a lesser extent mains voltage LED strings. There aren't many mains voltage led strings around. Some wireframe lights are 240V and some rope lights are but most lights sold in Aus are low voltage ones that can't be dimmed with an AC controller.
As far as blowing up your house the single best way of doing it is hooking up a plugpack to an AC dimmer. When it comes to overloading circuits it's the Watts or VA rating that you look for on the lights. 6-10W is pretty common for LED lights and a standard 10A mains mains outlet is rated to 2400W so you can power 240 odd lights from 1 of them. A power circuit which covers multiple power points is usually 20A so over several power points on the 1 mains circuit you could power 500+ light strings.
 

videoman3857

Full time elf
Joined
Apr 21, 2016
Messages
445
Location
Glass House Mountains
As a user of second hand LOR equipment, I would say DON'T go the 240 volt controller as they can only turn your lights on or off.
They cannot make them go flash and blinky. If you try, you will damage the light's controller, the LOR controller, or both.
The Americans use 110 volt leds and incandescent lights and the LOR guys have adapted the board to control 240- lights - something we do not use !!!!
Unless you can get some of second-hand LOR cmb-16D or cmb-24's to control single colour DC leds or Dumb RGB LED,s - which you may have to get from China
I would highly recommend, if you are starting out, download the 101 handbook , go to a mini and go the digital route, Use smart pixels (not much $ difference between them and dumb RGB and they can do way much more) Look at, a simple controller to start with and use a "free" program like Vixen or Xlights. You have to PAY for the LOR program.
 
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