LOR 240V AC controller CTB16PC and BigW type DC Lights

BundyRoy

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From what others have said this morning I have had to face facts that I cannot use my brand new LOR controller with my bigW led strings as I had planned. The transformers are not compatible with dimming or being turned off and on regularly.

This is majorly depressing. I don't have any other 240v lights to plug into it. So I guess I have some options.

1) get some more 240v lights
2) sell the controller and/or buy dc board to run bigw lights on 1.31 network
3) don't use the controller this year and just have the bigW lights on static display and the led strips to music through the 1.31 network
4) find cheap way to hook bigw lights to 240v (I assume that's not possible)

Not enough money in the budget to buy 16 sets of new 240v lights.

What really annoys me is that normally I research everything to death before purchasing and this time I didn't. Big mistake. At least in the short term anyway.

I suppose the good news is I found out before I wrecked my lights, my controller and possibly burnt my house down and endangered my family. Have to be thankful for that. There is nothing on the LOR website warning you of that (that I've seen anyway).

Are there any types of lights that have to run on 240V?

Anyway bit bummed at the moment. Will have to go and watch some more videos to get inspired again. Hopefully this post will help someone else in the future.
 

ecbailey

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If you just want them to dim, then you can bypass the multifunction controller and plug the transformer into the 240v controller, assuming it is a transformer rather then a switch mode power supply, that is.


I use my Big W lights with DC controllers at about 32v. I've got basic 240v rope lights on wire frames hooked up to the 240v controller, generally on boxing day you can get some cheap in star shapes or similar (Of which I have three on top of my string tree).
 

fasteddy

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Your not out of options yet.

Find yourself a decent sized 24vAC transformer and power your lights using the transformer instead and ensure you do the modification on the bigW controller. You can then use the second unpowered bank on a LOR controller with 24V AC, so at least you end up using 8 channels
 

AAH

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On 1 of the threads on my signature there is a link which showed how I hooked up my LOR AC controllers with 1 banks as 24VAC and 1 bank as 240VAC. With a slight mod it is possible to run both banks at 24VAC.
 

BundyRoy

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I would be happy with 8 usable channels. A lot of my led strings are 200 lights that can be hooked up together to make a string of 600. Even if hooking them together becomes a no no, 8 is better than none.

Having trouble fathoming how it works though. How can 8 separate power circuits go to one transformer and stay separate.
 

BundyRoy

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Let me have a crack at this concept. There are two wires in an ac circuit + ground/earth. I don't know the terminology sorry so this description could be rough. You take the power wires from the board and hook them to the transformer. Then hook one of the wires going to the MFC on the lights to the transformer. You then connect the other wire from the lights to the wire/port on the controller that does the switching on/off.

Trouble with this theory is that if you dim one channel you dim all channels that are on at that time as all the power side is linked. Not concerned if I can't dim. There is probably many more faults with my grip on things but I've had a crack. Doesn't really explain why one bank is unpowered though either.
 

fasteddy

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The LOR controller is divided into 2 banks, one of the banks supplies power to the electronics and would be the side you apply 240v to. the other side is separate and you can connect this to a 24v transformer.

If you wanted to use all 16 channels at 24v then you will need to do a small modification as Alan mentioned

Here is a pic of the controller that may help you understand

[attachimg=1]
 

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BundyRoy

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For what it's worth here is the bigw transformer photos

photo1.jpg


photo2.jpg
 

BundyRoy

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Thanks for your reply eddy. Let's see if I've got it this time. Currently there are 2 240V power cords that need to be plugged in to run the controller. One powers channels 1-8 and the other powers the board and channels 9-16. I then take the 24v ac transformer and replace the power cord that does channels 1-8 with the output of the transformer, thus making that side 24v ac. The other side needs the modification as it runs the board as well as the outputs.
 

fasteddy

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You will need a 24v transformer that has the capacity to run all the lights you connect. You cant connect up all the power supplies together as this will just burn out transformers
 

David_AVD

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Fasteddy said:
You will need a 24v transformer that has the capacity to run all the lights you connect. You cant connect up all the power supplies together as this will just burn out transformers

Actually you can, but it does require careful design and is not recommended unless you understand all the implications.
 

penguineer

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BundyRoy said:
For what it's worth here is the bigw transformer photos

photo1.jpg


photo2.jpg

That's the same old-style transformer that I used on my BigW lights for my first year.

My understanding of it(please correct me if I'm wrong):

- *these*particular* transformers will handle basic on/off but may have problems(bright/flamey problems) with dimming and really fast switching(10ms on-10ms off...).

- The new-style(smaller/lighter/black case) wall plugs are switch-mode and definitely do not like switching on/off, dimming or anything else other than being left to their own devices.

My feeling is that you can mod the MFCs, hook this gear up and do a display with all 16 channels on 240v as long as you are a bit conservative with your sequencing.

For a bit of extra comfort, I placed my 240v controller and the associated bits in a location where it could happily burn on it's lonesome without taking the house with it.

Cheers!
 
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