New Light-O-Rama Products Coming Soon - RGB, Gen2 Controllers, DMX, Visualiser

[ryanschristmaslights]

Hi all!

Dan of Light-O-Rama has posted on the official LOR forum that there are lots of new products coming soon in 2011 and beyond.

• Cosmic Color Bulbs (aka Pixels)
• Cosmic Color Floods (aka RGB Floods)
• High Power MP3 Director (standalone plug and play show operator to have better support for all the new LOR products coming out)
• Generation 2 Controllers - ghost load detection e.g. sticky channels in addition to smoother dimming with LEDs and incandescents
• Smoother Dimming - dimming steps quadrupled from 256 to 1024 for smoother fades
• Dimming Curves - firmware based curves for a smoother fade with LEDs
• High Speed Ethernet Interface with multiple LOR and DMX universe output
• New Visualiser with multiple layers, support for macros with multiple LOR and DMX universe output
• Power Line Control (PLC) - the removal of data cabling due to data being transmitted using the same cable as power. PLC is still in early development and does not appear to be something that we will see from LOR in 2011

It is good to see those dreaded overheating flood prototypes we've heard about from various USA mini-PLUS events are nearly ready to be sold.

 

[fasteddy]

Great to see that RGB wont just be limited to DIY, 2011 is shaping up to be a very colourful year.

 

[mrpackethead]

Great to see that RGB wont just be limited to DIY, 2011 is shaping up to be a very colourful year.

It was'nt limited in 2010 to DIY either... And this will be a most interesting and competitive space.

 

[fasteddy]

Great to see that RGB wont just be limited to DIY, 2011 is shaping up to be a very colourful year.

It was'nt limited in 2010 to DIY either... And this will be a most interesting and competitive space.

I know that you supply the pixel strings but the intent of this post was that from one manufacturer you will have floods, controllers, pixel strings and strips as well as the software and network distribution. So all the main elements of RGB will be available from the same vendor.
Im not sure but you may have similar plans for 2011

 

[mrpackethead]

yes, controllers, pixel strings, floods, strips, software and networks.. all done in 2010.

 

[dmoore]

Dan of Light-O-Rama has posted on the official LOR forum that there are lots of new products coming soon in 2011 and beyond.

• Smoother Dimming - dimming steps quadrupled from 256 to 1024 for smoother fades
• Dimming Curves - firmware based curves for a smoother fade with LEDs

It's good to know they will be fixing the fading in their controllers since even cheap DIY controllers "do it better", including dimming curves: Fading characteristics of LOR, Lynx, TigerDMX and Generic DMX Controllers & LED vs Incandescent Fading Performance

• High Speed Ethernet Interface with multiple LOR and DMX universe output

Please Lord, let it be E131! Then we can have a common interface that other packages support.

• New Visualiser with multiple layers, support for macros with multiple LOR and DMX universe output

Their software is going to need WAY more than this to remain top dog in 2011. If anything, this is were they should be putting their efforts. But.... LOR is at it's heart a hardware company, not a software company (Dan and John). So, I'm guessing they will be conceeding to others the task of sequencing all but the simple shows.

 

[hbomb341]

I was waiting for Davids comments - It sounds a LOT like Apple - oh ya these guys over here figured out how to do this (Jailbreak features) oh ya we added those to our stuff. It looks a LOT like the are catching up to DIY.

The only thing to save them is if they can hit the ball out of the park on the software ( OF COURCE they need E1.31).

Harrison

 

[fasteddy]

I was waiting for Davids comments - It sounds a LOT like Apple - oh ya these guys over here figured out how to do this (Jailbreak features) oh ya we added those to our stuff. It looks a LOT like the are catching up to DIY.

The only thing to save them is if they can hit the ball out of the park on the software ( OF COURCE they need E1.31).

Harrison

They may be catching up on DIY but you will need very large pockets to afford thier equipment which on average will be twice the price than DIY if not more.

 

[David_AVD]

They may be catching up on DIY but you will need very large pockets to afford their equipment which on average will be twice the price than DIY if not more.

LOR do have a target market and like most OTS "plug n play" solutions, you pay more. There's plenty of room for all skill levels, from hard core DIY to fully built with extra hand holding. If it weren't for the LOR type suppliers, some people would never get into Christmas lighting, and that would be a shame.

 

[fasteddy]

They may be catching up on DIY but you will need very large pockets to afford their equipment which on average will be twice the price than DIY if not more.

LOR do have a target market and like most OTS "plug n play" solutions, you pay more. There's plenty of room for all skill levels, from hard core DIY to fully built with extra hand holding. If it weren't for the LOR type suppliers, some people would never get into Christmas lighting, and that would be a shame.

LOR definetly is still great value for what you get and i have several LOR controllers and CCRs myself. But as we all know this hobby can become very expensive very quickly and for me that was part of the reason i went to DIY, the less money i spend on conrtrollers means i can spend more money on lights.
For many, LOR will be the only way due to great warranty, support and ease of setup and use but I am glad that LOR will release a lot more RGB lighting and control options in the near future.
2011 should be a great year for all lighting enthusiest regardless of your skill level with all the new goodies coming onto the market.

 

[dmoore]

They may be catching up on DIY but you will need very large pockets to afford thier equipment which on average will be twice the price than DIY if not more.

Just pixel based in general is going to create a "caste system" in lighting between those with deep pockets and those without. To do some of these big pixel based displays on a budget, many people will have to do them DIY. Of course the DIY of yester-year with high amp controllers compared to screwing on a few pre-assembled pixel strings and making a box will be quite different.

 

[ryanschristmaslights]

Dan has released a little more info regarding the cosmic colour bulbs and floods.


Cosmic Color Bulbs (aka Pixels)

• The CCB will require only a power cable and not a data cable (data will be sent in the same wire as power)
• A CCB string will be made up of 50 nodes
• A CCB controller can handle two CCB strings (100 nodes total)
• CCB strings will have 8" (20.3 cm) spacing
• A 50 node CCB will cost US$149 however two CCB strings will cost US$199 (US$99 each)
• The Cosmic Color Bulbs are planned to be be released during the February/March Inventory Reduction sale
• The CCB strings have an inbuilt power supply that automatically adjusts itself as long as the input voltage is between 100 and 250 volts AC
• An injector will control up to 10 strings and will be around US$30. 120v and 240v versions will be available.

Cosmic Color Floods (aka RGB Floods)

• CCF's come complete with controller, power supply, head and weather resistant enclosures.
• A CCF controller can run up to two heads
• A two-head complete package (with controller, power supply, enclosures, etc) will be around US$300, whilst a single-head package will run at US$200. (Youch! Expensive!)
• There will be 120v and 240v versions - you cannot convert a 120v CCF to work on 240v and vice versa.

Source

 

[AAH]

Interesting video. A possible better or clearer scenario would have been to have the 8 or so leds/lights with 1 of each sticking through a panel and fading up and down while commentating the values with the camera showing each of the channels at the same time.
The LOR AC controllers performance will be drastically affected by the type of LED string hanging off it. A 100 LED AC string of LEDS designed for 24VAC for example may not turn on at all below 18V DC or about 12VAC. The 3V voltage drop across each LED in the string of 5->8 LEDs per group plus the 1.4V across the bridge rectifier means that that LEDS fade from maybe 0% brightness at 12VAC to 100% at 24VAC. With DC controllers the LEDS get the full voltage all the time and simply alter the on/off time to vary the brightness.
Knowing that AC LEDs on an AC controller don't use the same dimming range shouldn't present any problems to anyone who is aware of it.
As you can see with the video incandescents vs LEDs look very different when dimmed. The LEDS on DC are quite linear and change brightness but not colour as they are faded. Incandescents when they are dimmed low change to a very dull reddish colour as the filament isn't heated to its 6000ish Kelvin required to emit white light.

I have LOR AC controllers myself and custom made up most of the LED strings that I'm using so that they work over a much wider dimming range. I think mine probably work over about a 5VAC to 24VAC range.

 

[David_AVD]

I agree that dimming AC LEDs is fraught with problems and PWM'd DC really is the only way to go.