What cover to use for Rainbow Floods

[fasteddy]

I have been building a few of Pondudes rainbow floods and have been very impressed with the colour and light output that these give for under US$15. I have found the perfect cover (with the help of Phil ) for these floods. The covers are from the Horizon Range of 150 watt flood lights that can be bought from Bunnings for AU$10. The flood casing is perfect for the rainbow floods and simple to build.


1: First open the cover of the light and remove all the internal bits from the from the flood, including the reflector, base, wiring and terminal block until you have an empty flood casing.
2: Then solder a short wiring tail directly to the bottom of the board as shown in the picture. Do not solder on the RJ sockets when building the flood board
3: Test the flood board works
4: Place the board into the flood casing, feeding the wire through the hole to the terminal box as shown in the picture
5: Fit the board into the flood casing ensuring it is level and centred and it should wedge into the casing into a perfect position.
6: Use non corrosive silicon to hold the flood board into position
7: Leave for a week to allow the silicone to cure
8: Close up the cover. I used some silicon gel around the gasket to help minimise any chance of water ingress
9: The light is now ready to be connected to any DC controlling board like the tiger 48 or LOR DC board, or even the rainbow brain

The result was easier and better than i had expected as the casing is the perfect fit for these floods and are not difficult to build

 

[AussiePhil]

Nice work Eddie


Phil

 

[budude]

Looks great! - I just purchased four of his floods as well - $15 is hard to beat! I see you hardwired the Cat5 cable - what did you use to cap the end? I might just run a length of Cat5 with an RJ45 connector on the end to my controller directly so I don't have to worry about waterproofing it.

 

[fasteddy]

I used stranded cat 5 cable not solid core cat 5 wire as solid will break easier. I'm not putting any RJ45 plugs onto the cable but instead will directly wire these up into the terminal box using the waterproof junction box and gland shown in the photo. When i go to pack them up ill just roll the cables up with the lights and keep the cable and light together.

 

[fj]

in your opinion, what gives better light output - the rainbow floods or the porta floods?

I've wired up 2 portafloods so far and i'm a bit disappointed with the light output. i thought they'd be brighter.

 

[fasteddy]

in your opinion, what gives better light output - the rainbow floods or the porta floods?

I've wired up 2 portafloods so far and I'm a bit disappointed with the light output. i thought they'd be brighter.

I cant give you a definite answer on this as I don't have any portafloods. But there have been some comparisons done with the rainbow floods by other people at their local minis and the rainbow floods have had the best results. I know for US$15 they put out a lot of light and I'm happy with them.
Chuck & Andy did a review and i would think they may have a better idea than me

 

[fasteddy]

Here is a couple of pictures of the rainbow floods, I have used 2 against my entry arch and they give a great effect. As usual the pictures don't do the colours justice.

 

[fj]

nice pics, they look good.

i saw the Lynx Aether today in a video and boy they are bright but no way in the world can i justify $85 each !!!!!! some of these Rainbow floods might be the go at $15.

i have a dark brick house, wonder how they'd go against a dark colour.

 

[DanoNJ]

Eddy, just wondering..... how many Red floods are you using. Thye look bright.

FJ: I have a red brick front which really sucks up the light. The rainbows did a good job though.

 

[fasteddy]

Eddy, just wondering..... how many Red floods are you using. Thye look bright.

FJ: I have a red brick front which really sucks up the light. The rainbows did a good job though.

I'm using the floods in their standard configuration of equal banks of Red, Green and Blue. The surface I'm lighting up is a light cream colour on a textured cement rendered surface, the colours come up very nice and bright on this surface.
With the reds i found that they don't have the same throw distance as the other colours, I found that if they are placed about 2 metres or below from the surface they are lighting then the reds have enough grunt to come up bright. Go past 2 metres and the reds drop off in intensity very quickly.

 

[AussiePhil]

They look great lighting the house, proves you need to show them of as they will be used.

Cheers
Phil

 

[kel]

Quick question, eddy ... if one was to put the rj45 connectors on the board would they still fit into that Bunning enclosure?

 

[fasteddy]

Quick question, eddy ... if one was to put the rj45 connectors on the board would they still fit into that Bunning enclosure?

No they will not fit with the RJ45 jacks. The jacks make the floods look ugly and not proffessional (my opinion only) when put in a flood housing and if you were making the floods yourself it is not much harder to just solder in a short tail with cat 5. Use the strand type not the solid core cat 5 cable as the solid core can tend to break.

 

[kel]

Thanks, eddy, that's what I thought ...

I was in Warwick (Qld) yesterday and bought a few of the enclosures in preparation for the boards (on order). When I unpacked them this morning, I thought I had best check re the snuggness of the fit

 

[rmturner54]

Here are my RBF's. New to the forum. I too wired directly to the board.
Pic 1 is of house with flash
Pic 2 Blue
Pic 3 Green
Pic 4 Red
Pic 5 assembled flood in housing.
Cant beat the price for the light output