What lights can you hook up to a 240v AC controller

[AAH]

#1 rule on ACL. photos or it didn't happen

Yeah, I've admin'd a few forums before... they always seemed to want to sell shoes on mine

We've run no-spec lights before on LOR AC and they are pretty spectacular when they go bang ... all the arcing and the smoke

 

[LEDelusional]

#1 rule on ACL. photos or it didn't happen

Ha! Fair call

 

[dale82]

so with 1100+ channels of LOR your display would be impressive, and given that you have admin'ed forums before your computer skill are pretty good, im just wondering if you have a website of your light show that we could have a look at?

 

[fasteddy]

In my opinion as an electrician that 240v light strings are dangerous, the reason being is normally wiring is double insulated for added protection, but in strings this is not the case. 240v is dangerous and then you add water and rain and the situation becomes even more dangerous. How many times have we seem a string fail in the rain because water got in, so that water can now track and cause other things to become alive because its an exposed live 240 connection

Only the other day i was talking to a member who bought `good quality` non ebay 240v icicles and got a shock from them. I myself have had a similar experience in the past and I reakon many others have as well Its just not worth the risk.

I have in the past also seen rope light arching and burning because water got into the plug, or where the active conductor has been exposed through the rope due to bad placement of the conductor. There is no good reason to use 240v these days as there are so many other safer alternatives.

One of the founding purposes of ACL was to spealize in low voltage lighting because the US was very foccused on 110v and LOR controllers which is less of a hazard than 240v and 240v is just crazy when you think that we use these lights outside where the public can access in all sorts of weather and where the fault current is much higher and dangerous than using low voltage alternatives.

So in my opinion 240v and christmas lights = bad idea
Take a look at this post to understand how different voltages play a role in electrocution
http://auschristmaslighting.com/forums/index.php?topic=1223.0


You can use a LOR controller on 24VAC lights

 

[BundyRoy]

You can use a LOR controller on 24VAC lights

Eddy, do you need to do any modifications to the controller to use those lights?


On another note I was wondering how the leds actually work with AC. In the MyTBrite lights there is something in the line which I assume somehow converts the AC to DC. Does it also have some thing like a big resistor to cause a big voltage drop as well or do the leds actually see 240V.

 

[fasteddy]

You can use a LOR controller on 24VAC lights

Eddy, do you need to do any modifications to the controller to use those lights?


On another note I was wondering how the leds actually work with AC. In the MyTBrite lights there is something in the line which I assume somehow converts the AC to DC. Does it also have some thing like a big resistor to cause a big voltage drop as well or do the leds actually see 240V.

Regarding the LOR controllers, the LOR have 2 banks, one for powering up the control board electronics and the other for the outputs, its the second bank that doesnt power up the board that can be used for 24vac, the bank that powers up the electronics would need modification to run at 24vac

What you see in line is a rectifier that converts the AC signal to a DC signal, the reason for this is because LEDs only conduct current in one direction, so if using AC only you will then notice a very high frequency flickering of the lights as the AC voltage swaps direction 50 times per second (60 times in the US) so effectively only working 1/2 the time. So by adding a rectifier you then change the voltage to DC which flows in one direction and thus has no high frequency flickering

The simple rule for LED circuits is

LEDs in series then we add voltage for each LED added

LEDs in parrallel then we add current for each LED circuit in parrallel

So a 240v string would be made of multiple LEDs in series that each have a forward voltage rating which may be say 2 to 3 volts, we then add the LEDs together to get a voltage level that is close to our input voltage, then for longer strings we then add another LED series circuit that is parrallel to this.

So this explains why we dont see 240v pixels because a pixel is a 1 LED circuit in a string, because there is too much voltage to drop from 240 volts to 3 volts

A great place to try to understand LED circuits is this LED calculator http://led.linear1.org/led.wiz

here is an example of a 110 volts LED circuit of 100 LEDs using 110v (this calculator does not like using 240v which is understandable)

I hope that helps with LEDs 101


[attachimg=1]

 

[Tom]

Hi All
I get all my led string lights from Evershining lights from Alibaba.com.
I get them custom made up - 30m ,20m , 10m x 5m lead x 240v , Au plug. ( Ask for non flashing, static if computerised display ). The 5m lead is to do away with extension cords. They are of very good quality and I have been using them for over 10 years.

 

[fasteddy]

Hi All
I get all my led string lights from Evershining lights from Alibaba.com.
I get them custom made up - 30m ,20m , 10m x 5m lead x 240v , Au plug. ( Ask for non flashing, static if computerised display ). The 5m lead is to do away with extension cords. They are of very good quality and I have been using them for over 10 years.

240v string lights are something we recommend to avoid in most cases because of several reasons
These would not be Australian approved and if they were to cause a fire or electrocution then you could be liable and when you have 240v running all through your yard and over your house the risk is increased.
240v and water is not a good mix, so when it rains you run the risk of your show turning off due to the RCD tripping due to earth leakage from the lights when it rains. Make sure you do have an RCD in your power box for safety as many older houses may still not have this. Also test the RCD to ensure it works by pressing the test button periodically because if it doesn't work then this could lead to a very dangerous situation, especially when wet
240v has a much larger fault energy than 24v and thus can cause fires mush easier than 24v if a fault was to arise.
Also 240v and kids in a garden is not a good combination.

So my recommendation would be to start moving away from using 240v string lighting and start using safer lower voltages instead

 

[videoman3857]

I only use my 240 volt LOR controller to turn on and off those two wire controllers .
The LOR controller is on my top floor veranda and the 2 wire controller packs are plugged into it directly or via extension cords.
All cords are out of the public walking area and all connections are in locked weather proof boxes.
My light display consists of a heap of the two wire fairy light and ropes that twinkle all the time.
They remain on as illumination for people to look at the displays.
I then have a 3 min "Light Show" every 15 mins
An announcement comes over the speakers for every one to make their way to the viewing area
and the 240 volt controller turns everything except barrier guide lights off.
My show runs and then the lights come back on.
This gives everyone a chance to look at the static stuff as well as bliky things
and hopefully this year a virtual Santa and Sleigh landing on the roof of the house

 

[924aussie]

Back to the above old topic, am I correct that you can use a LOR a/c controller and plug in dc lights that have a A/C plug pack that changes from A/C to D/C therefore running dc voltages across the roof line through trees etc etc

Alan

 

[David_AVD]

You can usually get away with using light sets with transformers (heavy type plugpack) on a LOR AC controller, but only for on and off. Do not attempt to dim them or flash them at any sort of higher speeds.

Never connect the newer switchmode (lightweight plugpack) type of power supplies to an AC controller. That will result in damage to the light set as well as the AC controller.