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A good RGB LED Control solution for Control4 is there


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Fixture with dedicated power wire usualy provide two extra wires (black and white) for connecting to the power supply in addition to the 4 wires (rgb) or 5 wires (rgbw) that connect to the decoder. Not all fixture are built the way and fixture that does not usually buzz when dimmed.

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Absolutely.  Its kind of a long confusing story, but I will try to explain.  I have a total of 8 RGBW LED strips mounted to a huge corrugated metal wall (72 feet long, 1 row at the top, one row at the bottom).  The wires run on the back side of the wall while the LEDs are on the front.  I used 16/4 speaker wire of the RGBW grounds and 16/2 (only one conductor) for the 12V to each strip, home run.  I didn't tie the two sets of wire sheaths together, they just kind of hung separately behind the wall at a space of maybe 5 or 6 feet from each other.  Well as we know, the dimming occurs from PWM, which tuns on and off really fast, creating a square wave type frequency.  We also know that when we run electricity down a pair of wires, it creates a magnetic field.  Well believe it or not the fact that I have the 12volts wire so far away from the RGBW grounds caused a very large magnetic field and normally this wouldn't be a big deal.  However, the RGBW dimming creates a square wave frequency and because the magnetic field was so large (16/4 and 16/2 speaker wires being so far from each other) they metal wall was actually picking up the magnetic frequency and making audible!  I zip tied the two speaker wires (16/4 and 16/2) the entire lengths together and moved the 12volts to the 16/4 and the W ground to the 16/2 and that solved the problem. Next time I will get the 18/6 wire.

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  • 4 weeks later...

We've just released a new update to the driver, it now add a Custom color palette option for the Color Loop effect and for the ColorChanger, this was a feature requested.

Also added, heatbeat polling to monitor the state of the DMX Engine and be advised if something goes wrong, it also feature an auto-recovery feature if you are using a serial-to-ip device and there is a brief network outage.

Get the new release on the Houselogix marketplace, don't forget to update the whole suite of drivers and not just some of them, this is mandatory because they all received some slight modifications.

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hey @jackstone, your recommendations and solutions, not to mention the driver(s), have been working wonderfully so far! however, i have finally run into an issue i'm confused by :)

for reference, i'm using the response box (which now comes with both an XLR-3 and an XLR-5 output, and they have told me they're outputting the same commands to both XLR outputs. i have recently purchased some recessed indoor lighting (fwiw, coloronix 3" rgbw downlights). initially, i added on the decoder on the coloronix unit (built in) as the last daisy chain on my existing PX24500 decoder chain. there was no function. then, i connected the coloronix decoder to the existing XLR-5 output i'm using with the same cable, and getting a weird issue. 

when i try and use your dimmer drivers, the light just flickers and is seemingly random, for hours. when i go to the RS232 DMX Engine driver and choose "all channels on" it works just fine. i have verified the light works as the decoder has a built in autonomous dmx engine that you can engage via various dip switch settings, and all function perfectly as well. additionally, i have installed a dmx terminator (home-made, 1/4w 120ohm resistor, tested on a calibrated fluke to 124ohm, shorting pins 1/2 on the RJ45 connector). i'm using high quality XLR to RJ45 cable, and it works just fine with the px24500 decoders on my outdoor lighting.

do you have any ideas or suggestions? these coloronix units are very high quality, and i've yet to contact the mfg (as it's saturday, and the light seems to work as it's supposed to, the hiccup is the driver). thanks in advance :)

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2 hours ago, Christopher Spitler said:

hey @jackstone, your recommendations and solutions, not to mention the driver(s), have been working wonderfully so far! however, i have finally run into an issue i'm confused by :)

for reference, i'm using the response box (which now comes with both an XLR-3 and an XLR-5 output, and they have told me they're outputting the same commands to both XLR outputs. i have recently purchased some recessed indoor lighting (fwiw, coloronix 3" rgbw downlights). initially, i added on the decoder on the coloronix unit (built in) as the last daisy chain on my existing PX24500 decoder chain. there was no function. then, i connected the coloronix decoder to the existing XLR-5 output i'm using with the same cable, and getting a weird issue. 

when i try and use your dimmer drivers, the light just flickers and is seemingly random, for hours. when i go to the RS232 DMX Engine driver and choose "all channels on" it works just fine. i have verified the light works as the decoder has a built in autonomous dmx engine that you can engage via various dip switch settings, and all function perfectly as well. additionally, i have installed a dmx terminator (home-made, 1/4w 120ohm resistor, tested on a calibrated fluke to 124ohm, shorting pins 1/2 on the RJ45 connector). i'm using high quality XLR to RJ45 cable, and it works just fine with the px24500 decoders on my outdoor lighting.

do you have any ideas or suggestions? these coloronix units are very high quality, and i've yet to contact the mfg (as it's saturday, and the light seems to work as it's supposed to, the hiccup is the driver). thanks in advance :)

so, it's not the driver, it has to be some incompatibility with the light and the engine. i connected serial to the box directly and gave commands, and the thing is crazy. however, if i set all channels to 100% (F000@255:000) then the light works, but flickers with the white LED on. as soon as i change any channel down from 255, then the light goes bonkers :/ 

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Have you tried to connect Only thr Coloronix alone on the DMX Engine and send a command through your PC?

You should inform John at Engineering Solutions, it's the company that make the RS-232 DMX Engine, he's very friendly and helpful when there is issue with its DMX Engine.

http://response-box.com/gear/contact/

 

 

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8 minutes ago, jackstone said:

Have you tried to connect Only thr Coloronix alone on the DMX Engine and send a command through your PC?

You should inform John at Engineering Solutions, it's the company that make the RS-232 DMX Engine, he's very friendly and helpful when there is issue with its DMX Engine.

http://response-box.com/gear/contact/

 

 

i have, direct serial control with the coloronix unit being the only thing in the chain. i will contact john, thanks for the tip :)

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On 4/9/2016 at 1:01 PM, jackstone said:

We've just released a new update to the driver, it now add a Custom color palette option for the Color Loop effect and for the ColorChanger, this was a feature requested.

Also added, heatbeat polling to monitor the state of the DMX Engine and be advised if something goes wrong, it also feature an auto-recovery feature if you are using a serial-to-ip device and there is a brief network outage.

Get the new release on the Houselogix marketplace, don't forget to update the whole suite of drivers and not just some of them, this is mandatory because they all received some slight modifications.

Updated and tested with my pool lights - Thanks for the update - the customer colour palette is great.

I can now keep the pool looping through blues, greens and purples (only the colours that I feel look good in water), while the waterfall loops through the rainbow colour option.

Great work!

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On 4/10/2016 at 9:42 PM, Christopher Spitler said:

i have, direct serial control with the coloronix unit being the only thing in the chain. i will contact john, thanks for the tip :)

to follow up, the solution was a bad decoder. unfortunately their connections from the decoder to the bulb are highly proprietary so i couldn't test. the company overnighted a new decoder and it worked perfectly. thanks :)

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5 minutes ago, Christopher Spitler said:

to follow up, the solution was a bad decoder. unfortunately their connections from the decoder to the bulb are highly proprietary so i couldn't test. the company overnighted a new decoder and it worked perfectly. thanks :)

So now you're able to control the Coloronix properly? You confirm it is compatible with Control4 control?

I'm asking because we're are always gathering information about LED products and how they work with the Control4 DMX solution, people are always asking for advices and since LV lighting is just starting in North America, we need to make sure our solution will handle this new trend the best possible way. Thanks for the feedback!

 

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yep, it's fully functional. to make things simple for me, i have the 2 output decabox, and the XLR5 output (output 1) drives my outdoor lights via the px24500 decoders, and the XLR3 (output 2) drives the interior lights.

the coloronix lights fade wonderfully and the color mixing is impeccable, but the cost of the lights is a bit higher than normal (US$450/light for 3" RBGW recessed). now that this unit is off the bench and working in an installation, i plan to refit all of my 6" downlights in the house to the coloronix 6" gen 2. 

will post some pictures next of the unit itself

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