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A good RGB LED Control solution for Control4 is there


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ill post some videos too. here's the construction of the unit and me working on it on the bench to get it to work. 

 

out of the box. these are new construction boxes, not really for retrofit, but whatever. pretty solid construction. knockouts on either side for DMX cable. the small box on the front side here is where power cables are housed, pre-extended from the factory from the deocder into this smaller housing for ease of install

IMG_3220.JPG?v=740233c9

 

 

where the magic happens. simple decoder, RJ45 in/out. DIP switch offers some standalone modes that can operate sans-DMX

IMG_3221.JPG?v=10c7ceaa

 

they're using 24/8 i think to connect the light to the board, and it's an RJ45 termination carrying the current to power the light from the decoder!

IMG_3271.JPG?v=299c010a

 

 

a picture of the light next to a soda can for size referenceIMG_3274.JPG?v=299c010a

 

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15 hours ago, Christopher Spitler said:

here's a video of the recessed light installed, using your effects switch (adv chase rainbow with a 1sec fade)

 

http://share.chrisspitler.com/3z1b383e0X2g

Advanced Chase for a single fixture? What you need is the Color Loop, not the Chase. Chase is intended to be used on a group of fixture and make the light jump from a fixture to another.

 

As for the Coloronix, they sure look nice and pretty high-end, but they could certainly lower their selling price by centralizing the power supply and DMX decoder, having one per fixture add complexity and raise the manufacturing cost. With DMX, we can use a single power supply for many lights and a single decoder if we want all the lights to be work similarly.

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31 minutes ago, jackstone said:

As for the Coloronix, they sure look nice and pretty high-end, but they could certainly lower their selling price by centralizing the power supply and DMX decoder, having one per fixture add complexity and raise the manufacturing cost. With DMX, we can use a single power supply for many lights and a single decoder if we want all the lights to be work similarly.

yeah, i spoke with them about that. it seems installers prefer to run AC power directly to the unit and not have to calculate voltage drops, etc. they sent me one of the standard transformers they use for this, it's a super tiny (about 1/3 the length and half of the depth of a px24500) 10w digital xfmr. pretty handy. i'm actually considering running AC to each unit for this. but we will see. 

 

also i've been messing with muxing the power and DMX signal over the same wire and splitting it out when it gets to the decoder, but so far not 100%

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Running DMX and Power on the same line would be nice, but there is no standard to do that right now... In theory, we could run a 18/5 wire with three cables shielded and that SOULD work... Even if DMX is robust, not sure it's a good thing to have is living with power on the same wire without any kind of shield... DMX is much like RS485.

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ill post some videos too. here's the construction of the unit and me working on it on the bench to get it to work. 

 

out of the box. these are new construction boxes, not really for retrofit, but whatever. pretty solid construction. knockouts on either side for DMX cable. the small box on the front side here is where power cables are housed, pre-extended from the factory from the deocder into this smaller housing for ease of install

IMG_3220.JPG?v=740233c9

 

 

where the magic happens. simple decoder, RJ45 in/out. DIP switch offers some standalone modes that can operate sans-DMX

IMG_3221.JPG?v=10c7ceaa

 

they're using 24/8 i think to connect the light to the board, and it's an RJ45 termination carrying the current to power the light from the decoder!

IMG_3271.JPG?v=299c010a

 

 

a picture of the light next to a soda can for size referenceIMG_3274.JPG?v=299c010a

 

Colouronix don't include the bars to connect to the joists. Don't forget to Shop for those.

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4 hours ago, SMHarman said:

Colouronix don't include the bars to connect to the joists. Don't forget to Shop for those.

 

yeah, they dont, we fit them in when we mounted the test light. however, i'm hearing several reports from other people that have purchased that the decoder/data enablers are DOA. 

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yeah, they dont, we fit them in when we mounted the test light. however, i'm hearing several reports from other people that have purchased that the decoder/data enablers are DOA. 

It annoyed the crap out of me that on a pretty expensive light they don't put those in a box.

To keep my project on track I bought a pile of cheapo cans pulled the bars and ditched the lights. Better than paying another day of labor.

They really should throw these in the box even if the price goes up a few dollars.

Also I have one that due to the give on the back box I cannot get a flush fit to the ceiling. Any tips pushing just moves the back box.

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We just released a minor update on the DMX Dimmer and RGB Dimmer drivers, it now fix the Scene Activation Feedback. This issue was reported many times and we were never able to fix it until now. You will now get accurate "Active" or "Inactive" status from your DMX scene in the Advanced Lightning Agent. Scene toggle now work perfectly.

Thanks to Jason from Custom Sound and Vision for helping me isolate what caused this issue.

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Now added with the driver package: DMX Motorization Relay driver. This driver enable the use of cheap DMX Relay device to integrate flawlessly with all the Control4 generic relay device like motorized screen or garage door. It also feature an unique option to allow the use of two DMX Relay channels to control one device, thus allow to mimic any button press on any device with push buttons control even if there is no "real" contact control on the device, for example, many motorized reclining couch can be controlled this way.

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25 minutes ago, jackstone said:

Now added with the driver package: DMX Motorization Relay driver. This driver enable the use of cheap DMX Relay device to integrate flawlessly with all the Control4 generic relay device like motorized screen or garage door. It also feature an unique option to allow the use of two DMX Relay channels to control one device, thus allow to mimic any button press on any device with push buttons control even if there is no "real" contact control on the device, for example, many motorized reclining couch can be controlled this way.

That is so cool!!!!  Awesome job!

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32 minutes ago, jackstone said:

Now added with the driver package: DMX Motorization Relay driver. This driver enable the use of cheap DMX Relay device to integrate flawlessly with all the Control4 generic relay device like motorized screen or garage door. It also feature an unique option to allow the use of two DMX Relay channels to control one device, thus allow to mimic any button press on any device with push buttons control even if there is no "real" contact control on the device, for example, many motorized reclining couch can be controlled this way.

What version does that put the driver at?

 

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Is it possible to have landscape lighting to change color on each individual light or have them all change to the same color. For example at christmas time I change the bulbs in my landscape lights to red blue yellow green. Fourth of July red white blue .The process takes some time and it would be nice if i could just touch a button and have the rgb do it for me. If this is possiable what would I need to do this? Thanks

 

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With rgb or rgbw dmx lighting you have at minimum 256 light channels to control.

A light will have 3 or 4 channels.

Each light can have its own set of channels or can duplicate the channels of another light. Usually those are set by physical dip switches on the controller.

Once set you send a command to the channel and all lights on tjat channel respond.

Within control4 that command would be setting an advanced lighting scene. E.g. Scene 4 July sends red to channels 1-4 White to 5-8 and blue yo 9-12 and the lights on those channels respond.

Now with timers and macros you can have 3 4 July scenes and then shift those along every few minutes.

With the serial dmx driver and it's c4 driver you can also activate its internal Chase and other scenes.

Many internal drivers have rEd/white/blue and green red and other default scenes to cross fade taking the load from the c4 controller.

Offloading allows smoother conyrol. While intensity has 100 steps the control4 ip DMX will only say send 10 commands 0-10-20-30 etc so fades can ve choppy. The outboard ccontroller can send all 100 steps.

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The main challenge of having independent control on each lights is cabling, because each lights will need it's own cable. For RGB, it'll need 4 wires per lights and for RGBW, it's 5 wires.

You can also use landscape lights with built-in DMX, that way you'll have only to power the lights and run a DMX cable daisy-chained to each light.

As for the Control4 driver, our DMX solution can easily manage all lights together or separated. It include full Advanced Lighting Scene support or Group Dimmer driver that will make the control much easier using a standard slider on the touch screen. If you want to trigger cool effects that require each light to do something different (like a chase or a rainbow scrolling), then you will use the effect switch and you only have to turn it on to start the effect, it can also be bind to a keypad and you will control the effect just like any other light.

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It's usually commercial light, but you can still find some pretty cheap on eBay or other China online marketplace, an example:

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Acclaim-Color-Ray-HP-compact-outdoor-LED-light-fixture-landscape-exterior-wash-/331707209195?hash=item4d3b4a55eb:g:3KAAAOSwkZhWRhnN

 

Of this model which is very common in the commercial world and very powerful:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/36W-LED-RGB-Light-DMX-Wall-Lamp-Bulb-waterproof-IP65-outdoor-Rockery-Landscape-/130955495598?hash=item1e7d8e48ae:g:CB4AAOxy-gBR8oB0

 

 

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The problem with a lot of those lights is that they use a proprietary connector and they kind of look like pooh.

I've been searching this realm for a long time now and anything that I've found that looks good and has the requirements I'm looking for, you're talking about $150+ per light plus some minor custom work needed per light.

My home project now, is that I bought some solar lights at Lowes, these ones for $5 each: http://www.lowes.com/pd_688475-59179-QS7PD-R5-BK-T36_1z0sanwZ1z0vj2r__?productId=999928790&pl=1

That's the style of light the wifey likes, although they are plastic, should be fine for what I want done.

I already have a bunch of these LEDs for $.50 a piece: http://www.holidaycoro.com/12v-RGB-Square-Module-p/57.htm

I started tearing the light apart yesterday and should be able to rig this all together very simply and also tie in to my existing system.  Because I'll require about 15+ lights to complete the project, I'll be using these dumb DMX controllers to tie it all in: http://www.holidaycoro.com/30-Channel-DMX-Controller-for-RGB-Lights-12v-DC-p/40.htm

After reviewing the light, it should only take me about 15-20 minutes per to change them from solar to 12V RGB and look good too!

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