RGB Rope Light, could use some help

[Sloanhaus]

I am looking at getting this rgb rope light to put in my palm tree. I have read the brochure and I am pretty sure that I can run it off the express but am not sure what I will need to do to power it... I think I am going to have to buy an external power supply but wanted to get someone elses opinion... Here is the light.

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Thanks in advance, I really appreciate it

[Aussiephil]

The PDF's for both the colorflex and the ropelight provide good details of requirements.

The first being the need to run the lights from 24v DC, there are many SMPS available on ebay in the 350w to 500w range with 24v output.

I'll let RJ confirm but i would think the Express unsuitable as it is designed to switch AC.

My new DC controller would suit this, but it's a little way off.
I'm keen to find out pricing for the ColorFlex stuff but considering they seemed to be aimed at the commercial market i doubt it's even vaguely cheap.

cheers
Phil

[Sloanhaus2]

The PDF's for both the colorflex and the ropelight provide good details of requirements.

The first being the need to run the lights from 24v DC, there are many SMPS available on ebay in the 350w to 500w range with 24v output.

I'll let RJ confirm but i would think the Express unsuitable as it is designed to switch AC.

My new DC controller would suit this, but it's a little way off.
I'm keen to find out pricing for the ColorFlex stuff but considering they seemed to be aimed at the commercial market i doubt it's even vaguely cheap.

cheers
Phil

I just wanted to make sure this would work, the guy told me I had to use his controller, which I didnt believe. I assume all I have to do is run a cat 5 cable to the rope light and connect a power source. Can you please tell me if this power source would work ok, I dont really know much about this area

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[Aussiephil]

OK

Without having a bit of this in hand here's my best guess.

Whilst you could no doubt light up the rope light by just connecting 24v DC you would have a static colour and no control.

You will always need some sort of controller so that you get control of R G B colours individually.

To do this with DC requires a DC based controller.

If this was 12v you could use the MR16 but i don't think the MR16 will handle 24v

My Tiger Controllers will handle 12v to 48v DC and would be a great match to that sort of light cable.

The setup would be
AC -> Power Supply -> 24v DC to Light Controller

Software -> DMX Dongle -> Light Controller

Light Controller -> RGB Ropelight

Cheers
Phil

[wbe12345]

Hi

I looked up  the specs on the power MOSFETs used in the MR16.
The power MOSFETs have the specs of Id=15 amps and Vdds=100volts.

So the only limit I could see is the copper traces on the pc board not able to handle the current and voltage.
RJ could answer that.

Otherwise you could just calculate the power on each channel. Based on that then maybe use less total channels on the mR16.

Wallace
"wbe12345"

[ThaiWay]

The rope you're looking at is very similar to the 5-wire 4-color flat rope I use.  (I have about 100 meters of it in my display.)  Mine is 220VAC with a common positive.

The only controller suitable for my operation is the original (discontinued) Lynx, of which I have four - maybe six soon - since they switch negative DC.  Modification of the board was necessary to accomplish this, and there is more info in the Appendices for the Lynx Manual in the Wiki:  You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login  (240VAC operation, splitting board and light power feeds.)
Additionally I had to change the MOSFETS for the high voltage.

Phil's progress on his low voltage DC board could be just the ticket for you though.

John

[RJ]

You can not run 15 amps through a MR 16 controller channel with out burning up the mosfet. It has no heatsink and can not handle that much current. The 15 amps is what the mosfet can handle with a perfect heatsink on it.

I see no reason you can not run these on the MR 16 controller with a 24volt p/s instead of a 12volt supply. Would need to add a heatsink on the 5 volt regulator as that is a lot of volts for it to dissipate You would need to stay to about 50 ft of it for each three channels Red/Green/Blue.

So you could run 4 sections of 50 ft rope on one MR 16 controller. and that would give you 4 separately controllable section of rope light.

You of course would be the beta tester and there is no guarantees it will work well without testing.

RJ

[Sloanhaus]

Hey, someone had to try to fly for the first time,,, I am going to try the MR16. I will only be using 1 50 foot strand so hopefully that will work.

Thanks to you all for your help.

I will show videos of this stuff in the next couple weeks.

Brad