temp light dimmer

[typoagain]

A friend on mine is having issue with a Halloween display.
He has built faces out of LED lights using two different colors of lights.
One color is a lot brighter than the other.
We would like to just take a quick look and see how it would look if we dimmed the brighter lights without setting up the entire control system.
Can I just throw a box together with a regular wall-mounted dimmer switch and run the brighter lights through it without it harming the lights any?
I have all the material on hand and is would only take 10-15 minutes to put together.
That way we can get an idea if that is the way to go before we spend the time setting up the complete LOR system.

[Steve Gase]

what controller is being used?  if he has a LE (or can borrow yours) then dimming curves can be used to adjust the levels for each channel.
you shouldn't dim the voltage coming into the controllers.  you could use dimmers on the voltage leaving the controller.

[tbone321]

You need to check the LED string and make sure that it is dimmable.  Some are and some are not. If the LED string is dimmable, then set up your dimmer and see what happens.  If you are setting up the lights on the controller for simple on / off of these lights to animate the face then you should be good to go but if you intend to dim both string types, you may have some issues with dimming curves. 

[typoagain]

He uses LOR.
He will probably go in and change the levels on the songs in the software eventually.
But for right now we just want to plug in the lights and play with dimming the brighter ones. This is before we get out all that gear, set it up and make any changes to the sequences.
His fear is that if he dims the brighter blue lights down to the same level as the lime green, then they may be too dim for the rest of the display. If that is the case we will just get some regular green LEDS and replace the lime green ones.
But you’re talking about ordering more LEDs, and then paying for expedited shipping.
It would be nice to just look at the lights and see if he likes it before we spend $100 on something he may not like in the end.
So can we use a regular wall-mounted dimmer switch (like so many of us have for our recessed lights) and just plug them into 110V without harming the lights?
If we screw up the lights we will be stuck having to special ordering more lights at the last minute.
This is not a complicated set up.
Just a cheap extension cord with a dimmer switch in the middle.
All of it plugged into the wall and not using a controller at all.

[keitha43]

You could probably do it with 1 lor controller and the hardware utility. I used to use S2 and I think the procedure was to use the "on at 100%" button and set the "end intensity" slider at a number less than 100%. It would be better than the dimmer switch because you could see what percentage of intensity you would need to program later.

[tbone321]

As I said before, some LED strings are dimable and others are not.  I would set up your dimmer and give it a shot unless the packaging clearly says that they are not and see what happens.  It would be better if they don't deal with it well that you find out now rather than just before the season begins when you don't have time to fix it.

[keitha43]

And can be dangerous. A few years back a vender that many people use had switched to a different manufacturer (I think). Anyway although the lights worked fine on and off, if you ramped them up and down the rectifiers would overheat and the lights would never reach full brightness again. In fact a few people reported their rectifiers caught fire. I won't name the vendor as he had no way of knowing this would happen. Bottom line is I would always test unknown strands with a test sequence of slow ramps up and down for hours before using them in a display. Another example is a Lowes GE brand a couple of years ago that would flicker only during fades.

[chrisatpsu]

 

show us the strings, especially the plugs, and any tags or barrels, that might be along the string.

[typoagain]

I am just going to throw togeather a dimmer in a box and try it. If it blows up-so what.

Thx guys.