what type of spot lights are people using?

[duane.mosley]

just curious what type of spot lights people are using? I am looking to add several to my show but not sure what to get. I am referring to spots that would go up in the corners or a roof line.  I have aethers planned for the ground and accent.

thanks

duane

[txag2008]

Are you referring to something like this?You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login

I'm a big fan of the look of zwiller's spots.

[zwiller]

Thanks man. 

Timely post as I actually finished my DSCs to run my spots last night.  The DSC will work out nicely and keep cable clutter and length to a minimum.  After looking at my old thread I should point out how I wired them to a DSC in case someone else wants to go that route and I think the DSC is a great solution for spots.  Remember that our gear does not switch power side but neutral/ground side...  IE for dumb rgb gear you have 4 wires, one 12V+ wire which is common, and 3 (-) wires which turns node color on.  With that in mind, I tied all the lights 12V+ wires together, soldered a short piece of wire to them (joint is heat shrunk) and soldered this wire to 12V+ on board, then I soldered the remaining wire of first light (2 way connector actually) to R, and the 2nd to G, (although I didn’t due to my layout) and 3rd to B.  Much more difficult than it sounds.  Anyway the math is good.  (3) 10W is 2.5A and way under 4 amps…   In a perfect world, the board could be revised to a larger 12V+ hole to accommodate 3 wires.   What’s funny is the DSC enclosure of 1-1/4” thinwall and caps looks HUGE compared to the SSCs...   

[ratroder]

I got these spots from lowes that are led. They use a single led and are really bright. Something like the aether but only in white. I have them being run at 29v dc off of a power supply. I am using a lor doc controller to switch them though.

[mkozik1]

Thanks man. 

Timely post as I actually finished my DSCs to run my spots last night.  The DSC will work out nicely and keep cable clutter and length to a minimum.  After looking at my old thread I should point out how I wired them to a DSC in case someone else wants to go that route and I think the DSC is a great solution for spots.  Remember that our gear does not switch power side but neutral/ground side...  IE for dumb rgb gear you have 4 wires, one 12V+ wire which is common, and 3 (-) wires which turns node color on.  With that in mind, I tied all the lights 12V+ wires together, soldered a short piece of wire to them (joint is heat shrunk) and soldered this wire to 12V+ on board, then I soldered the remaining wire of first light (2 way connector actually) to R, and the 2nd to G, (although I didn’t due to my layout) and 3rd to B.  Much more difficult than it sounds.  Anyway the math is good.  (3) 10W is 2.5A and way under 4 amps…   In a perfect world, the board could be revised to a larger 12V+ hole to accommodate 3 wires.   What’s funny is the DSC enclosure of 1-1/4” thinwall and caps looks HUGE compared to the SSCs...   

So Sam, 

You are not using any type of constant current driver for your 10w LED floods?  Just wiring them straight to the DSC's?  No problems with heat?  I have some 10w LED's I want to connect also but everywhere I turn, there is a mention of a driver.  RobG just came out with a great driver board to accommodate these, but I was just wondering about yours.

Thanks,

[zwiller]

You are beyond my understanding of leds but the spots are not raw leds and have a board and I assume it is a driver which does the "magic".  Pics here: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login
I was completely blown away to find a board in a Chinese light labeled "MR16"!  Also, I think the design of the DSC is based on the MR16, and in my mind the DSC is a 3 channel MR16 and I thought they are constant current...  You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login

I would love your comments about the board and lights and while we are at it, no matter how I wire the lights they turn on.  I would not expect them to do that.  Does polarity matter?  Any thoughts? 

Lastly, Mark brings up a good point.  I plan run these for a few hours and see what happens/check heat etc.  I can tell you this already that no heat was generated at all with the DSC with flashing the leds running test firmware while testing. 

[txag2008]

With that in mind, I tied all the lights 12V+ wires together, soldered a short piece of wire to them (joint is heat shrunk) and soldered this wire to 12V+ on board, then I soldered the remaining wire of first light (2 way connector actually) to R, and the 2nd to G, (although I didn’t due to my layout) and 3rd to B.  Much more difficult than it sounds.  Anyway the math is good.  (3) 10W is 2.5A and way under 4 amps…   

Sounds like a nice solution.  So by doing this you can control up to 3 with each DSC. 6 with 2 DSCs and so on....


For the original poster, here are some other 'spot' options.  They are labeled as 'floods' but I would think could be used in a similiar way zwiller used his spots. 
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[zwiller]

Just a heads up to consider neighbors and traffic when using lights pointed away from the house, whether flood or spots.  I aim them down toward the ground cause I like the effect.  My little 10W spots easily make it across the street if aimed accordingly...  FYI stage techs call lights pointed at audience as "blinders".  IMO 30W LED is too much unless you are really far away from road.

Lastly, I think the the key to using these effectively is to use them rarely.  Keep them hidden mostly and pop them up a few times during a sequence quickly, like "what the heck just happened?!". 

[duane.mosley]

Sam,

 how far are you going from the dsc to the farthest spot? what size wire are you using to feed them? I will be using 2 dsc's per spot. they will be 13' apart. I am thinking I will put the controller in the middle making it 6.5' to each spot from the dsc.


thanks

duane

[arw01]

DSC's don't have data on the lines after the dsc, it's just amps and volts to worry about, really long lines might have some drop, but don't worry about staying as short as possible after the DSC.

I'd like to find a 10W or so rgb set of these floodlights to hang off the house..

[zwiller]

Duane,
Farthest I am going is 20' or so.  But like Alan says and I have confirmed, distance is not really an issue with DSCs.  I am using Ray's wire which I recall is some kinda fancy 20ga wire.  Last year I used 18ga wire with a MR16 and had runs of 60' and no issues.  The DSC is basically a 3 channel MR16...  The wires were cumbersome so I decided to use the DSCs closer to the spots. 

2 DSCs per spot?  What are you doing? 

[duane.mosley]

2 DSCs per spot?  What are you doing?
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just the gutter line on the front. similar to your set up. one on each corner and 2  spaced evenly in between. all 4 spots will be under the soffit along the top of the house.

[zwiller]

2 spots per DSC and not 2 DSCs per spot, right? 

[duane.mosley]

2 spots per DSC and not 2 DSCs per spot, right?
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oops, non stop yesterday, wasn't even paying attention to exactly what you were asking me. lol yes, 2 spots per dsc.

[zwiller]

Cool, that's what I figured.