Driving Meteor Tubes with a Lynx Express?

[bajadahl]

Sorry for the new guy question.   I just bought a Lynx Express in the most recent coop and am wondering if I can drive my Meteor tubes with it.  I know I don't want to dim the tubes(They aren't made for dimming)...... Just on/off.   These tubes are powered by straight A/C power.  In my mind this is a simple yes but I would prefer not to blow anything up so thought I would ask.

Thanks,
Alan

[tbone321]

You can but you need to be carefull about not setting any dimming curve.  If you use the Express utility, I do believe that there is a an on - off curve that you can load into the Express and assign it to the channel(s) that you intend to drive the tubes from.  Doing this will prevent you from accidently dimming the tube which could damage it.

[meman]

Been triggering mine with the LE for couple of years now. Works great. I even dimmed them by accident with no trouble, though I imagine it is not good for the transformer.

Heres some video with the tubes kicking in at the chorus.
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[bajadahl]

You can but you need to be carefull about not setting any dimming curve.  If you use the Express utility, I do believe that there is a an on - off curve that you can load into the Express and assign it to the channel(s) that you intend to drive the tubes from.  Doing this will prevent you from accidently dimming the tube which could damage it.

Patiently waiting for the mailman to deliver the Express so I can start playing with it.....  But that's what I would want is a "dummy proof" setting so that they aren't accidentally ruined.  I will study up on the Express Utility before hooking anything up.

Thanks!
Alan

[bajadahl]

Been triggering mine with the LE for couple of years now. Works great. I even dimmed them by accident with no trouble, though I imagine it is not good for the transformer.

Heres some video with the tubes kicking in at the chorus.
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Wow - That was extremely well put together......  That was a fantastic song also.  Thanks for the confirmation. 

[duane.mosley]

Been triggering mine with the LE for couple of years now. Works great. I even dimmed them by accident with no trouble, though I imagine it is not good for the transformer.

Heres some video with the tubes kicking in at the chorus.
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Wow - That was extremely well put together......  That was a fantastic song also.  Thanks for the confirmation.

i'll second that!!! i'm looking forward to the day when i can sequence a song like that. that was some mighty fine work!


duane

[bajadahl]

Followup Question -  I thought about new topic but this still falls in line with connecting the Meteor tubes to the LE.

LE arrived yesterday and got it 90% built.  Need to pick up heat sink compound for the triacs, solder them in, and plug in all the chips.  Tubes should be here today and I want blinky blinky tonight!! Haha

So I am studying the LE Config utility and looking for a no curve setting since we know we don't want to dim tubes.  My best guess would be to use the Strobe setting since I assume you wouldn't want to dim strobes either?  The only other option I see that might make sense is "default" but I have no idea if default has a dimming curve?

Also, Please correct me if my logic below doesn't make sense.
In my logic I know we don't want LSP to send anything other than an on/off command to the LE channels that the tubes are attached to so really the control is in the software, but I want the LE to ignore inadvertent commands (Read Stupid User)  that might blow the tubes? So with the strobe setting I could see that as either on or off and nothing in between.

Thanks,
Alan

[rrowan]

I do believe the Strobes "curve" is just on and off

It won't matter what your software sends to the LE (assuming you set the channels to strobe curve)
anything other than off will be full on
so if you send 50% the LE channel will be full on

I would test it before you connect your tubes. Once you have the LE working and whatever dongle you are using. Plug regular lights into the LE channels and try sending a diming value and then full on (use channel tester). Do the lights look the same are do they dim?

Rick R.

[bajadahl]

Thanks Rick, Sometimes I overlook the simple things.  I have some dimmable c9's coming today as well.  I will use a few of those to test with.  In fact I can set some channels to strobe and others to default and hookup the c9's to see exactly what the difference is when applying less than 100% to the channels.  That should make it very clear.

Alan

[tbone321]

Default is a standard dimming curve so you don't want to use that one for your tubes.

[Mike Hill]

Been triggering mine with the LE for couple of years now. Works great. I even dimmed them by accident with no trouble, though I imagine it is not good for the transformer.

Heres some video with the tubes kicking in at the chorus.
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Very nice......