SSR4 and LED's

[tpctech]

I just got done restringing 12 mini trees with 4 colors of new LED's.  These trees each have a SSR4.  when they were all apart I added 4  47k snubber on the back side of the board.  These are SSR V2.0 boards.  When I went to test the trees I found that they did not dim very well and really fickered at low levels basically not really usable.  I figured it was the fact LED strings did not exist in 2008 when the SSR4 was made!  I reflashed the PIC with the lastest firmware from the WIKI no real change.  I am using this same brand of commercial full wave LED strings with LOR and Express controllers with no issues (holiday light express).  So I connected the tree I am testing to my bench Express and it works fine....any thoughts?  I did try to connect a 7 watt lamp to the string did not make a difference?

I tried various different DMX sources with difference.

Thoughts?

KEN

[chrisatpsu]

how long in the run of extension cords? and what gauge?

[tbone321]

What you probably need to do is hanga few incandecent C7's on each channel.  You can hide them in the trees and if needed, use the same color as the strings that they are working with.  The LED's will follow the dimming curve of the icans and they should eliminate that flicker at low dimming levels that you are having issues with.

[rm357]

Two thoughts:

Not all LED strings dim well, but if they are really full wave, you should not have a lot of flickering.

Neither the dmx SSR4 or the freestyle/dumb SSR4 combo have support for light curves like the express. That means you are stuck with the standard curve, which is likely just linear... LEDs will not turn on until you reach the threshold voltage and from there will dim up to full bright rather quickly with the last block of values being nearly indistinguishable. It's just the nature of the device...

[chrisatpsu]

The SSR4's v2  are more susceptible to voltage drop on the cable running to them. That's why i was asking about the lengths of the extension cords.

[tbone321]

Two thoughts:

Not all LED strings dim well, but if they are really full wave, you should not have a lot of flickering.

Neither the dmx SSR4 or the freestyle/dumb SSR4 combo have support for light curves like the express. That means you are stuck with the standard curve, which is likely just linear... LEDs will not turn on until you reach the threshold voltage and from there will dim up to full bright rather quickly with the last block of values being nearly indistinguishable. It's just the nature of the device...

This is the reason for hanging a few C7's on the strings. They act like variable resistors and the load that they put on the channels help with the dimming of LED's. 

[tbone321]

The SSR4's v2  are more susceptible to voltage drop on the cable running to them. That's why i was asking about the lengths of the extension cords.

I was wondering what you were talking about.  Next time you might want to be a bit more specific on what extension cord(s) you are referring to.  When I read it I saw plural cordS, I thought that you were talking about the cords he was using to connect the LED's to the SSR4.

[tpctech]

thanks I will do some more testing.  I have others of these same LED's on other SSR4 that work fine. That is why I thought it might ba firmware thing.  hummmm  I am testing on my work bench with good power about 20ft from the breaker panel! I know about the voltage issues with the SSR4 worked through those last year!

I will do more testing this weekend!

thanks

KEN