LED Deck lights

Based on this
- that mounts within the width of a 90mm deck board*
I would say that it is mounted in the deck board pointing up. have seena lot of LED's for this.

I think the challenge is being able to change the colour via C-bus. That solution alone is something I would like to know more about.

I believe it can be done via DMX and maybe 0-10V outputs but I have not seen anyone talk about i there at all - especially wth respects to how they have set up the system (colour vs value and the logic used.)

Mick

 

I had the same issue when trying to control 12V RGB lights for my home theatre. After looking through the limited (and very expensive) commercial options I just built my own using an off the shelf PIC controller board, 4 output drivers, a CBus SIM module, PC power supply and a bit (well quite a lot actually) of software. It can control 32 12-24V leds circuits at 1 amp per circuit (which is a lot of leds!). The 8 bit CBus level is converted to a 16 bit PWM signal via a logarithmic lookup table to give nice even brightness control. It uses 64 group addresses (on a unique lighting application). The first 32 control the individual leds (or RGB if you hook up colour leds). The next 32 groups control the RGB groups using HSV (Hue, Saturation, Value) colour space which is a lot more convenient. There are also other groups which can cycle the Hue at different rate to give a nice colour changing effect. I keep on adding stuff as time permits

If anyone is keen enough to assemble one I'm happy to share the code.

 

Unfortunately LED Lighting in Peakhurst are one of the best suppliers in this speciality. You will come to realise my comments if you question their god status.

I also visited Victorian Eco Lighting when I was last in town.

 

What lights?

Hi Nick
Regarding the trend of little LED lights in the (Aussie institute) deck facing directly up, think about exactly what you are trying to achieve and then how you go about that.
1) They can be very glare-y, as you walk over/past them, you don't want them in your usual line of sight.
2) where will they light? you can't see light in air......they have to shine on something so you can see the light.
So maybe,
You put them in front of the posts/railing so they can highlight them. Similarly any steps, or changes in ground level are very good items to highlight.
Not much point of shining them on a dark coloured transparent roofing.

On value there are lots of cheap and economical options at bunnings. Digilin make the best one I've seen http://www.digilin.com.au/products.asp?name=Taipan Exterior 3W RGB LED Light, I think Moonlighting are distributing it, but haven't asked the price.

Happy lighting.
Matthew

 

Like I said ... LED Lighting has it in rolls. But I looked at the light output and it was mediocre. Good for soft lighting.

 

Hi Nick,
I like your enthusiasm!! . I am interested in this concept but have a question. You said you drive DMX output from the gateway to a driver with DMX capability, which then controls the RGB levels out to a load (LED rgb strip??). You then said that you can use the same gateway to control your new addition of a bathroom. Does that mean you will just add another DMX led Driver after the gateway (in parallel with the original driver), then run your bathroom lighting off that? Thus controlling two different rooms of lighting off the same gateway? If so, is there something in the software when you program the gateway to say - this group address will activate led driver #1 (for example), and another group address will activate led driver #2.??

Or if you want to have individual control of rooms then you need a gateway for each room?

Does this make sense? Sorry if i have confused you, let me know and i will try and clarify .

Cheers,
Dave

 

Hi Nick,
Thanks for your prompt reply. Your information was very helpful. Just a few thoughts...

What sort of length are we talking? I have read that DMX networks can have cable lengths up to 450m?? Also, what cable would you recommend for the DMX network? Would cat5e cable suffice? Runs would be, at guess, approximately no longer than 50m per Driver???

Will the specific drivers i choose have selectable addresses? Which drivers do you use?

Thanks again for the help!

Dave

 

Like everything there is a standard for DMX and its install but basically if you are doing an install that is not going to get to disturbed you will be fine using Cat5e. I would really recommend using shielded cable though. DMX is reasonably forgiving because it broadcasts at such a fast rate and so missing a bit or two doesn't really matter but if you happen to run your unshielded cable next to a dimmed load you will probably know about it fairly quickly.
Like Nick said you would probably be fine not terminating, but for the cost and effort of putting a 120 Ohm resistor in on the end of your line it can save you grief later...

Depends on what you get, but generally all DMX equipment is addressable. The question is how easy the little white $5 boxes you get on 'Buy It Now' .com essentially need an EPROM flasher to address them that will cost you another hundred or so.
Generally though most drivers will have DIP switches for setting the address in Binary, just investigate what you are buying. Also if you are going to be buying more expensive LED strip/fittings rather than just 3528 LEDS on a strip or the similar make sure they are compatible with the driver you are planning on getting. (ie. Constant Voltage or Constant Current ect)

As with everything spend as much as you can on the driver, Cheap ones will have very bad dimming and won't be as nice to your LEDs.

Depending on your budget and LEDs I can suggest a couple of drivers if you would like. However I would also be interested on the drivers Nick uses and how he has found them, as I am always on the lookout for other options!?

 

Hello jboer,

Thank you for your input .

What do you and Nick mean by not 'terminating'. I am taking this literally, so the physical terminations of the DMX network??
Is the 120 Ohm resistor installed due to the DMX network needing to see a given load? If so, shouldn't this be built in to the output of the gateway?

I was looking at the 5050SMD led strips. There are kits you can purchase over eBay from the US that have a dmx driver and power supply included with the strip. Would these be ok? Here is an example:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/sirs-e-LED-...age_Lighting_Single_Units&hash=item58970dde97

Any suggestion would be great here. As i have no experience with the use of DMX, any suggestions are welcomed .

Once again, thank you for your input. Without these forums, it would be very difficult to get by.....

 

This kit is reasonable, those drivers are ok, but are on the cheaper side. The only thing is that if you are dimming at around 0-30% you can get some nice strobing effects

As Nick said read the wiki on RS485 and DMX so that you can get the full picture. But apart from it needing to be on the end of the line for other reasons in some circumstances you don't want to permanently load your line.

J

 

Thanks guys for the info. And thank you to Wiki . Where would we be without Wiki??

I guess i will just have to trial the termination at the time of the install to see whether i need to terminate. Im thinking i will just use cat5e cable for the DMX network too. Any comments?


Also, just a question regarding this forum, Is there a 'notification' option somewhere to notify me when there has been a reply on post that i was involved with? I am just getting a bit tired of going into my profile and looking at all of my recent threads and checking it manually.....

Cheers
Dave

 

Hi Dave

I've not used a whole lot of forums but I reckon this one has excellent features.

If you subscribe to a thread you should recieve email updates.

User CP (control panel) has a lot of other settings.