Beam angle — LEDJ Pixel Storm 12 Quad

[Amy Worrall]

I just bought a LEDJ Pixel Storm 12 Quad, and I reckon I may have mucked up.

 

I read that it has a beam angle of 10 x 40 degrees. I had assumed that, if the bar is placed horizontal, the 10 degrees would be horizontal and the 40 degrees vertical. This was what I wanted — my intended use case is to mount the bar vertically and use it for sidelight.

 

However, I think I may have misunderstood and it's actually the other way round.

 

Does anyone know if it is possible to open the unit up and rotate the lenses by 90 degrees? Are they permanently attached to the LEDs or just held in place in front of them?

 

Failing that, I may have to return this batten and look for another. Can anyone recommend one with beam angle of about 40 degrees, and a similar light output (this one is 12 x 15W LEDs), in the ballpark of £250?

 

Amy

[Don Allen]

I would also be interested in knowing how to clarify which way the beam angle goes as the LEDJ292 Manual does not indicate which axis is which angle ?

[gyro_gearloose]

If you can’t rotate the lenses, maybe try putting some Lee 228 brushed silk frost on the front of your batten. It will stretch the light output along one axis only, a bit like a CP62 lamp in a Par can.

[timsabre]

The lenses normally have a pip on them which locates into a slot on the metalwork to keep them in the correct orientation, so you probably can't rotate them easily.

 

It does sound like they are the wrong way round though, they market the fixture as a wall washer. Who would want 40 wide by 10 degrees high? Maybe contact Prolights who are the UK distributor for LEDJ, they are normally quite helpful.

[Amy Worrall]

I would also be interested in knowing how to clarify which way the beam angle goes

 

I'm pretty sure that when the unit is horizontal, the 40° is horizontal, the 10° is vertical. I powered up the unit last night, and while I've only tried pointing it at my dining room wall, I'm pretty sure this is the case. (Although I'm now second guessing myself — it was late last night when I got it, and maybe I was just tired! I'll check again tonight.)

 

Assuming I'm not wrong, then I guess my options are:

• Return it and buy something else
• Attempt to open it up and rotate the lenses
• Use diffusion gel

I did take the panel off the end to take a look inside. I only had a peek, since I don't want to risk damaging it until I've committed to keeping it! The lenses seem to poke into four holes in the PCB — from the limited angle I could see in, it _looked_ rotationally symmetrical. What I'm not sure is if the lenses are attached to the LEDs or not — I've never opened an LED fixture, I don't quite know how they usually work!

 

If I do decide to return it, the question is what I'd buy instead. Since I want wide beam angle and bright light.

 

I found Cameo PixBar 650 CPRO, which has 8 30W LEDs at 53° beam angle. They're only RGB, not RGBW or RGBA. Has anyone any experience of it? Or anyone know any other good options?

 

Thanks,

 

Amy

[timsabre]

The lenses are not normally attached to the LED's. There is normally a plate with holes above the leds into which the lenses drop (the lenses are conical on the underside). A further plate (the front plate you can see) then fixes over the top sandwiching the lenses between the 2 plates and holding them in place.

 

Another version has the lenses in white plastic holders which have 3 plastic pegs going into the PCB, but on the ones I've seen (not this fixture) these are just pushed in and not glued or anything. The front plate again holds them in.

Diffusion gel scatters a lot of the light, you'll lose a lot of intensity. Also you need to mount it a distance away from the lenses (a couple of inches) or it doesn't work.

[Amy Worrall]

Sounds like I won't go the diffusion gel route unless I really have to then.

 

There are definitely two front plates. The frontmost one seems to slide out the side (once you've taken the side cover off), although it was very stiff. I didn't slide it very far, since I was worried about scratching things if I decide to return the light.

 

I'll consider. I'm actually leaning towards just returning it and buying the one I linked to above — if anyone's used the Cameo PixBar 650 CPRO, I'd love to hear what you think of it!

[pscandrett]

If you can turn on just one of the cells within the fixture it should be clearer as to which way round the lenses are mounted/working...

[ianknight]

From memory - when we sold some of the other LEDJ units when I was at CTS - the 40 degree horizontal angle is intended to allow the units to be spread out along a wall and not leave dark patches between units (for customers that can't afford lots of these units). The 10 degree beam in the vertical plane is intended to keep the beam able to reach further up a wall and still be intense (if that makes sense?).

 

If you're looking for something more akin to an old style batten then the eLumen8 Tri Pixel batten (whilst more expensive) is a unit far more suited to the role - we used them in all sorts of environments and they never failed to impress.

[Amy Worrall]

Turns out the lenses rotate in the LEDJ one. They just drop out after you’ve taken the first two faceplates off.

 

So I think that solves my problem!