Led Rope Light problem

[tomscot]

My daughter has 5 sets of mains powered (230Volts UK) LED rope lights used to light advertising signs around 5 meters above ground level. Each set has a 8 way electronic controller that allow different light sequences to be selected. She wants/needs the lights to be continious glow all the time. The problem is that when the lights are switched on they default to a flashing mode that is unsuitable. To correct this the controller has to be reprogrammed using a button on the unit. In practice this is pretty impractical because of they are fairly innaccessable. The controllers are marked input 230 volts x 8 ohms output 230 volts 2X 4 ohms. There is a live and neutral feed wire to the controller. There are three ouput wires to the lights coloured 1 brown (live?) 1 blue (neutral?) and 1 green yellow ( normally ground/earth but clearly not in this case). Does anyone know how the lights can be made to made to be in permanently in constant glow mode?

 

Thanks for any advice you can give

[paulears]

I'd have expected 4 cores to the leds, assuming there are three circuits. The 3 kind of makes me think just two circuits. What you need to find out is what voltage is being used to feed the leds, then experiment with finding a replacement.So find the setting you want, measure it and designa circuit to replicate it.

 

My own experience of christmas style lights is they always do this and whatever you do usually costs more to implement than the cost of the lights.

[tomscot]

Thanks for this. I perhaps did not make it clear that there are 5 separate sets of lights. I indicated the number simply to indicate that adjusting all five each time they are powered up is quite a problem. I am sure the controller is just that and the power to the lights is 240 Volts.

 

TomScot

[Ike]

A picture of the lights and controller would help incredibly, if they are LEDs I would have thought the controller output would be extra low voltage.

[Latro]

LEDs don't usually have mains voltage going to them. Nor are there figures like "8 ohms" usually quoted in reference to them. (I'm willing to cop a flaming on that though :) ) I recommend you chase up the manufacturer before doing any modifications, else put the controller where you can safely get at it and do the leg work!

[tomscot]

LEDs don't usually have mains voltage going to them. Nor are there figures like "8 ohms" usually quoted in reference to them. (I'm willing to cop a flaming on that though ;) ) I recommend you chase up the manufacturer before doing any modifications, else put the controller where you can safely get at it and do the leg work!

 

 

Thanks for these comments. unfortunately a photograph is not possible. Unable to contact manufacturer, supplier no help.

 

Once again thank you for taking the time to post your contributions

[Jivemaster]

Major surgery on the ropelight side of the controller would allow you to insert a piece of three core cable and bring the controller to an accessible place/level. Assuming you are competent and have the means to insulate the joins.

 

Otherwise get a spare to play with, and carefully open it and properly determine the circuit and voltages. Then build a suitable controller for all five ropes doing the pattern (or not) that you wish.

 

All depends on your skills to make it safely.

[paulears]

Hang on a minute!

The OP said that each rope light had a controller and this was connected to the rope lights with 3 core cable. This points to the controller actually doing something!

 

So the LEDs get fed just a few volts. If they do pretty flashy things, then it's possible only 3 cores could services more 'channel's if dc was reversed so + - gives one colour leds, while - + gives the other, using the dioide proeprties to allow two states on just two conductors.

 

So I'm not sure what the problem actually is?

 

As mentioned, measure the voltage and current and replicate it.

 

You can bet your life distribution to the LEDs won't be at mains voltage - subject to testing, of course, because of potential damage to the rope light itself.

 

It doesn't take much to take a picture - especially if you want help. If you can't provide info, how on earth can any result we come up with be verified. Somebody could guess, post a reply, you do it and, well....... die!

 

 

If you can't provide the info, perhaps we'd better close the topic down. If you're not comfy with the suggestions made, that's fine - but what exactly had you hoped we'd tell you?

 

I think we're all confused now.

[Jivemaster]

There was a product called "Bean Light" which was a single set of lights in a flexi body just like ropelight but single circuit and static. If I remember Terralec.com had 10 and 45metre reels of the stuff. The big reel was for pro use and needed cuttting correctly and terminating properly. simple plug and on ropelight. There were some colours. Give them a call.

[tomscot]

Thank you for the above posts. There are a few points I want to make.

First- photographs

The lights sets are at premises about 220miles from where I live. They are about 5 meters above ground level, accessible only by ladder, and tucked away behind advertising signs. If I were to ask my daughter to obtain photographs, and I will not be doing this, if they were clear enough, they would show:

· A matt sealed black plastic box (the controller) approx 75mm x 50 in size with a button one face. Two black cables are attached. On the box is imprinted the words Input 230 volts 8 ohms output 230 volts 2x4 ohms. If the cables were cut to display the cores they would show that one, the input has two cores one coloured brown the other blue. The second cable has three cores one coloured brown, one blue and one green/yellow. The external appearance of the rope light is like most others, around 15 mm in diameter around 5 meters long. All of this was explained in my first and second post and while I agree that often one picture can tell a 1000 words I don’t see that in this instance a photograph would impart any information to anyone who knows what a black box, two pieces of cable and rope light looks like.

 

Second voltage

· In my first post I indicated the output voltage (230) as imprinted on the controller. Looking at various websites I see that led rope lights are commonly powered at this voltage. I never suggested the lights were coloured or that they changed colour; again I was careful in my first post to say that they had ‘different light sequences’

 

Third : Paulears penultimate comment ‘What did I hope for?’

 

· I had hoped that someone might have enough knowledge of how rope lights work to tell me the purpose and polarity of all three feed wires to the rope lights. I did not want this information for academic reasons but as made clear in my first post; in order to convert have lights on continuous glow all the times without having to reprogram them time power is switched on. What else can I say to make this any more obvious.

 

Fourth ; Recent comments/ suggestions by Jivemaster

 

· These comments at useful and I had thought about fitting the controllers at a more accessible spot, but this is quite difficult because there are five of them and leading them into the inside of the building would be pretty unsightly. I am aware ‘steady on’ mains or reduced voltage lights are available and of course my daughter should have bought these in the first instance but she had assumed wrongly that the ones she did would default to steady glow. She could buy new lights but as a new business her budget will not easily extent to this. Thank you for your suggestions.

[Ekij]

Some other facts you could tell us.

 

How many LEDs are in each rope light.

With the various patters you should be able to count how many individually controllable strands the LEDs are wired in.

So if the LEDs are 0101010101 and 101010101 that would suggest only 2, since you said 5 states there are more than two, but it would help to know what the sequences actually are. This will involve someone going to site, pressing each of the states and looking carefully at exactly what happens for each state.

 

If the LEDs are in four strands of 230V, two pairs where each pair is powered alternately by forward and reverse pulses and using the fact that they are LEDs to control each half of the pair then you are in luck, it's an easy patch. However I'd like more information on the units to have more confidence that this is how they are wired before I suggest something that you could kill yourself (or set the rope on fire) if it's not the case.

 

Edit: Are you sure it said 8 Ohms and 2*4 Ohms? 8 Watts would make a lot more sense.

[paulears]

It's pretty clear to me that trying t solve a problem by remote 200 miles away from where the things physically are is going to make our advice just a series of guesswork ideas!

 

A picture could have made somebody who has one join in, and maybe they could have done the measurements.

 

There is no need to get heated about our advice - you can't provide any more info thanyou have given, we appreciate this, but what you are asking doesn't make giving accurate advice easy. We have lots of questions, but the recurring theme requires you to measure the output in a quantifiable manner. Without data we cannot help- sorry.

 

As others have said - the labels are in a most unusual format which clouds the issue somewhat. I don't think any of us have seen a spec like that.

 

Please understand we are trying to help with guesses based on our previous experience of such devices. The last post has an undercurrent of disatisfaction with our progress so far - but you don't have access to anything we need to take it further.

 

As anything else is turning into pure speculation, I'm going to close this topic for now. If anyone wishes to re-open it in the light of new info coming in, please contact any of the mod team who will be happy to re-open it. We did our best, I'm sorry that wasn't enough.

 

paul

 

Mods