A New LED Shootout

[Brian]

This is a sneak peak of my latest 'shoot-out', I've still got to do the measurements.

 

Alerted to their existence by another post I've just bought one of these from Thomann to play with.

 

It's a 36 x 3W unit ( 12xR, 12xG, 12xB) in a PAR64 can.

 

The front is what you'd expect...

 

 

...as is the rear...

 

 

Let's take the covers off. The DMX circuitry is all contained on a small SMT board fixed next to the XLR connectors and also holds the DIP switches and audio circuits and microphone (lower left)...

 

 

...and the power circuitry is on a PCB fitted behind the LEDs...

 

 

...interestingly the power supplies and drives consist of three separate SMPSUs which keeps the weight down.

 

The LEDs have a heatsink behind them which is fan cooled; noise is not an issue.

 

I haven't run the numbers yet but first impressions are that this unit is bright. Bright in a 'I-really-don't-want-to-stare-into-the-front' way. In a 'image burnt-into-my-retina-for-five-minutes-after-looking-into-it' way.

 

DMX control is either a 5 channel mode with preprogrammed chases and fades with time or a more useful 3 channel RGB mode. There is no overall brightness channel. They will also run in mater/slave mode. In fact so many modes that the manual is 40 pages long! Dimming is a bit steppy at the bottom end. Smooth fades outs are not an option; it's a smooth fade, then a couple of lumpy steps then off. There is no flicker at low levels.

 

The beam angle is tight at around 20 degrees so it's more a 'beams' unit rather than a wash unit. Interestingly the lenses are a separate unit and they can be removed with just 4 screws which hints at alternate lens assemblies. The unit is quite usable without the lenses on.

[PH_Zone]

Looking quickly at the processor Board.

Looks like they are using a 28Pin PIC devise as the brains.

[musht]

...interestingly the power supplies and drives consist of three separate SMPSUs which keeps the weight down.

 

Looking forward to rest of review , Thanks Brian.

 

Power supplies are operating as current, not voltage, loops for the 3 arrays, hence one at a lower voltage for the red array.

 

All the LEDs in series then the voltage settled to maintain current, though 1A would be more than 3W on an average LED.

[RacingHippo]

Excellent stuff, most useful. And perfectly timed :unsure: Thank you!

 

Preempting part II:

How even is the spread?

Is there much colour fringing?

[greenalien]

Aha, I thought, these look interesting - however, Thomann appear to be sold out, next stock not due until the middle of July... :unsure:

 

edit - my mistake, it's just the floor-standing ones that are out of stock, the hanging ones are available.

[Brian]

edit - my mistake, it's just the floor-standing ones that are out of stock, the hanging ones are available.

The hanging ones were out of stock until this morning. I've just ordered some :unsure:

[godoflight]

I have a number of their 1W x 36 Pars, which look to be pretty much the same type of assembly, PCB's etc.

They even came with the same 40 page manual!.

 

I found that a couple of them seem to be faulty in the sound to light mode, but have never investigated further as I invariably use them via DMX.

Strangely one unit hasn't got the front plastic cover over the LED's while all the others have.

 

Apart from that I can't fault them for the price.

 

They have no trouble lighting up small stages, or 4M of truss etc. The 3W ones must be...well....brighter! :huh:

[RacingHippo]

I had 2 of these for the lad's Primary School play (should have been 16 but that's another story...).

 

They aren't as "spotty" as I'd expected. The edges are fairly soft, so they don't make a good profile replacement.

However, this does mean you can probably (hard to confirm with only 2!) get a good general cover out of them.

 

I was pleasantly surprised at their light output - what was intended to be 2 green spots turned into a complete wash of the 4.5m x 2.5m stage. Not enough to light the small actors clearly, but enough to make the evil witch look very evil indeed.

I'm confident that a dozen of them will light the whole stage brightly and evenly enough when they finally turn up.

 

One gripe about them though: The first "rung" of their dimming ladder is an awful long way up from the ground. For the first 10% or so of the slider it stays dark, then suddenly pings into life quite noticeably. No subtle fades from black with these fellers I'm afraid.

[rossmck]

One gripe about them though: The first "rung" of their dimming ladder is an awful long way up from the ground. For the first 10% or so of the slider it stays dark, then suddenly pings into life quite noticeably. No subtle fades from black with these fellers I'm afraid.

 

That's true of all budget LED kit I've used so far sadly... but they still have their place, particularly on a small stage or where you're limited on power they give a lot of versatility.. but subtle fades are not going to happen ;)

[Chris Beesley]

Quick question guys... if you could have these supplied with two lens kits what angles would be best? Also would you prefer to keep the gel frame & clips or loose them? (we are looking to produce/source a similar product)

[HolyPhish]

Also would you prefer to keep the gel frame & clips or loose them?

 

Although I don't have these particular units I do have a load of LED Pars.

 

The Gel Frames to me are a waste of time and space. For what I do I don;t need gels and I'm not sure I can think of a situation where u would use them. This means that for every LED Par I have bought I have a gel frame sitting in a cupboard somewhere getting in my way.

 

The Clips also get caught on things which causes more problems and annoyance.

 

Just my 2p's but I would lose the clips and frames.

[paulears]

Personally, as these are starting the trend towards genuine brightness, then I'd like them to have similar angles to CP60, 61 and 62 and keep the gel frames for a bit of diffuser for generating a softer wash.

[Ynot]

I'm certainly with Paul on the retention of the colour frames - at the very least for adding a bit of diffusion gel both to spread/even the beam a little or even to reduce the head-on glare if being used as eye-candy. (Note however that I'm not a huge fan of those with the heavy criss-cross lattice in the frame...).

I've also on occasion stuck a bit of pale colour in front of an LED par to just tint the output a toch.

 

As for angles, if restricted to just two I'd be looking at probably a 15 to 20 degree and a 30-35 degree option personally.

[Brian]

Colour Frames = Yes.

 

Angles: if I could choose 3 it'd be 53 degrees, 28 degrees and 19 degrees. If it was just two I could live without the 28 degree unit.

 

Why those angles?

 

53 degrees: Spread = Throw

28 degrees: Spread = 1/2 Throw

19 degrees: Spread = 1/3 Throw

 

 

The 53 degree unit would overcome my main gripe with LED PARs. They are sold as suitable for small stages but have nowhere near a wide enough angle to be used on them.

[niclights]

Another yes for gel frame diffusion option.