paulears Posted January 8, 2011 Share Posted January 8, 2011 I was about to order 20 of these for a project coming up, but while in panto thought one would be handy for a little project here - so I ordered just one. Nice hanging rings, proper digital display and up down buttons, not dip switches - mains in and out connectors. Metal box - quite impressed. Matt at Chamsys sent me a personality file for MagicQ and .... I'm less than impressed. Quite narrow beam - fine for the job, can be one unit or three separate sections depending on mode, but if you want to dim it, or use any of the RGB colours at less than full - forget it. It flickers really badly at all levels up until virtually full - which is a real shame. Dimming on any colour or combination is simply useless. The cheap LED cans handle dimming so much better than these ones. So my immediate need is sorted (dimming not involved) - but plans to buy more scrapped. Rather a shame. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ladyjayne Posted January 8, 2011 Share Posted January 8, 2011 Have you considdered Lanta Orion Link which are a watered down version of the ADJ Mega Pixel. I've had a few of the mega pixels for two years without any flickering problems whilst dimming and expanded with the Links as they look virtually the same when rigged up but are 2/3 of the price. However as with cheepo led cans the dimmer curve isn't smooth at lower levels, just a snap to black so bear that in mind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KidRay Posted January 9, 2011 Share Posted January 9, 2011 There's also the ADJ Mega Bar Eurolite do a RGBA bar in two beam widths (20 and 40 degrees), but these are twice the price of the stairville units Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tom_the_LD Posted January 9, 2011 Share Posted January 9, 2011 Paul, Have you tried it with any other desks or just the Chamsys? Could it in any way be a desk/personality problem? What about a slower transmission rate/running it through a linebacker? Could it be a one off - have you contacted Thomann? It would be a shame indeed as the Stairville LED cans are great for the money! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tokm Posted January 9, 2011 Share Posted January 9, 2011 It would be a shame indeed as the Stairville LED cans are great for the money! Tom, Paul's talking about the bars, not the 10mm LED cans which are much better. I can confirm I've experienced the problems when using a Pearl.. In fairness not through a linebacker or something to slow the DMX refresh rate down a bit, but I'm fairly certain that wouldn't make much of a difference as even when using the inbuilt patterns similar problems appeared (unless they were supposed to be strobing? As Paul said, real shame. For the price of them, and relatively ok build quality, they could have definitely filled a gap in the hire stock for non-pixeline/pixeltrack occasions :( T Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted January 9, 2011 Share Posted January 9, 2011 Are these the ones you are talking about? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ladyjayne Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 There's also the ADJ Mega Bar Nice® if only used for washes but not as bright as the Mega Pixel. Also less control options and the MP makes for better eye-candy too when used as such.Between them is very little price difference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmxlights Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 I have tryed stairville led bars (2 of them) I was not impressed with them. I have only used them once. Then I have seen the American DJ, Mega Bar 50 ( .5 meter in length) use by a local band. I got a loan of them and I was very impressed with them. I have since bought 6 of them and I am also thing of getting some more of them I found the half meter length very usefull I have threded rod that I use to put 2 or more of them together to us as longer strips the beam angle is 40 degress. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulears Posted January 10, 2011 Author Share Posted January 10, 2011 Brian's link is the correct item. The main reason for selecting these was the fact that they have the LEDs in non colour blocks, and each 300mm or so can be controlled separately. They actually blend quite well, and would have been quite bright enough for what I need. There are a few alternatives that have 3 x 3 blocks of single colour - and while these are good for looking at, they're not quite so good for looking at what they are lighting. MagicQ is fine, by the way - other LED products of all prices respond normally. These flicker enough to be distracting when dropping any colour down just a smidge on the fader - so full on/off of 7 colours is the only useful operating mode. The Thomann price was attractive enough to let me have the 11 I needed for the available budget - so just a shame. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simschr Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 Are these the ones you are talking about? Hate to say it, but you get what you pay for! They're only around £80 each, when a pixel line costs around £3k! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J Pearce Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 But a showtec pixeltrack pro is £400ish and almost (but not quite) as good :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulears Posted January 17, 2011 Author Share Posted January 17, 2011 I've bought a couple of Thomann's Varytec Gigabar 1s. My impression of these is quite different - the Gigabar 2 is pretty similar to the original Stairville, but the Gigabar 1 has clumps of 3x3 10mm LEDs, that repeat RGB across the front, 8 of each colour. One of the available modes is 24ch - so they could be addressed individually, which had me thinking about pixel mapping, so I figured it worth trying a couple. They're half the weight of the Stairvilles, and a little shorter. LEDs seem very similar to the other unit so they're quite narrow, and it still has a metal case, just plastic end mouldings. It only has one hanging loop - because it's not really a hanging loop at all, but somewhere to attach a safety. I assumed seeing the loop in one of the pics, there would be another at the other end. The flickers so obvious on the Stairville are missing, thank goodness, and although there are a number of quite visible steps at the bottom end as they dim out, a fade is perfectly possible. With each colour block addressable, so useful possibilities with these. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamtastic3 Posted January 18, 2011 Share Posted January 18, 2011 The problem with most of these bars at the cheaper end is that they have RGB LED's which doesn't make it great looking when you have them facing out to a crowd on a band stage. The American DJ Tri bar is the only bar that looks nice due to the tri LED's but the price is still a bit high for us who would like a nice looking effect at a lower price. Is there anything that has a nice tight arrangement of LED's that arren't staggered in diagonal or tetris style ways? 5mm LED's seem to have more of an RGBRGB arrangement compared to 10mm in alot of fixtres, but which LED would be better in a bar? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nothingatall666 Posted January 18, 2011 Share Posted January 18, 2011 I am so glad I saw this topic.. after putting 2 in my cart, I think I may have to take them out again! :/ Theres a clip here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hw4FMFgkNWI (I hope your german is up to scratch!) The strobing issue is clearly a big one. Definitely put me off buying! thank-you Paul, for the warning! Edit: The new forum version auto embeds youtube links? awesome! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Just Some Bloke Posted January 18, 2011 Share Posted January 18, 2011 Theres a clip here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hw4FMFgkNWI (I hope your german is up to scratch!) For those who don't want to watch the whole 10 minutes, take a look at 4'30" to see what Paul is warning about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.