delicolor Posted June 11, 2013 Share Posted June 11, 2013 I picked up KAM PAR56 V2 second hand recently to use as a simple signage uplighter. Whilst the beam quality is pretty horrible, it does what it says on the tin and is ok stand alone. (Maplin sell them!) It has a nice slow full colour range fade sequence but you can see most of the 32 steps as each colour steps its way up and down. Also, quirkily enough, if you want to work DMX you need seven channels to control RGB, with three for colour mixing, three for various presets/strobes and the 7th as a grand master which needs to be full for 1-3 to work. This means it is pretty much essential to have softpatch on the controller if you want to vamp with them. Anyway, that is just setting the scene, so to speak. I realise that there are much more flexible units around but I thought another couple might be useful so I got some manufacture refurbished on ebay. When they turned up though, they were different- they didn't have a seperate switch, just the 10 DIP switches. Bizarrely though, the boxes, instructions and even the silk screening say they are same V2, just the back panel layout is different. They seem to be 6 channel DMX and the dip switches work somewhat differently. The led arrangements and case are the same, they don't look or behave like the KAM V1, they seem to be a V1.5. Any ideas? Google hasn't been my friend on this occasion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Allen Posted June 12, 2013 Share Posted June 12, 2013 If you read back through Blue Room posts, you will find many similar stories. Any budget led lighting can be sourced from several different sub manufacturers by the "manufacturer" to keep costs down, ensure continuity of supplies etc, which could mean different versions of the "same" product. To try and get all of your units the same in terms of functionality, colour matching etc. you need buy all of your required quantity of lights in one transaction, preferably off the shop floor. Even then you may still get mixed stock. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
delicolor Posted June 12, 2013 Author Share Posted June 12, 2013 Really? I thought that just happened in IT! Continuous improvement is fair enough, but to ship product that doesn't actually align with the product information supplied with it is very dodgy. KAM's instruction sheets are better than many but they don't have an obvious customer support on their website. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rossmck Posted June 13, 2013 Share Posted June 13, 2013 Slightly different (and a little off-topic, sorry) but I've noticed this with a manufacturer recently introducing a new, improved "Mk II" of an already very good product. The problem is that the MkII version is pretty poor by comparison with respect to dimming and colour mixing despite me being reassured the only difference was the beam angle. End result I now have a customer that ordered quite a few based on a successful demonstration of the Mk I unit which I can't get any more - thankfully other "manufacturers" who used the same Chinese OEM *do* still sell them, but for a little more than double the cost. Caveat emptor I guess Video of 'new improved' MK II Par - https://www.facebook...151440902456960 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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