lonemorf Posted October 31, 2015 Share Posted October 31, 2015 Going to do some silly outdoor lighting for a christmas event this year, and need to be able to switch a pile (100+) individual circuits - all LED crappy christmas lights. So need some cheap and cheerful DMX switchpacks - half amp per circuit will be more than enough (realise they probably arent available that small). Any ideas? Cheers in advance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emmien Posted October 31, 2015 Share Posted October 31, 2015 I do a Christmas light display using Light-O-Rama Which lights are you using? Most store brought lights have 24VAC transformers, and this is converted to about 30VDC using a rectifier somewhere, often in a multi-function controller boxIf the lights have a multi-function controller box, you will want to try to switch after it using relays. Switching the transformers causes a delay (Sometimes tiny but sometimes three or four seconds) It is much better to switch after the multi-function controller, which should be set to static. The switching device needs to be on the shared positive wire. The seperate series of lights all share a common positive. Switching this should turn every LED on/off, but switching the others will cause only the series that that wire connects to to turn off. You will have to find which wire is which by trial and error. Cut a wire, if they all turn off then you have found it, if not join it back together with heatshrink and solder and try again.The cheapest way to switch them would be DMX relays. The cheapest ones I can find are from a guy called Earnest in China. His stuff is really good.LINK:https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6dCx7Jc8zNnVHNPbmtZZnlvXzQ/view?usp=sharingProduct:WS020If the lights do not have a controller or run of DC, you can just switch them anywhere. If they are wired in several series, put the relay in before the wire splits to more than two wires. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lonemorf Posted October 31, 2015 Author Share Posted October 31, 2015 Looked at Light-O-Rama, bit too dear really. That stuff from Earnest looks like it could work - will get in touch with him. Thanks for the info! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emmien Posted October 31, 2015 Share Posted October 31, 2015 Light-O-Rama is expensive. Store brought lights from this country are really annoying. Light-O-Rama is intended for US lights which all run off mains voltage. I have a mainly RGB Christmas light display. I use Light-O-Rama software to control it all, mainly with DMX. The relays are really easy to use but you will need to cut up an XLR lead or Cat5. Also the device does not have a DMX in and an out. You could just connect another wire, the lazy way, which I have never had a problem with. You could do it properly with an active DMX splitter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lonemorf Posted October 31, 2015 Author Share Posted October 31, 2015 I will probably be using MA2 for this, a bit overkill for sure, but I have a command wing, so can do proper timecode on it for the sequencing. Going to see how cheaply I can make up some relayed switches with the stuff from Earnest - thats my current thinking anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
themadhippy Posted November 1, 2015 Share Posted November 1, 2015 if youve got a demux spare the 0-10v outputs just about enough to control sensitive relays, add a transistor for a bit more oomph or maybe a 99p ebay ssr straight from the demux output Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emmien Posted November 1, 2015 Share Posted November 1, 2015 That will also work. But 100 channels is a lot and I doubt many people have 100 channels spare. Product WS020 is a pre-built relay board (Three channel I think) but I know it can be done a lot cheaper. For channels per £ the black 24 channel (WS011) was best when I brought it, but the 27 channel is new and I don't know the price. I think that this is possible for less than £5 per channel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
themadhippy Posted November 1, 2015 Share Posted November 1, 2015 2 botex multi exchangers (thoman) - £226.52144 ssr's (ebay)- £142.56£369.08 or about £2.57 a channel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emmien Posted November 1, 2015 Share Posted November 1, 2015 if youve got a demux spare the 0-10v outputs just about enough to control sensitive relays, add a transistor for a bit more oomph or maybe a 99p ebay ssr straight from the demux output 2 botex multi exchangers (thoman) - £226.52144 ssr's (ebay)- £142.56£369.08 or about £2.57 a channel Actually that is cheaper than I thought. I still think that it can be done. 4 WS011 24 channel DMX decoder - £1201 WS003 4 channel DMX decoder - £10100 SSR's (at £1 each) - £1001 Medium sized 5v SMPSU - £8Total: £238£2.38 It can be done even cheaper I think Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmxlights Posted November 1, 2015 Share Posted November 1, 2015 I have used DMX Relay board from http://www.ebay.ie/itm/16-Channel-DMX-Controller-Relay-Switch-Dimmer-Kit-16-Way-Relay-Switch-DJ-Equipme-/181713410220?hash=item2a4ef698ac:m:mIV6ThKdhURFT8IA7N3TbgA it is 16 channel 7 X 16channel rely board @ £48.00 = £336.00 7x16 = 112 channels = £3 per channel. These boards can be linked with cat5 as well while is not artnet but it will save a load of DMX leads you will just need one from the desk out and then use cat5 to link the relays together Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emmien Posted November 1, 2015 Share Posted November 1, 2015 I have used DMX Relay board from http://www.ebay.ie/I...hURFT8IA7N3TbgA it is 16 channel 7 X 16channel rely board @ £48.00 = £336.00 7x16 = 112 channels = £3 per channel. These boards can be linked with cat5 as well while is not artnet but it will save a load of DMX leads you will just need one from the desk out and then use cat5 to link the relays together I thought that looked similar. That is sold by Dengquian on Ebay. Dengquian sells stuff from Earnest on Ebay. It looks the same design. I think he only sells stuff from Earnest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alistermorton Posted November 1, 2015 Share Posted November 1, 2015 There are loads of sellers all selling basically the same boards Same with all the goods that come out of China. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emmien Posted November 1, 2015 Share Posted November 1, 2015 There are loads of sellers all selling basically the same boards Same with all the goods that come out of China. The first DMX RGB decoder I got was from denqquian. It went wrong and I contacted the seller and then he said to speak to Earnest who sent out a new one and his catalogue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbuckley Posted November 2, 2015 Share Posted November 2, 2015 There are Marin in China solutions that might work out cheap, but first, we need to know exactly what voltage and current that needs to be switched. Rather than a hundred wall worts... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alistermorton Posted November 2, 2015 Share Posted November 2, 2015 Given that a quick search on eBay for DMX LED driver brings up several sellers all with identical product photographs (including denqqian) I wonder if they're either a) all getting there stuff from the same factories (highly likely) or b) the same sellers under different guises. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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