Hi all,
Last Sunday, I ordered a 5 meter reel of the RGB LED strip and a 3A/channel DMX controler from Highline-Lighting (they also offer a 6A/channel version, but the 3A/channel was in stock). Last Monday, I got an e-mail stating that the products had been shipped. Yesterday, the package arrived (5 working days!). Everything arrived in good condition. I did a small test and it all seems to work well.
I made some pictures of the products and especially the DMX controller, side by side to the "Solarox" version as shipped by Led1.de, the German webshop that I used to order this kind of products from, but which is 2 to 3 times more expensive...
Hiline strip:
Hiline strip detail:
Led1 strip detail:
Hiline DMX controller (left) and Led1 DMX controller (right), side by side:
Some observations:
- Hiline reel uses 161 coded (=160 Ohm) smd resistors in places where Led1 reel uses 151 coded (=150 Ohm) smd resistors. Otherwise, both reels seem to be exactly identical.
- Hiline DMX controller ships in a larger box, which is otherwise identical, except for the Led1 "Solarox" label. Size of both controllers is exactly the same.
- Led1 DMX controller ships with one male and one female DMX plug to build your own DMX cable. No plugs included with the Hiline controller.
- Led1 DMX controller accepts a 5V-24V DC range as input voltage. Hiline accepts either 12V or 24V.
- Led1 DMX controller has a more extensive test program build into the controller (which I don't use as I use a Lanbox for control).
- Hiline DMX controller uses wiring which is a little different from the Led1 controller: Blue, Green, Red, versus Channel 1 (R), Channel 2 (G) and Channel 3 (B). The green connector plug is also a little different (but they are compatible).
- Led1 DMX controller has LT-SYSTEM-8030 as type number. Hiline controller has LT-DMX512-3 as type number. Hiline does sell an LT-SYSTEM-8030, but they claim it is 6A/channel, not 3A/channel as in case of the Led1 DMX controller.
- Led1 DMX controller has a more shiny/glossy finish.
- Functionally, I didn't notice any difference between the Led1 and Hiline products. (But it was a limited test and I couldn't compare brightness as I already installed the Led1 strip in a hard to reach place.)
My conclusion:
- All products seem to come from the same (Chinese) manufacturer LTech (
http://www.ltech-led.com/DMX512_Decoder/) that just uses whatever cheap batch of components they can lay their hands on (that would account for the difference in resistors, connectors and casing finish).
- If you need/want this kind of products, Hiline-Lighting is the way to go (as long as their current prices last).
Note that the picture at the Ltech website shows an LT-SYSTEM-8030 controller that is 12V or 24V (not 5V-24V) and note that Hiline offers a 6A/channel version (
http://www.hiline-lighting.com/pd-dmx51 ... roller.cfm), so that means there must be at least 4 versions of this controller out there...
One more thing: given Marcel's post in
http://www.domoticaforum.eu/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=637, it wouldn't surprise me if
http://www.ledtuning.nl/catalog/product ... cts_id=295 would also be the same LED strip (it's the 30 leds/meter version of the 60 leds/meter strip that Marcel is using). Note that at EUR 187,50 per reel incl. VAT it is not that much more expensive.
Lennart
. If it all works out, I might go for the currently backordered MR16 DMX spot and IP67 RGB led strip sometime in the future, but let's first wait and see.
