Hey Guys, this is Martin again from SIRS-E.
. Today I would like to show you a brand new product that we released not too long ago.
It is part of our AcuHue Series of tape light.
it is actually a current controlled option.
So typically the product that we that we’ve been dealing with is a constant Voltage or CV Product.
The CV product has worked well for a lot of people, and it has performed time and time again
but we did notice that there could be some improvements within the performance of the product for other applications and such;
so today we have a little experiment here set up for you guys to show you in a very practical, direct way how the two products perform side by side.
What we have going on, are two lightboxes, each lightbox is identical in construction and dimensions and they basically block all the other light sources out.
All you’re getting is the light that’s within each of the boxes.
Each box has a light meter hooked up to it and each light meter is identical also;
we have a digital bench power supply that we’re going to use to vary the input
voltage to our decoders that we have connected and the decoders are hooked up to a little DMX fader as well.
So that way we can show you the dimming performance under the lower voltage settings.
So, we’re going to start off, Here we’ve got 24 Volts as you can see,
the light meters are reading relatively the same values and what we’re going to do
is we are going to change the voltage and we’ll see what each light meter does in
relationship to the actual input voltage going through the system.
So, let’s start off and we’ll go to 22 volts.
OK
so as you can see we’ve dropped only 2 volts from our starting voltage,
and the CC has remained relatively unaffected, while the CV has taken a bit of a plunge,
and that’s just 2 volts down.
We are actually going to go a little bit further just to see, you know, what happens.
OK
so we are at 21 volts now, umm CC still relatively stable, still very close to its starting reading,
but as you can see the CV keeps on coming down lower and lower;
and each volt is going to affect it that much more.
We are going to go to 20 volts and we’ll see what that does.
OK
we are now at 20 volts, as you can see the CC has dropped a little bit more dramatically now,
but it is still relatively close to its starting reading
and also the CV just keeps dropping and dropping.
So, I want to talk to you guys or explain why these 2 products perform the way they do.
The CC product works with a technology that’s a little bit different than the CV or the constant voltage product,
so most constant voltage products they use limiting resistors within the circuit and those limiting resistors are set to a target voltage or like a working voltage.
. Anytime that voltage fluctuates you’re going to see a direct correlation in the output of the brightness,
, just due to the nature of the design. The CC or the current controlled option, instead of using limiting resistors,
we’re actually using integrated circuits or ICs.
Those ICs actually have a working voltage range so that you can actually go from 24 volts all the way to about 20, 21 volts
or so and you still have a very stable performance throughout the range.
That’s what allows this product to be more forgiving to voltage drop in relation to its brightness output.
That’s the main reason why this performs the way it does.
So what we’re going to do now is we’re going to take this up to about 22 volts,
alright, let’s do 21 volts.
So we’re at 21 volts, we can see we’re back close to the starting reading for this,
this one is still quite low.
What we’re going to do is we are going to mess with the little dimmer fader that
I have back here so you can see that the dimming stays very stable.
So we're just going to dim it up and down
and we actually have all 4 channels or all 4 colors patched to a single dimmer fader just for the simplicity of the demonstration,
, but as you can see the product actually remains stable, you don’t get any flickering, you don’t get anything weird going on
and you can actually bring it down quite low and still have stable performance out of the product.
Another thing I wanted to talk to you guys about is the application for each one of these products.
As you have seen, the CV product has certain limitations and also so does the CC product but the CC product is more apt for certain applications as opposed to the CV.
One application where you can benefit on using the CC product would be if you have a big installation,
where you have certain drivers and decoders that are further away,
you’re going to have to bring a wire down to the tape light within that section. As some of you know,
the wire run will cause some resistance which will generate some voltage drop. Voltage drop as you know,
can be troublesome when dealing with RGBW or RGB Lighting because of the color mixes etc…
If you are doing any color mixes and you have varying voltages going to each section of strip on a CV type of product
you are going to see the fluctuation and the problems that arise from that unstable voltage input.
With the CC product as you have seen that is really not a big deal,
um it is quite a bit more forgiving and you can get away with a lot more than you could with a CV product.
Sothat’s pretty much it as far as performance and the application goes for these 2 products.
If you guys have any questions, any concerns go ahead and drop us a comment below.
Otherwise feel free to reach out if you have any other inquiries. Hope you guys enjoyed the video and thank you for watching.