I am interested in getting some of the curtain strobes from ChristmasLightShow.com that come recomended from LOR users. On their website under "strobe lights" they are listed for $7.50. But if you go to the "Decorating Help" category, there appears to be the same strobes for $6.00 listed underneath the $7.50 ones. The only difference i see is that these $6.00 ones are called "Curtain Strobe Lights (CLON). What does (CLON) mean and has anyone purchased/used these $6.00 ones. I emailed ChristmasLightShow.com but did not get a response; which from what i have read, is the norm.
I sent Christmaslightshow an email a week ago and received a response within 24 hours. I find them very helpful and received my second order within 4 days
rick gorman wrote: I sent Christmaslightshow an email a week ago and received a response within 24 hours. I find them very helpful and received my second order within 4 days
Rick,
Thanks for the input. It is good to hear some positive feedback about them. Them appear to carry some helpful product at good prices for us LOR users.
While searching the forum in the past, i had come across someone who never got their email question answered either, that was the reason for my comment. Probably more out of frustration than anyting else.
I've always received a timely response from Darryl, but being the 4th weekend, he may be out of town. Purchased 10 strobes last year that worked perfectly and another 25 this year. Highly recommend this product and the company.
Also, early in June, Darryl had a sale on the strobes with each one being $6, not requiring an order of 50 or more. However that sale is over, but he told me there might be another sale later in the year. You may want to get on his mailing list to be informed of the next sale.
I just checked out his website and I see what you mean about one pricing being $7.50 and then below that $6.00. The only difference I can see is that the strobe for $6 shows (CLON) next to Curtain Strobe Light. No idea what that means.
Also, Darryl has given PC members a 10% discount in the past by indicating you are a PC member in the Comments section of the order form. Not sure if that still applies, but worth asking.
Darryl Brown and Christmas Light Show is a quality individual and great supporter of our hobby with his business. I have not been on his site or talked to him in a month or so, but the $6.00 price was for any quantity of strobes. not just orders of 50 or more. Make sure you tell him in your order that you are a participant of this and any other forum you are involved with. He gives discounts to several of them.
I made them an offer of 7 bucks/strobe and requested 20 of them. They took the offer without a fight. The flash rate is supposed to be once every 2 seconds which is a bit too slow for me so I am planning on modifying them.
These look identical to the ones that you all are talking about but I know that looks can be deceiving. Have any of you had any experience with these on Ebay?
I checked out the site that you were referring to above and it says that they are out of stock until the middle of next month. I'll probably order more then as well!
I'm just looking to get a jump on this year's display since it is a first for me!
Hi Jeffrey, yeah I took a chance on their shipping hoping that they would reduce that for me and they did! They invoiced me an additional $24.50 for shipping from California to North Carolina, which I felt was fair. The total for the order came up to 164.50 which brought me to $8.23 per strobe shipped. Now I just have to hide the bank statement from my wife!
Considering that I have found online retailers selling what appears to be the same strobes for up to $20 a piece, I thought it was a good deal.
I received these on Friday and traced out the schematic on them. I found a few "HowTos" on the web but they were using different boards. I ended up replacing R2 which was a 33MOhm resistor with a smaller value that I had on hand which was a 200K 1/2W. I'm getting almost 2 flashes/sec consistently.
I'm not much of a formula guy so I am going to keep messing around with them a bit but I have figured that if I want the strobes to flash at a certain time during a sequence, then I need to give them at least 3/10 to 2/5 of a sec to charge before they'll fire. (after the mod)
That is true for the first time you use them in a night but once they have had power to them and shut off, the capacitors will be in various levels of charge and some will be right at the point of discharge the moment power is supplied. I found it best for me not to power the strobes till the moment I want them. It is also common to get a random flash or two after they are off.
Thanks Brian. Yeah I remember the whole time constant charging theory from years of electronics courses years ago.
I was looking into designing a 555 timer circuit for each of the strobes to maybe allow better control of the charging and discharging of the strobes. It would require more parts than what I think would fit on the little pcb. So I opted to change out the stock 20% tolerance components with 1% mil spec components to tighten things up a bit.
Honestly, I'm not even sure how, or even if I am going to incorporate these into my displays this year. I am still working on figuring that one out.
Plus a few X-10 channels