Full color spectrum LEDs

A local public park had an extensive Christmas display including computerized lights that move to music.

Some displays had some large (about 1/2" dia) LEDs that are full color spectrum.

Unlike the solar yard lights that have red - green - blue LEDS in one and do a poor job of blending the colors into yellow - orange - purple. These have every color as well being able to fade the brightness levels.

Apparently these are not any of the cheap holiday lights they sell in the stores. I'm sure they are costly and sold for commercial use.

However, where are they sold? Is there a certain name for them? How do they work, (meaning there must be more than 3 LEDs in one body and blending colors)?

Reply to
oldschool
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The usual places. Amazon, eBay, AliExpress, etc. Google for for "LED grow lights". Some garden supply stores carry them.

Full spectrum LED lights are also known as "LED grow lights". They are favored by indoor marijuana growers:

They're a mix of different color LED's.

If you're growing indoors, you'll need a VPD (vapor pressure deficit) chart:

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Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com 
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Jeff Liebermann

Interesting reading. Seems like marijuana growing sure has gone hi-tech. Whatever happened to just letting nature grow some seeds out in a field? But I know that the kids these days are all smoking that genetically modified stuff that smells like a dead skunk. I'm glad I dont use that crap. My brief use of pot in the early 70s was the real, natural stuff grown in a field under sunlight, and when smoked it had a sweet pleasant odor.By the mid 70's I quit all that stuff, and am glad I did.

Anyhow, those are full spectrum, but not what I want. What I want are strings of lights, like Christmas lights, with a control to change colors, brightness, and so on. I am not sure how much controls are available on the light strings, or if all the control is done by computers.

I remember reading some years ago, where they use special software on a PC to program the lights, and the computer then controls modules that make the lights change to music. Thats what this holiday display was doing in the park I visited, and they did an awesome job of it.

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oldschool

I have a few of these. They're fun to play with, but not very useful. Extra points if you can figure out how the IR remote control works when there's a rather bright collection of LED's next to the sensor.

That's for Christmas light shows: Have your financial advisor and loan agent available when shopping.

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Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com 
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Jeff Liebermann

Increasingly grow lights omit green LEDs almost entirely since there is no point in wasting energy producing green light that will be reflected by the green chlorophyll pigment in the leaf. The latest high efficiency grow lights are a hideous shade of magenta come shocking pink.

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Regards, 
Martin Brown
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Martin Brown

The grow lights would not work for decorative displays, because they lack green and appear to be "stuck" on that magenta color. I knew a guy who had a small greenhouse back in the 80s. He grew flowers. Back then he used 4' florescent bulbs that emit that same sort of magenta color. Aside from the color, they looked identical to any 4' florescent bulb. Apparently plants do best with that pinkish color lights.

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oldschool

Yep. Some general details on how it works: Mix blue and red and you get pink-purple. Although they have a big hole in the green area and are not even close to the same spectrum as natural sunlight, LED grow lights are still called "full spectrum LED". Once again, marketing triumphs over technical accuracy.

Drivel:

I still have some interest in the fashion industry, where purple and pink have become a marketable color combination. That identifies the wearer as either a gardener or drug grower, or maybe someone clueless who doesn't understand the symbolism. In a few years, I'm fairly certain that the pink and purple color combination will be considered generally acceptable.

Today's fashions usually follow whatever yesterdays social rejects seem to favor. In the 1980's, the baggy pants favored by prison residents became fashionable. In the 1970's pastel colors favored by the gays because acceptable as the colors were integrated into every day clothes. In the 1960's, conspicuous poverty became a fashion statement. Etc. Today, it's emulating a financially successful drug grower, who presumably wears clothes to match his LED grow lights.

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Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com 
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Jeff Liebermann

I keep seeing women wearing clothing that says "PINK" on it, and most of the time it's some other color. I used to tease them and say "whoever made your clothing must be color blind". I finally found out that "Pink" is the name of the manufacturer.

Fads and fashions are always sort of stupid, some worse than others. But I guess it's a means to get kids, especially females to spend more money. Because there is only so much they can do, fashions repeat.

I'm glad I only have to replace my blue jeans when my belly gets bigger.

If I wore clothing to match the color of my marijuana grow lights, I'd be naked. .

Those grow lights are not really full spectrum. Maybe the LEDs themsleves are, but the fixtures surely are not. Those 5050 LED strings with remotes, sold on Ebay are mostly what I am looking for, and they are inexpensive. The stuff sold as "Lignt-O-Rama" is more what I was looking at, but that's beyond my budget...

I am wondering if it's possible to buy the Full Spectrum INDIVIDUAL LEDs. I'd like to tinker around with them. Maybe even make a Color Organ that has more than 3 colors..... (Yea, I know Color Organs are no longer fashionable). :)

I noticed that a local bar has one of those Internet Juke Boxes and it has a border around it that contains the full spectrum LEDs. It goes thru all the colors of the rainbow, and is quite colorful. Now that I know that those LEDs consist of multiple LED elements inside one "bulb", I am curious what sort of circuit blends them? I assume there is a chip made just for that purpose....

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oldschool

snipped-for-privacy@tubes.com wrote on 1/9/2018 1:15 PM:

Multi-color LEDs would be controlled by an MCU. The ones I've worked with appear to be a shift register. They can be daisy chained so they appear to be a single very long shift register. The MCU shifts out the bit pattern that controls the three LEDs in each package as one very long string of bits every time it needs to update the string of LEDs.

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Rick C 

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rickman

If they go through ALL the colors of the rainbow, they are NOT "full spectrum" or "grow lite" LED's, which omit yellow and green. They are probably "RGB LED" strips. which include yellow and green.

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Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com 
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Jeff Liebermann

Then I want RGBs. I DO NOT want grow lights for designing colorful displays. And I DO want yellow and green (and all the colors of the rainbow).

I just used the term "full spectrum" because I want ALL colors, not just three colors like those color changing solar sidewalk lights. To me, for a lack of search terms, full spectrum means all colors visible to the eye, which will include colors like aqua, amber, violet, and so on....

But now I learned that "full spectrum' refers to grow lights, which appear to be far from the actual full spectrum of colors.

Reply to
oldschool

Then you probably need to be looking for a mains powered RGB LED controller that has output power and programs that suit your needs.

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And some RGB LED strips to go with them. You can also buy RGB mains lamps with colour remote controllers as fairly cheap consumer items.

Full spectrum is generally used to market agricultural lights and over priced lamps sold to the worried well who fret about these things.

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Regards, 
Martin Brown
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Martin Brown

Aircraft with multi-specral cameras

Both are available, leds modules with individual color control ("neopixels" for computer control)

and strings with R, G, and B channels for analogue control, whole string one colour - could be connected to DMX etx.

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Jasen Betts

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