AMKI High Power 4 Channel 8A/CH Dmx Led Controller Led DMX 512 Decoder Dimmer Driver DC12V-24V for led rgb strip or lights

I do large displays for the holidays and include the landscape lights in some of them. I needed a way for the show controllers to be able to control them and this fits the bill for my situation. My show controllers can send DMX commands so they can control this device. The landscape lights are 12V DC single color lights and are all on the same wire so I am only using 1 channel (output) on this controller. I also use the show controller to operate the landscape lights all year, holiday show or not. This allows me to turn the landscape lights on at dusk, dim them down late at night to reduce the amount of light coming onto bedroom windows when people are trying to sleep, and shut them down at dawn when they are no longer needed.This is a simple controller. It can work in both DMX mode and also has some built in functions but does not have any remote capability to set them. It comes configured to operate in DMX mode where the only configuration is to set the DMX start channel. The display will show an A along with a number that shows the current DMX start channel. You use the up or down arrow keys to set it to the desired channel and press the save button and your done. As said above, it has no way to change any setting remotely so if you want or need to make any changes, you need to use the buttons on the controller itself.This controller does not have any settable dimming curves. LED bulbs do not dim like incandescent bulbs and different makes and colors of LED's dim at different rates so if you are looking for a controller that can be configured to dim any LED at a linear rate from off to full on, this is not the controller for you. DMX control values go from 0 to 255 and with the lights that I am using, the values between 0 and 50 show the most noticeable and linear change in brightness and at 50, my bulbs are at about 80% of full brightness/ At 1, you can actually see the individual LED's in the bulb just starting to light. In my situation, from 50 to full brightness 255, you do see the bulbs go to full brightness but minor changes in the DMX value above 50 are not really noticeable.This controller also does not have auto-blanking capability. In more advanced controllers, you can set if and how long the controller will keep lights lit without a valid DMX signal. This controller simply keeps the lights lit to the last value it received prior to the DMX signal loss until the DMX signal is restored or the controller is powered down.This controller comes with 2 sets of DMX inputs/outputs. It has a set of 3 pin DMX input/output ports and comes with a set of reasonably high quality solder type locking plugs if you choose to use them. The pin out is printed on the unit. It also has a set of RJ45's that are wired with standard DMX pin locations so if your DMX controller has this type of output, just use a cat5 Ethernet cable and your good to go.It also has a few pre-programmed functions that you can set the controller to do but that disables the DMX function and the controller will simply run the lights in this pattern from power on till power off until the configuration is manually changed on the unit itself. All in all, it is a simple controller that works well and is capable of some high current output allowing for use with long or dense strings of LED lights.

I like this thing a lot. I use it on my DrumLites since they went out of business. The only thing I would change is the connection terminal… kind of jenky. Wish that they were a little more secure and gig worthy. You have to be really gentle with it for fear that the wires will come out.

This item works great for incandescent lighting, but it is entirely inappropriate for LEDs.. It creates a linear response for 0-255 levels of DMX input (8 bit only). An exponential curve would work much better, as LEDs output a significant amount of light even at level 1. There is no way to smoothly control the level in the low end of the range, when it is most critical, and at the upper end, control results in no perceptible difference in brightness.This is a well understood issue in LED lighting and could have been addressed through a simple software configuration. It was not, and therefore this product is unsuitable for use to control LEDs.

Controller stopped working after 4 months. Would not power up.