My guess is they want to avoid RGB since the spatial offset between the diodes would result in each color being projected at a different angle by the lens. Could avoid that by using a dichroic beam combiner to put all colors coaxial, but then the beam path and optics becomes more complex/costly.
Yeah, that would be my guess as well. RGB LEDs normally don't align all colors perfectly unless diffused first. It becomes even more apparent with a collimating lens like the one in this unit. Another reason might be that a white LED with a color filter produces better color than an RGB LED, assuming that the white LED is good and has a reasonable CRI.
@@Sheevlord The red end of the colour wheel is a bit less intense than the green and blue. It looks like the website does have some with full colour mixing, but it's using CMY colour wheels rather than RGB LEDs.
@@sdgelectronics They could've electronically increased current through the LED when the red filter is in place to make the apparent brightness more consistent with other colors. Then again this adds complexity so they probably decided not to bother with that.
Excellent review, thank you. I bought four of these units for a gig my daughter was doing and have to say I'm very impressed (driving them with Lightkey). I agree with the comments below regarding RGB mixing, I already own a couple of U'King moving beam heads which use RGB chips and the displacement and hence colour fringing in the beam is very evident, point them at a white wall and you can't really get a white spot at all! (They are very punchy though).
Some rare fixtures use RGBW clusters of LEDs and sell it as a "flower" effect, because you can see the dots of red, green, blue and white when the focus is such that you see the led engine as a projected gobo. Robe Spikie comes to mind.
If this unit with all its complexity is $99, then why are simple SMPS and soldering irons twice as much? I've always suspected they are overpriced due to higher demand, and now I'm sure I'm right.
It's only 10W, there's stray light inside the device and loss through the gobos. A neat light fixture but surely that 10W can't reach very far? I've got a couple of washes by Lixada (also sold as BeamZ) and they look very similar inside. Over time the absolute direction of the pan/tilt head starts to differ between fixtures, and as seems to be the case with your Betopper product, the beam can't be perfectly centered and the tilt angle on either end of the head is not equal. But all in all for the price, they're neat little things. Much, much cheaper than any other well-known brands.
There's minimal light loss in the optical path. Obviously there is loss when using any gobos, and the dichroic filters reflect back all the out of band light, but generally it's quit well focused. I tried it outside and the throw is quite reasonable at night - I could still see the white patterns on buildings about 50 meters away, but it's nothing like the 1.2 kW HMI fixtures I've used before.
Some of the 'intelligent' lights we used to hire when I was back at school, cost in excess of £10k to buy. They didn't really do much different other than the CMYK mixing and a more powerful light source.
I've never seen ChenX branded capacitors, but i can imagine them existing (it's ChongX in the video). It's like battery brands from China; ultrafire, surefire, demonfire, fire scarlet, trustfire, eastfire, superfire, ... They rip off the worst parts of eachother.
@@bjornroesbeke I ment, ChengX not ChenX oops, its "Chengxing electronic" founded in a town in Dongguan. ChongX is either a misprint or ripoff lol im aware of the *fire labeled batteries, certainly a product that can prove what it claims sometimes, apart from the capacity.
![Eminem - Fuel (Shady Edition) feat. Westside Boogie & GRIP [Official Audio]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/k1OquBida9s/mqdefault.jpg)
My guess is they want to avoid RGB since the spatial offset between the diodes would result in each color being projected at a different angle by the lens. Could avoid that by using a dichroic beam combiner to put all colors coaxial, but then the beam path and optics becomes more complex/costly.
Yeah, that would be my guess as well. RGB LEDs normally don't align all colors perfectly unless diffused first. It becomes even more apparent with a collimating lens like the one in this unit.
Another reason might be that a white LED with a color filter produces better color than an RGB LED, assuming that the white LED is good and has a reasonable CRI.
@@Sheevlord The red end of the colour wheel is a bit less intense than the green and blue. It looks like the website does have some with full colour mixing, but it's using CMY colour wheels rather than RGB LEDs.
@@sdgelectronics They could've electronically increased current through the LED when the red filter is in place to make the apparent brightness more consistent with other colors. Then again this adds complexity so they probably decided not to bother with that.
Excellent review, thank you. I bought four of these units for a gig my daughter was doing and have to say I'm very impressed (driving them with Lightkey). I agree with the comments below regarding RGB mixing, I already own a couple of U'King moving beam heads which use RGB chips and the displacement and hence colour fringing in the beam is very evident, point them at a white wall and you can't really get a white spot at all! (They are very punchy though).
Some rare fixtures use RGBW clusters of LEDs and sell it as a "flower" effect, because you can see the dots of red, green, blue and white when the focus is such that you see the led engine as a projected gobo. Robe Spikie comes to mind.
Interesting and a nice build for the money, never would have put you in the 'disco' bag Steve but it takes all sorts !....cheers.
More of a fascination with anything that lights up...
@@sdgelectronics To be honest me too !
You should build a DMX Controller with channel selection and isolation.
Looks a well engineered bit of kit. Thanks for sharing.
Nice one Steve. Hope you enjoy the discoing over the Christmas.
Fascinating
This is how Glados from portal was born before it became sentient and took over the world
How about swapping the LED out for something much much larger with a custom LED driver
White led for compatibility to old bulb units maybe?
If this unit with all its complexity is $99, then why are simple SMPS and soldering irons twice as much? I've always suspected they are overpriced due to higher demand, and now I'm sure I'm right.
Definitely priced according to the market.
It's only 10W, there's stray light inside the device and loss through the gobos. A neat light fixture but surely that 10W can't reach very far?
I've got a couple of washes by Lixada (also sold as BeamZ) and they look very similar inside.
Over time the absolute direction of the pan/tilt head starts to differ between fixtures, and as seems to be the case with your Betopper product, the beam can't be perfectly centered and the tilt angle on either end of the head is not equal. But all in all for the price, they're neat little things. Much, much cheaper than any other well-known brands.
There's minimal light loss in the optical path. Obviously there is loss when using any gobos, and the dichroic filters reflect back all the out of band light, but generally it's quit well focused. I tried it outside and the throw is quite reasonable at night - I could still see the white patterns on buildings about 50 meters away, but it's nothing like the 1.2 kW HMI fixtures I've used before.
to get the same functions years back would have cost an arm and a leg. It makes me think about how small will they end up?
Some of the 'intelligent' lights we used to hire when I was back at school, cost in excess of £10k to buy. They didn't really do much different other than the CMYK mixing and a more powerful light source.
@@sdgelectronics Oh gosh I looked at stage ligthting and thought it would be fun to play about with until I got a Catalog sent out. 👀 how many £££S
ChongX Crapacitors? are they now even ripping off their own ChengX brand of cheap quality electrolytics?!
I've never seen ChenX branded capacitors, but i can imagine them existing (it's ChongX in the video).
It's like battery brands from China; ultrafire, surefire, demonfire, fire scarlet, trustfire, eastfire, superfire, ...
They rip off the worst parts of eachother.
@@bjornroesbeke I ment, ChengX not ChenX oops, its "Chengxing electronic" founded in a town in Dongguan. ChongX is either a misprint or ripoff lol
im aware of the *fire labeled batteries, certainly a product that can prove what it claims sometimes, apart from the capacity.
hi steve. ive mentioned it a few times but kjeeps getting removed, you kaisertech discount code does not work. just letting you know
Thanks for letting me know, I'll check what has happened to it
Just checked, it seems to work fine. It's just SDG5 no quotation marks
@@sdgelectronics weird. i copied and pasted and does not work for me