LED RGB downlights Ethernet

hnorth561

Member
I was in building that was purchased by a church, there is a large auditorium upstairs that was being converted into a night club before they bought it but they went bankrupt and couldn’t finish it, downstairs there was a functioning night club but it had closed for renovations. They have Ethernet cables running everywhere in the nightclub and they were connected to these LED RGB Downlights. I cannot find a brand name or anything on them. In the auditorium they had run Ethernet cables all through the ceiling and these are all handing down where there are supports for lights, there are only 2 lights which are connected to the ceiling still and they are plugged in with Ethernet. I wanted to makes use of these for a different club but am unsure on how they are powered and how they work? I took one apart it is very simple the wires are connected into the back of the lights two wires for each colour and they are terminated into a RJ45 connector. Has anyone seen these before and can give me help on how they would have been powered?
Thanks in advance
 
Don't confuse the type of wire with the protocol being used to send a signal down that wire. The "ethernet" cables are likely not carrying an ethernet signal. It is more likely they were using DMX over CAT-5 or CAT-6 wire, or possibly 1-10V or maybe some proprietary PWM signal if there are really 2 wires per colour. That would be an unusual design since the different colours could easily share a common ground wire. If the cable is daisy-chained between the fixtures then it is even more unlikely an ethernet protocol is being used. If they plug in to an outlet then that's how they are getting power. The CAT cable would be used for data.

However, that's just a guess because we don't know the manufacturer. Since you took one apart, perhaps there are some clues on the circuit board(s). Pictures would help with the identification.
 
They are probably DMX over Cat cable as I don't know of any lights that are Art-Net or sACN direct to the light and not through some converter box (other than some versions of strip lights out there.)
Look around at the location they all come out to and see what's around. If you get lucky they didn't pull everything out and left either a switch or DMX to Ethernet adapter.
 
Next time I am in I will try to get some photos to see if it makes it any more clear, I am also finding it hard to see where all the wires run too, there are speaker wires from the roof top that hang down and I have been unable to find those also, I have looked everywhere.
 
I think a picture would go a long way here.... I can't imagine there's no indication of what it is. Maybe it's been painted over? Not even anything on the inside? The description sounds like a run of the mill RGB POE DJ light and I suspect there's a closet somewhere with a controller / RJ45 decoder in it.... or where those cables go and one used to be.... need input.....

1588257633910.png
 
They are probably DMX over Cat cable as I don't know of any lights that are Art-Net or sACN direct to the light and not through some converter box (other than some versions of strip lights out there.)
Look around at the location they all come out to and see what's around. If you get lucky they didn't pull everything out and left either a switch or DMX to Ethernet adapter.
Yes I will have a look when I am back in tomorrow or so and try get a few pictures but I have been unable to locate the location for any of the wires, there is a plant room where some smaller speaker wires come to but the rest have yet to be found.
 
You said this was a club? Most likely the cables come down somewhere in or near the DJ booth. It may be ehind a panel on the wall but usually the equipment racks (including amps) would be located at the DJ booth (or behind it)
 
Here is the link to the only video I have of the lights from a while ago, and a link to the room in which they are in. Then are not very good but only videos I have until I go back in to get better videos.
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You said this was a club? Most likely the cables come down somewhere in or near the DJ booth. It may be ehind a panel on the wall but usually the equipment racks (including amps) would be located at the DJ booth (or behind it)
the club has since been ripped out. But the room upstairs has been untouched. It has been left like this since 2010. But before the club was ripped out they had the same lights in it.
 
Tracing out wires can be a pain. A helpful tool is something like this These work on disconnected wires only. No power or signal, but that shouldn't be a problem.

I've never seen those truss fixtures. Are the heads a fixed color or changeable?
 
AHA my dear watson.... a few cups of coffee and almost all of my google fu has brought us here.... I give you the BriteQ LD-Par16.... though I think this model has been discontinued it has a nifty replacement that just might make your day...

https://briteq-lighting.com/ld-par16-silver

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Thank you, that looks like them, my only question now is how do I power them? I know I could wire them into an adapter or something but is there any rj45 connects made for these? as I have watched old videos of the clubs pf these changing colours and and pulsing?
 
I suspect you're looking for at least 1 of these..... https://briteq-lighting.com/ld-1024din

I rather suspect that you'd actually want one of these: https://briteq-lighting.com/ld-power-60.

The linked little par cans are just the empty cans, from what I can make out, without any sort of lamp supplied; the light units inside are presumably either these LD DOWNLIGHT 1TC-25s or these LD DOWNLIGHT 6-25s. The manual they have online for the power supply has information on the pinout of the RJ connector for the lights (though unfortunately not on the voltages they use). I'd imagine it would not be hard to wire up any old LED controller, such as those for LED tapes, given the pinout data.
 
I rather suspect that you'd actually want one of these: https://briteq-lighting.com/ld-power-60.

The linked little par cans are just the empty cans, from what I can make out, without any sort of lamp supplied; the light units inside are presumably either these LD DOWNLIGHT 1TC-25s or these LD DOWNLIGHT 6-25s. The manual they have online for the power supply has information on the pinout of the RJ connector for the lights (though unfortunately not on the voltages they use). I'd imagine it would not be hard to wire up any old LED controller, such as those for LED tapes, given the pinout data.

you might be right with the emitter we'll need the OP to chime in for that, though any emitter that fits could be used so I didn't take a guess there... the power controller makes more sense to me to have used the 1024din as it would be ready for RJ45 and PC control without complicated setups and wire conversions from XLR and would provide inline power without additional power adapters....
 
AHA my dear watson.... a few cups of coffee and almost all of my google fu has brought us here.... I give you the BriteQ LD-Par16.... though I think this model has been discontinued it has a nifty replacement that just might make your day...

https://briteq-lighting.com/ld-par16-silver

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These look like they couldve been cool. Now this company looks like they just sell rebranded generic chinese pars.
 

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