Anyone using these laughably cheap movers?

[Jay Ashworth]

Ok, now that we've established that I know they're not $4000 VL's and I know why...

Quantity has a quality all its own. Has anyone actually bought any of them, and what do you think?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0168LVUSK/

I'm sure Lixada is as made up a brand name as anything, and I know they will have lots of ways in which they're not a $4000 VL... but *which* ways? And how bad?

[ Note that there are a *lot* of units in this general space; this one is 25W RGBW, with built in gobos ]

 

[EdSavoie]

I'll be sure to tell you! I'm set to receive one of these units from a seller on Aliexpress this coming Monday.

I plan on doing a careful teardown to the best of my novice ability to see just how (well / terribly) they are designed.

 

[Jay Ashworth]

You mind my asking what the Q1 pricing was, Ed?

(And I will be interested in your corroborating or conflicting opinions to the Amazon reviews; one of which says it's a color-wheel light, and one of which says it doesn't dim; the tenor of most of the reviews tends towards either "I haven't the first clue what I'm doing" or "I'm a shill"....)

 

[EdSavoie]

Not at all!
Aliexpress

Seems rather significantly cheaper than those units on Amazon...

Mind you, if these are unusably bad, I'll gut most of it and use the pan / tilt and DMX board in it with a beefier PSU and LED

 

[BillConnerFASTC]

Astounding. Please do report.

 

[JohnD]

Remember the bigclive teardown.

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[EdSavoie]

Funny, i remember seeing the begining of that video when Clive uploaded it. Must have had to run off before getting to the fun part.

I Will still a least start to tear it down after testing it, I've learned the hard way that two units from different sellers often have vastly different circuits and components. My first guess is that another company might axe the overkill arm chip for an 8 or 16bit MCU.

I'll be sure to post back!

 

[JD]

Watched the video. Interesting little well built unit that is dirt cheap. Still, there is an important consideration to make before even spending that small amount of money:
Unlike the USA, China works like one big company. Let's say a run of LED emitters fails a QA test. They don't throw them out, they move them down for use in one of their no-name products. In other words, a $2,000 Chinese mover may use the same parts as a $200 mover, but there is still a world of difference. Chances are the more expensive unit will have a much higher level of reliability.
Cute little light, while it works, but better chance that after some use it will simply stop working.
If you're a DJ doing parties on the cheap, it will fit your need. I just wouldn't use it for anything that involves a contract that would require it to work.

 

[Jay Ashworth]

Indeed, John. All of HP's $5-12K class servers are built in China by Foxconn; they will build anything you like to any cost-level you ask for.

One note to Ed: the one you posted is specced at 10W total; the one I posted from Amazon is 25W total. [No wait; scratch that. Apparently it's a 10W white LED in a fixture which ostensibly draws 25W (though Clive says 40) with a 7-color scroller.

Nope.

 

[Jay Ashworth]

[ watches video ]

Oh. It's *one LED*? <puke>

 

[Jay Ashworth]

I have reported the one I linked to Amazon for improper description.

"RGBW" != "White LED with a 7-color scroller".

#descriptionsmatter

 

[JohnD]

#descriptionsmatter

That reminded me of this from the ProSoundForums:

http://forums.prosoundweb.com/index.php/topic,161192.0.html

 

[EdSavoie]

Well this is odd...
They've sent me the wrong unit!

Now, the funny thing is, they've sent me a rather nice 60W RGBW unit. (130W total rated power in my included manual)

I do think they actually mispacked the order as everything about this transaction has been quite nice, including the $20 dollar DHL shipping i got with it. It actually came with a European Schuko plug! >_>

As to the light itself, I have yet to test it the theatre, but it appears to be of the brightness i'd expect of a 60W RGB light.
There are some minor issues with the physical design, however it currently looks electrically sound.

Issue 1:
They placed the user interface on the top section of the light. Yes, the spinning part.

Issue 2:
Shouldn't really be an issue, but they placed the pan assembly on a metal plate with four screws on the corner, the problem is that there is empty space beneath the motor, so some rather large force applied on it caused the whole plate to warp just enough for the upper assembly to rub on one side. It should be easy to fix, but i'll be having a bit of a word with the seller...

 

[Jay Ashworth]

I wonder how much the one you *got* is supposed to cost.

Cause everything I found in the cheaper price range turned out to be 7-color scroller wheel, not RGBW 4in1.

 

[EdSavoie]

I wonder how much the one you *got* is supposed to cost.

Apparently, much, much more.

After I told the seller, she seemed very interested in paying for reshipping to france (the intended client)
Mind you, her next post was remembering what I showed her about that plate being warped. So I'll just wait for the seller to respond again...

Looks like I get two reviews for the price of one!


EDIT: found the price...

 

[Jay Ashworth]

About 4 times as much.

But, 10-20x cheaper than a Vari.

 

[EdSavoie]

Alright, thanks to how rather helpful the seller was, I eventually received the correct light, and then ordered a second. I can confirm that in the construction aspect, these appear to be built exactly the same as the one in the bigclive teardown.

I must confess I've had them for nearly a week, but I've had all of my nonexistent time to try and figure them out.

Now, I said construction because the software is different than Clive's! Interestingly, the light comes packaged with a... "Manual" of two Letter size pages stapled together showing a generic 8/10ch patching that isn't the same as either Clive's or the actual unit In the box.

I have yet to test dimmer characteristic, but this unit is an 8/10ch unit. (mirroring what Clive said, don't bother with 10ch, the pan/tilt fine has no effect due to the resolution)

The unit is bright, and the cooling is more than sufficient as the heatsink was cool to the touch after running full blast for an hour. The belts are quite good at keeping on track, and throwing reset to 255 once in a blue moon to recalibrate it is more than enough to keep it pointing in the correct spot.

These are going to be running for a school event on Monday if I can slap together some good effects in QLC+ so I shall attempt to grab some video of the pair in action for you.

 

[Jay Ashworth]

We look forward to your further reporting...

And I really can't help but wonder what Alibaba can get me one in that class, but to my actual specs (RGBA all-in-one properly collimated, 5W/color, drop the color wheel) for...

Zoom? Focus?

 

[EdSavoie]

but to my actual specs (RGBA all-in-one properly collimated, 5W/color, drop the color wheel) for...

Zoom? Focus?

The one they mistakenly sent me the first time is a quad lamp chip, and is 15W a colour if I'm remembering correctly. when I looked up the part code, it seems they also have chips where the fourth is amber.

The correct 10W units do have a manual focus on the front, nothing fancy though.

I'm not sure what kind of MOQ they would need before making custom versions for you though.

 

[Jay Ashworth]

Oh sure.

I just think that there's a pretty sizable space between "wants a decent mover" and "has the money for Varilites".

[strike]Did you post the link for the first one?[/strike] I see that you did.