March 11th, 2016 
bitreaper
The original fluorescent lights.
Our new snazzy LED lights
Fluorescent lights suck. Aside from the minor mercury toxicity hazard if they’re broken and the mediocre light quality, the bigger problem for us is getting up to the ceiling to replace them. At 8′ long, they’re a bit ungainly when at the top of a ladder that is barely stabilized. Needless to say, between the standard laziness, and the instinct of self-preservation, we haven’t changed many of the burnt out tubes since we moved into this space. In fact, we are finally down to 6 lit tubes, so we were getting to the limit of barely usable light.
LED lights are cool. That’s the basic premise of switching our lighting out in our high bay lately. Of course, you’re going to get that response from a bunch of self-proclaimed LED freaks 😉 We were getting to the end of the life on the remaining fluorescent tubes, and had to do something. One of our long time members, Dan Julio, offered up some of the control boards from one of his lighting projects. These boards, combined with LED strips make up our new lights. Some of the main features include:
- dimmable – this allows us to set the light level for meetups or for work
- Zone control – with this feature, we can keep the work lights on while dimming or turning off the lights over the wall that the projector shines against.
- Color wash on the ceiling – Otherwise known as “party mode”. This gives us the ability to change the mood of the space.
- Control via mobile or web portals.
- Control via panel mounted on the wall.
Several members joined with Dan on a Saturday to finish up the marathon of work he had already put in.
Way to go Dan for designing and building out the system, and thanks to the SSD members who helped install it!
Valentine’s Day Mode
Party Mode!
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