Bring Light and Color to Your Eurorack | Doepfer A-197-3 LED Controller

[@RandomMakingEncounters]

I play around a lot with RGB LEDs. It’s very important to calculate the total current requirements of your strand. Each color on each LED can draw around 20mA at full brightness… give or take. If we maths that, a 100 LED strand with all LEDs at full brightness could draw 6 amps (100X60/1000). It’s rare to have each color at full brightness but building in a bit of wiggle room keeps things safe. Also, also… be sure to use wire rated to handle the planned amps. Too thin equals heat. Heat equals bad. Thanks for sharing this module. I wondered what it was capable of and everything is better with LEDs 😂!

[@braintree56]

Great info! Thanks. Everything is definitely better with LEDs. One thing I forgot to test before making the video is if the module will function without plugging it into the Eurorack power (i.e. powering it solely from the power adapter). My only criticism is that there is no indicator to tell that the external power supply is powering the lights as opposed to the Eurorack power. I'll have to test that out.

[@NoiseToMost]

This module is sick! Thanks for the walk thru!

[@braintree56]

Awesome! It's really fun to use.

[@turbotambourine]

Very fun! Been interested in some sort of light pairing and this might be my ticket!

[@braintree56]

It's a blast. This was the best option I could find. I'm pretty surprised there weren't more out there. This one is fairly cheap too, especially since you get the LED strip with it too.

[@turbotambourine]

@ yeah! I noticed that! Is there any limitation to the led’s you can plug in? I agree, the price is pretty great! I can see rigging up a design on the inside of your lid and using it as a light panel.

[@braintree56]

@turbotambourine They just have to be 12v RGB. The only problem ive has is that the external power plug doesn't have an indicator to let you know it's working. I accidentally turned off the power strip it was on and was running the lights off my system power without knowing it. It wasn't a huge deal in this situation, but I was considering running longer strings of lights and possibly having multiple modules... So... Could put a strain on the system if it was drawing from internal power.

[@turbotambourine]

@ too bad there isn’t an indicator light. Would have been awesome to even have a switch in there to go from case power to external. But then again, that’s more qol feature.

[@stephenpisani5727]

Huh... I was just checking out the KOLOR kickstarter a few days ago. Seems pretty similar. I've got a Hypno and I'd love to do a dedicated visual rack someday

[@braintree56]

I had the chance to try out a Hypno at a Synth Meetup. It's pretty cool, but I prefer to have lights like this as opposed to the screen... Plus it's pretty pricey... Yikes! I guess Ideall would be to have both! :) I hadn't heard of the KOLOR - I'm looking at that now. It does look pretty similar.