Vm151 questions

dear support team,
i’m about to buy a vm151 rgb controller but i’m not completely sure yet if it fits my needs. i’m looking for a rather long and subtle colour change, preferable >10min. so the question would be: approximately how long is one cycle in colour-fade mode at the slowest speed setting? does it continuously scan through the colours or is there a certain hold time on each colour? i like the idea of customizable colour tables very much and i was wondering if the 7 static colours can be changed and saved as well.
thanks a lot in advance
cheers, boris

Unit scans trough colours, it does not hold a certain colour for a while.
There are 4 custom memories that each contain up to 10 user-definable colours.
7 static colours cannot be changed.
About 10 min to scan trough all colours is possible, in my opinion. Absolute specs are not available.

thanks for the quick reply. is it possible to achieve longer cycles, up to 30 min or more? or is the approximate 10 min the slowest possible rate?
cheers, boris

30min is not possible. Delays are software determined and cannot be changed.

alright, i purchased two vm151 and a k8074 usb to rf kit, just to realize that my smd-strips are common cathode. its china-ware and it was all written in chinese, so i assumed they were common anode, which they aren’t. so before i go to the store to return the controllers i would like to ask if there’s any workaround to make the vm151 work with a common cathode strip. i read in another forum about using a “pegelwandler” (sorry, just know the german word) to convert + to - in order to power common cathode rgb’s with a common anode controller. would that be possible with the vm151 as well?
thanks in advance, boris

Maybe you can return the leds instead of the controllers.
99% of all controllers are common anode.

Anyway, hereby a simple way to convert CC strips to CA.
Transistor: universal type, capable of handling the led current.
Pull-up resistor: a couple of K
http://www.velleman.be/images/tmp/CC%20on%20CA.jpg

i ordered two inverter kits:
elv.de/Pegelwandler-für-RGB-300-und-RGB-100,-Komplettbausatz-ohne-Gehäuse/x.aspx/cid_74/detail_10/detail2_14214
if i’m not mistaken, these kits should be working with the vm151 as well.
returning the rgb-strips is unfortunately not an option (ebay from china). sending them back to hong kong would be to much of a hassle.
thanks very much for the diagram. my engineering skills are rather limited, so i chose to go with the kits instead.

the controllers are working perfectly with the inverters. but now there’s a different problem. i put the k8074 usb-to-rf kit together, but somehow it isn’t working. i installed the driver and the device was properly recognized by the os. the power-led is on and the two usb-led’s are flashing alternately. when i push the test-button on the device, the rx/tx-led flashes once but the vm151 does nothing. when i open the k8074 test-software and click some buttons, the rx/tx-led flahes as well. with the vm151 demo-software, nothing happens when i click any button, also the rx/tx-led does not flash. do you have any idea what might be going wrong here?

You’ve forgotten to mount the ‘mode’ jumper on the K8074 board…

thanks for the quick answer. i mounted all the parts that were mentioned in the assembly manual and there was nothing left in the box after i was finished. here’s an image of my board:
esnips.com/doc/a929e463-c3e2 … 6706/K8074
what is the “mode-jumper” and how does it look like? where can i get it?
cheers, boris

Bridge the two ‘mode’ pads with a piece of wire.
At the time the K8074 was launched, the VM151 did not exist, so the manual does not mention this.
Once the VM151 became available, the K8074 manual was updated.
You probably own a ‘pre-VM151’ unit.
You can find the latest manual here:
http://www.velleman.be/downloads/0/illustrated/illustrated_assembly_manual_k8074_rev1.pdf

I’ve bought a VM151 with a LED-strip. When I turn the VM151 off, the VM151 turns itself on in just a few moments. How is that possible? I want to use the remote control (VM130T) to turn the unit on or off.

And I also use a K8074, which doesn’t work well with the VM151. It does ‘Show address’, but it doesn’t edit memories right. They aren’t stored…

Can you help me?

The turn-on is either caused by power supply interruption or fluctuation or by an identical transmitter in the area. Are you using a switch-mode power supply ?
Regarding the K8074, if you can change the address, it works fine. Maybe you misunderstood the operation or you did not perform the memory edit correctly.