Direct Burial LED Power Supply for Landscape Lighting

The Q-SETeLED & Q-SETMLED Power Supplies remotely power LED lighting. These products mount directly into the Q-VAULT-5, an IP68 listed enclosure, capable of being buried into the ground or in concrete.

The Q-SETeLED comes available in either 60 watt or 120 watt (12VDC) or 100 watt or 200 watt (24VDC) models. Up to two Q-SETeLED's fit inside one Q-VAULT-5 allowing up to four LED power supplies inside of one Q-VAULT-5.

The Q-SETMLED is available from 60 watt-300 watts in 12VDC or 24VDC. One Q-VAULT can accommodate up to 2 Q-SETMLED units. Boost taps provide the ability to recover voltage drop over longer runs and secondary circuit protection prevents any damage to the LED lighting.

The Q-VAULT-5 is IP68 listed in a five-inch housing equipped with a door, gasket, two stabilizing bars and a water-tight installation kit. The kit, which enables the contractor to install the unit efficiently for long-lasting durability and operation, includes one epoxy packs and an application syringe, water-tight putty, desiccant pouch, silver marker, installation instructions, spare parts, drilling guide labels, and wire ties. The housing cover is offered with a Stainless Steel Diamond or Bronze Plate, and with a Flush Mount or Concrete Pour Ring. It measures 9.5 inches long, 16.5 inches wide and 12.5 inches deep.

The Q-SET standard halogen or AC fed LED fixtures come in three circuit breaker configurations. Available in the Q-Scape System are: Q-SET1, which ranges from 60 watts to 300 watts, offers a single circuit breaker in a 2.5-inch cassette; Q-SET2 ranges from 360 watts to 600 watts, includes two circuit breakers in a five-inch wide cassette; and Q-SET3 ranges from 540 watts to 900 watts, is equipped with three circuit breakers in a five-inch wide cassette.

All of the Q-Sets include five secondary taps, ranging from 11 through 15 volts, which are used to compensate for losses when dimming. Loads may be connected at varying distances and to one or more of the secondary taps to recover voltage drop while producing 85 to 100 percent light output. Primary and secondary circuit protection meets or exceeds the NEC Article 411 for UL-2108 and UL-1838 Landscape Lighting Codes, and the Pool and Spa Wet Label Direct Burial Standard.

Many of the LED fixtures designed for landscape lighting are designed for 12VAC, which is our standard Q-SET transformer. If the fixture requires a remote LED power supply our Q-SETeLED or Q-SETMLED would be recommended.

In 1993, Q-Tran, Inc. was founded by John Tremaine, an accomplished lighting designer who was born into a family of lighting entrepreneurs and innovators. He began his career with The Miller Company, a firm acquired in the 1930's by his great grandfather, who founded the National Electric Lamp Association (NELA) before selling it to John's grandfather. In the early 1920's NELA became General Electric's lamp division in Cleveland, Ohio, and was later transformed into a prestigious research institute that is still thriving today.

Q-Tran was established to fulfill a need in the lighting industry for flexible remote transformers that eliminate noise and heat while enhancing the quality of light output. Operating with the mantra "EnlightenedThinking," Q-Tran has pioneered innovative transformers and power supply centers to provide safety, reliability, performance and convenience. It was the first company to develop an entire power supply center designed specifically for low voltage lighting. Over the years, Gean Tremaine and Jordan Nodelman would take their place by their father's side, helping to build Q-Tran into a leading designer and manufacturer of high-quality, power supply systems, transformers and components.

Grote Expands Line of SuperNova NexGen LED Lamps Across Several Categories

Grote Industries has announced the expansion of its SuperNova NexGen LED lamp offering, with the introduction of its new integrated flange 4-inch stop/tail/turn and dual-system back-up lamps.   

The new lamps feature a one-piece integrated flange design that mounts directly to the surface of a vehicle, eliminating the need for accessory mounting brackets or grommets, the company says. The lighting systems come with a cushioning gasket seal that keeps water and debris from getting behind the lamp while functioning as a shock absorbing mechanism. The design also incorporates a robust, hermetic lens-to-housing seal that resists moisture intrusion that would result in component corrosion. 

"The integrated flange design is the most versatile and cost-effective addition to the premium SuperNova NexGen LED product family to date," said Randy Staggs, Grote's business development manager for signal lighting. "OEMs will benefit from improved assembly efficiency, while fleets and other end-users will incur simplified repair and replacement requirements."

Grote's SuperNova line is recognized for its high performance and the lamps are designed to be extremely durable. Each lamp is designed with an environmental encapsulant potting that cradles the lamp's solid-state circuit board and protects it from moisture and vibration.

The lamps' innovative optical lens design reduces theft potential by intentionally resembling incandescent versions, but their performance on the road is nothing like their incandescent predecessors, according to the company. Grote's SuperNova NexGen LEDs illuminate 200 milliseconds faster than incandescent bulbs, the company says, which provides a safety benefit to the driver of the following vehicle, amounting to more than a full car length of extra stopping distance at 65 mph.

Both the flanged four-inch stop/tail/turn and flanged dual-system back-up lamps are available with hard-shell and male-pin termination options, which allow them to make use of existing pigtails for installation flexibility and cost-effective retrofitting.

The flanged 4-inch stop/tail/turn lamps and flanged dual-system back-up lamps have durable acrylic lenses and housings composed of hard-coated polycarbonate material. As new members of the SuperNova NexGen product line, both lamps carry Grote's exclusive 10-year warranty.

According to court paperwork released Wednesday, Gregg Pfeifer began stalking and harassing his ex-girlfriend as well as her family at their home in July.

The victims filed a restraining order against Pfeifer the same month.

Police found that since then, Pfeifer has harassed the victims through phone calls, text messages, email and driving by their home.

"He would call her a 100 times a day and text her 100 times a day," said Dotti Hetzel, whose daughter was stalked.

Police say this led the victims to change their phone numbers, cancel their Facebook and email accounts as well as install a $2,000 surveillance camera system.

A 1,000-watt smile for less

Earlier this year, Rocky Mountain Power (RMP) requested a very large rate hike from the Wyoming Public Service Commission (PSC). Key businesses and every municipality in Natrona County lined up in opposition to the rate hike; the issues were largely reliability of service, dependability and, of course, costs.

Concessions were made on all sides (listen up Washington). And while the PSC didn't give RMP everything they requested, the cost of electricity in Wyoming went up somewhat significantly; there were frowns all around.

Richard Walje, President of RMP, said in a Casper Journal guest column last April that "annual increases in electricity prices are likely for the next decade." The 2012 hike request was announced on Dec 9. The new rate hike is smaller than last year's request and for different reasons.

It would add about $6 to the average monthly bill or about $72 per year. Projected over 10 years, the average electric customer should plan for an additional $60 per month, $720 per year, over what they're paying today for their household electricity.

It's no secret that energy costs are going up. In fact, the cost of energy has become a significant part of everyone's expenses. Not limited to vehicle fuel, home heating and lights, today we seem to consume energy 24/7, awake or asleep. I'm amazed how many charging and "on" lights I see in my house when the lights go off for the night.

So what can we consumers do beyond planning to pay for rising costs? The answer may be simple: figure out how to use less energy. Beyond the simple equation of use less-pay less, part of the reason energy costs go up is to generate or find more energy to meet higher demands. RMP said that's what this year's rate hike is for - generation.

It seems counter-intuitive for a company to encourage consumers to use less, but that's what Jeff Hymas, a media relations expert at RMP, said the company is doing. Hymas said that consumers' most expensive energy is when new generation facilities have to be built. So Hymas said RMP is encouraging consumers to use less electricity to avoid that scenario. And he said it can be easy.

I made some small changes at my house that seem to make Jeff's point. I replaced nine 65-watt bulbs (585 watts) in some recessed can lights with 14-watt compact fluorescent soft-white bulbs (126 watts). That's a 459-watt saving for me. And the light generated is virtually the same color and intensity.

Using LED Christmas tree lights was even more dramatic; from well over 200 watts to about 10 watts. And while the LED lights are brighter, they're also substantially cooler, making them safer on my real tree.

I'm happy about these possibilities. For one, I stand a chance of affording future electric bills. And if I can pay less today and possibly avoid a rate hike tomorrow, maybe I can turn on my 1,000-watt smile again.

Flexible OLEDs - The state of play

Were we not promised super-thin bendable, flexible and rollable organic LED (OLED) displays?

Phones like Samsung's Galaxy and HTC's Desire have shown us that the rigid versions can deliver stunning images. So where are those flexies?

It turns out that they are also here, at least in proof-of-concept form, and they could even be on the shelves next year.

Sony has shown flexible OLED displays at the Society for Information Display conference more than once in the past few years, and Samsung has demonstrated flexible displays and said it will have products on the market in 2014, with rumours suggesting the Samsung is bringing this forward to 2012.

This said, significant hurdles remain in all four parts of a flexible OLED display: active matrix, substrate, OLED and barrier layers.

Like LCDs, a video-speed OLED display needs a matrix of drive transistors, thin-film transistors (TFTs), and flexible OLED displays will need flexible transistors.

Because OLED is a current-driven technology its transistors have to switch a non-trivial current, compared with LCD TFTs that are only required to change the voltage on what is essentially a capacitor.

Dr Jan Genoe is head of the Polymer and Molecular Electronics (PME) group at Belgian research lab Imec. His group works with the Netherlands' lab TNO on backplanes for rollable AMOLED displays at their Holst Centre in Eindhoven.

Both teams have been in the European Flame (flexible organic active matrix OLED displays for nomadic applications) project.

"Our main goal is transistors on flexible foil for making backplanes for OLED and other flexible displays," he told Electronics Weekly. "Our focus is truly rollable displays that can be rolled to 7mm diameter 10,000 times."

For LCDs on glass, amorphous silicon TFTs have been the order of the day or, for better quality displays, higher mobility polycrystalline transistors made by lasering amorphous silicon.

However, as far as anyone can tell, amorphous silicon has reached its slightly-disappointing full potential and will not be good enough for -current-driven displays.

The higher-mobility polycrystalline materials also have limitations in current-driven technologies because different crystals have different characteristics leading to variations between neighbouring transistors. With LCDs, this will show up as a slight difference in pixel speed, which is irrelevant. "One really crucial thing for displays is uniformity because eyes are very sensitive to slight differences," said Genoe. "Voltage-driven displays are very forgiving of transistor-to-transistor variations. In a current-driven display you will see the small differences."

So OLEDs need materials with higher mobility than amorphous silicon, and better uniformity than polycrystalline silicon.

"Our main focus is organic or oxide transistors on plastic foil," said Genoe, "and nowadays there is a shift to oxide transistors."

Oxide transistors are from a class of devices made from compounds that include metal and a non-metal atoms like oxygen. Copper oxide transistors are one of the earliest examples.

2012 MV Agusta Brutale RR 1090

The MV Agusta Brutale name has become synonymous with utmost performance in the world of naked sportbikes. From the all-new 675 to the 920 and finally the 1090, the Brutale has proven its naked high-performance merit over and over again.

But for 2012, MVA wanted even more, the Italian exotic motorcycle manufacturer releasing the Brutale RR 1090, which carries the tagline "A Superbike without Fairings."

And this tagline is backed due to the 1078cc inline four that produces 158 horsepower and no-nonsense naked sportbike styling.

MV Agusta says: "The 1078cc four-cylinder engine with radial intake and exhaust valves offers the highest power output ever by a Brutale. New camshafts, new intake tracts, new throttle bodies (same bore diameter as the F4) all contribute to the record power level of 116,5 kW (158 hp) at 11.900 rpm."

Along with this high horsepower arrives the latest in superbike technology, which includes traction control with eight levels, new engine mapping and a slipper clutch.

As for the chassis, MVA says the Brutale RR 1090's is "worthy of an authentic superbike without fairings, the ultra- light CrMo steel tube chassis that is hand welded (TIG) with adjustable steering geometry that allows the rider to adapt the geometry to their personal needs.

"Logically, a superbike needs to have the best suspension available: Marzocchi 50mm USD front forks with DLC coating and dedicated valving for the Brutale RR 1090 together with a Sachs single shock with high and low speed compression adjusters along with rebound and spring pre-load adjusters."

Stopping the 2012 MV Agusta 1090 RR Brutale are Brembo monobloc front brake calipers, the same ones offered on the F4RR, with 320mm rotors, and a single 220mm out back. The Brutale 1090 RR rolls on forged-aluminum, 17-inch wheels that weight over two pounds less than cast, helping to reduce unsprung mass.

Regarding styling, MV Agusta says: "The new Brutale RR 1090 offers an extremely high level of fit and finish including a projector beam headlight with incorporated LED position lights, LED front turn signals incorporated into the rear-view mirrors and LED rear turn signals."

Following are the specs, color options and MSRP for the 2012 MV Agusta Brutale 1090 RR.

Cree Redefines High-Voltage LEDs

"The XLamp XM-L High-Voltage LED eliminates the trade-off between size and efficacy, allowing us to take advantage of the efficacy of high-voltage drivers," said Ken Chakravarti, chief technology officer, Ledzworld. "This translates to more efficient, better and more cost-effective small LED lamps and luminaires such as the B10 replacement lamp for our customers."

Small-form-factor lighting, like candelabras, historically presented a host of challenges for LED technology. Prior LEDs were unable to deliver the required system-level performance in the form factor consumers demand.

"Maximizing the LED voltage, as Cree has done in the new high-voltage XM-L and XT-E LEDs, is a very effective way to minimize current through the LED driver output rectifier," said Peter Vaughan, director of applications engineering, Power Integrations, Inc. "This can reduce losses and heat dissipation in the driver and increase the overall system luminous efficacy by several percentage points."

"Never before have lighting OEMs been able to leverage the benefits of high-voltage LEDs with this level of performance," said Paul Thieken, Cree director of marketing, LED components. "We continue to develop the right LEDs for the right applications--to accelerate the adoption of energy-efficient LED lighting."

The XLamp XM-L LED delivers up to 600 lm in Cool White (6000K) and up to 462 lm in Warm White (3000K) at 6W, 85 deg C. The XLamp XT-E LED delivers up to 300 lm in Cool White (6000K) and up to 228 lm in Warm White (3000K) at 6W, 85 deg C. Both LEDs have a typical voltage of 46V at binning conditions.

Cree is leading the LED lighting revolution and making energy-wasting traditional lighting technologies obsolete through the use of energy-efficient, mercury-free LED lighting. Cree is a market-leading innovator of lighting-class LEDs, LED lighting, and semiconductor products for power and radio frequency (RF) applications.

Cree's product families include LED fixtures and bulbs, blue and green LED chips, high-brightness LEDs, lighting-class power LEDs, power-switching devices and RF devices. Cree products are driving improvements in applications such as general illumination, backlighting, electronic signs and signals, power suppliers and solar inverters.

This press release contains forward-looking statements involving risks and uncertainties, both known and unknown, that may cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated.

L-A residents get innovative after Irene

More than 55,000 Maine residents, some of them in highly populated residential areas of Lewiston and Auburn, were forced to rely on camping skills as they waited for their power to be turned back on in the wake of Tropical Storm Irene.

“The old-fashioned skillet comes in handy,” said Donna Manson as she baked a shepherd's pie on a gas grill in the backyard of her Granite Street home in Auburn on Tuesday evening.

The storm has left Manson and her husband, Clayton, without electricity for the last 48 hours. They've been cooking meals on the grill and making trips out for coffee in the morning.

“Thank goodness it's not hot, and it's not cold, so we've been able to keep comfortable,” Manson said.

When the sun goes down, the couple uses a combination of battery-powered fluorescent lights, oil lamps, and book lights to see, she said. They pulled out their old Scrabble board to pass the time, Manson said.

“You dig out all the old resources when there's no TV and no computer,” she said, adding that they're using an iPad to keep up with the news.

A few blocks away on Davis Street, the neighborhood has banded together to make sure that everyone is getting by, Bobbi Bubier said.

One family came by before the storm and asked if they had everything they needed, and another offered to pick up ice after the storm, said Bubier, a diabetic who needs to keep her insulin injections chilled.

The level of community involvement has been refreshing, she said, and the lack of distractions has forced people to slow things down for a few days. “It's nice, we've been able to sit and talk and visit; to take a break from our busy lives,” she said.