Arch Lights - Pixels Strips or Pixel Strings / Bullets?

[thejoefletch]

I am going into my second year of addressable lights.

Last year I made a few arches from pex pipe and I drilled into the sides of them and inserted pixels strings / bullets like so...


But in reading some posts here, I see that people are possibly using addressable LED strips to go inside the arches and I wonder if I am doing "it" wrong.

What is the preferred method among the members here? Strips or strings?

 

[TSL]

It would depend on the “look” you’re after. Both have an entirely different look. I use strips inside if tubing because I like the neon tube look.


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[MartinMueller2003]

There is no right or wrong. there is only what looks good to you.

 

[thejoefletch]

I'm not looking for a right or wrong, I'm looking to see what the majority like here on these forums.

 

[rsegreto]

I prefer the diffused look with strips inside.


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[TomL8345]

I like the more traditional look of the bullets. I use the Boscoyo 3 Ring Arch for mine. It looks more like the old incan arches I started with.

 

[1pet2_9]

I don't really see the point of PEX if you don't use strips.

 

[angus40]

Pixel Strings get my vote, especially being single handed !

 

[thejoefletch]

I forgot that I went through this analysis last year.

I compared PEX arches with the following.

• LED strips
• Pixel string inside
• Pixel string drilled through the side

Here are the visual results from my testing.

I ultimately decided to go with the pixel string drilled through the side. I guess I like that best last year and now I am second guessing myself for this year. I need to get started because I bought another 1500 pixel strings this year!

 

[rsegreto]

Pixel Strings get my vote, especially being single handed !

That does look great! But they’re not addressable right?


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[MartinMueller2003]

I don't really see the point of PEX if you don't use strips.

I use PEX. Drilled into the back side and inserted my bullet nodes. The PEX diffuses the light so I get a nice glow.

FYI: I am in the process of removing all strips from my show due to reliability issues.

 

[rsegreto]

That sounds like an awesome idea. I really like the light diffusion but hears about syrup reliability. Plus I like being able to control each pixel instead of groups of 3.

Doesn’t affect many effects in sequencing but still like total control on the off chance. Didn’t want to drill all those holes in year 1 but we’ll see if that changes for next year.


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[MartinMueller2003]

I purchased a tabletop drill press and a 12mm forstner bit. Worked great. Initially tried with a hand drill and did not like the results.

 

[rsegreto]

Great tip thanks! Definitely wouldn’t want to hand drill all those. Once one hole is off it would drive my ocd crazy!!


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[jchuchla]

I use strips. The light is more even in the tube. Plus there's nothing showing on the outside of the tube. It gives a really clean look day and night, and is easier to store. Yes it's likely more maintenance, but I've gotten that down to a science now. Strips are all about the mounting. If you're not putting stress on them or flexing them much, they hold up well. If you use strip in the tube, attach it to a backer strip of some sort that bears the tension. Don't use the strip itself for structure. I use banding strap to support the strip.

 

[1pet2_9]

I haven't yet heard of anybody experiencing issues with WS2815 strips. It's always the WS2811's and WS2812's. Big difference.

 

[jchuchla]

There's two types of failures i've seen on strip.
1) section with one or more colors not working. This sometimes happens on ws2811 strip where 3 RGB LEDs are controlled by one ws2811 IC. There are several points of potential failure in each color's circuit (9 solder joints per color if i'm counting properly). If any of the 3 RGB LEDs fail or any of those solder points fail, all 3 will stop working. This failure mode usually results in one section being improper color, but the remaining pixels continue to work fine.
2) section separation. strips are made in sections usually about a meter long, and the sections are held together with nothing but solder at the joint. Sometimes these joints break. This happens most frequently with strip-in-tube type when they are installed as unsupported strips stored under tension in hot environments. The solder will warm up and eventually separate. This is a fatal failure at the point of the break. But it's easily repaired. Just cut open the silicone tube, rejoin the strip by heating the 3 solder pads and re-bridging the connections. When i do these repairs, i usually back the joint with about 6" of fiberglass reinforced strapping tape to further reinforce the joint. I don't bother to repair the silicone tubing because the arch tube itself provides enough protection from the elements.
I've never seen the need to go with the ws2812 or higher chips for arches where the IC is in the LED. I think 3 LEDs per section is plenty of resolution for a 2" arch tube. The width of 3 LEDs (in a 60/20 L/m strip) is about the same as the diameter of the tube, providing nice even diffusion. Anything tighter in a 2" tube is an unnecessary waste of control bandwidth. If you're using a tube thinner than 2", then you might consider individual pixel control as it would be more effective.

 

[MartinMueller2003]

The problem I have with the IC+TriColor LED bonded to a single substrate seems to be heat related. Even though the application had both sides of the strip exposed to ambient temp (or maybe because of that) and had a waterproof sleeve over strip, I was getting a lot of pixels where one or more of the solder pads would debond. For a quick fix I would but a spring loaded clamp on the debonded pixel and it would continue to work until I had a chance to reflow the solder. Problem is I was getting multiple failures a night in the show. Since then they have been replaced by bullet nodes and my failure rate has reduced considerably.

 

[1pet2_9]

I've never seen the need to go with the ws2812

It is true, finer than 3-LED resolution doesn't really buy that much when it's diffused in PEX. But it's the dual DIN failover in WS2813 and above that I'm talking about. I don't think the public is paying that close attention to all the different standards--they just see WS281x 5V and 12V, and that's it. I think part of it is that China doesn't particularly pay close attention to the standards, either, when they manufacture. I've got a string of supposed "WS2818" bullet nodes to demonstrate. One could easily get burned getting a screwed-up string of WS2818 bullet nodes, and falsely construe that WS2818 LED strips are useless, too.

 

[angus40]

That does look great! But they’re not addressable right?


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Yes, these are addressed pixels . Each pixel can be controlled individually .
These pixels are unique in that their address is pre programmed and that cannot be changed . The trade off for that though is that these pixels are connected in parallel which does allows many things that other pixels cannot do .

1) if a pixel dies ,the others are not affected.
2) they all receive data at once.
3) wiring these is not restricted to a linear fashion .