Making Round (G40 style) Pixel Covers

[TomL8345]

For the past 10 years, I have been using LED AC Strings with G40 style bulbs on one of my three Mega trees. Another has been LED AC Strings of C9 style bulbs, and the third has been standard 12mm pixels. I really liked the different look of each style of bulb on the three trees, but I wanted to add the versatility of Pixels to the C9 and G40 trees. Earlier this year I started a post on C9 style pixel covers, and I now have nearly completed 3D printing the 500 I need (with help from another member) to complete that project.


Simultaneously, I have been working on a pixel cover to replicate the look of the G40 (round) bulbs. I wanted to be able to use standard 12mm pixel nodes in Boscoyo Pixel Strips. I have come up with an easy to make and relatively inexpensive solution using Clear Vending Machine Capsules.

The capsule that I am using is 2” or 50mm, so these are technically G50 pixel covers. The capsules are 2 pieces Male and Female which snap together to form a 2” transparent sphere.



I made a jig for my drill press to automatically center the female section of the capsule and set my depth stop to the 15/32” part of the step drill.



I then drilled each female half of the capsule.



I then assemble the male and female halves to complete the sphere. This allows the sphere to securely slide over the exposed section of pixels mounted in the pixel strip - I am using 3” spacing.



The capsules are transparent and I wanted a more diffused look so I mounted a 120 grit sanding mop to the drill press and buffed each sphere to a translucent state. This gives me a more even distribution of color without major hotspots.

[video]https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/741918777[/video]

Here is a short video of the results in my workshop. Let me know what questions you may have!

[video]https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/741942710[/video]

Happy Blinky Flashy!

 

[rayhjr]

I really like that Tom. I might BORROW your idea at some time. How big is the tree? or Tall?

I thought about the printed C9 bulbs. I had a couple printed from JLCPCB at a cost of over $2 a bulb. I like it but for the amount I would need
it would be an expensive project. Don't have a printer but I would suspect the cost would be close to the same if not more.

 

[TomL8345]

My trees are 10' x 12 strings 180°. I am using 2" spacing on the 12mm nodes (62 nodes per string), and will be using 3" spacing (41 lights per string) on both the C9 and G40 trees. Certainly not the densest use of pixels, but I like the look. With the 41 lights per string I still need almost 500 pixel covers of each type. I was able to pick up an Ender 3 Pro printer earlier this year from CompUSA for $100 and it looks like it will take about 3 spools of filament to print all of my C9 covers. I work from home, so I am able to print 10-12 C9 covers a day. I am down to my last 150ish to print, so I hope to be done in a couple of weeks. The biggest thing for me was to be able to use the Pixel Strips and standard 12mm pixels to do these projects.

 

[AJVenti]

I would love to see this when you are done. how do the effects look? great idea

 

[TomL8345]

I will post videos of these when I have my display up and running. I tend to put effects on individual props rather than Whole House effects, so I expect these to work great. I will probably tend towards using spirals, bars, chases, and the like keeping in mind these are going to be Low Resolution, but I have every expectation that they are going to look great.

 

[TomL8345]

Well, I neglected to take any video of my updated trees with pixel covers. They did look great but I honestly had a hard time seeing the difference between the C9 and G40 style covers during my show.
I will say that the G40 style was a bigger success in my book as they locked tight onto the pixels even when mounted in pixel strips and only a couple came off during setup and teardown, and none came off during the show season.

The C9-style covers were easy to dislodge from the pixels. Quite a few came loose as I was setting up the tree and probably 40% came off during teardown with several coming off during the season. I am going to experiment with some different ways to adhere the pixel covers to the pixels before next year's show. My first thought was to use some clear silicone caulk inside the base of each cover, but I am afraid that will cause issues if I need to replace a dead pixel but any ideas will be welcomed.

 

[Glycerine]

Cool, I like that! I think that would look good on window frames as well.