CCR vs CCP for Mega Tree

[Brucey]

So this past season was a very successful year 1.  I have two controllers with the build in mp3 director and did lights around the frame of the house & garage, the 'island of misfit toys' out front, mini trees and a whole bunch of other stuff.  But with the sale this weekend, I'm looking to start building a 12 strand mega tree for next year and not sure whether I want to use CCR's or CCPixels.  Any thoughts on the pros/cons of each?  I definitely want animations as well as light patterns so any guidance you have would be appreciated.

 

Thanks!!

[saxon]

hey Brucey

I can offer you this,

The CCRs will be very bright and fill more area and is best used for a flat (2d) tree. It shows animations better.

The CCP is great especially if you are building a 360 tree (3d) for you can see through the tree to the other side much easier. That's not to say you could not do both with either.

This is just my opinion and many people have made half or flat trees with nodes (CCP).

If you go to brains website, superstar.com you can see videos of both styles of trees - a 12 ribbon flat with CCR and a 360 round tree with 6 CCPs. Hope that helps.

[George Simmons]

If all else is equal (which is rarely the case) the CCPs are infinitely more durable than CCRs.  They are also far easier to repair when a pixel goes south.  (Not IF, but WHEN.)

Either way, visit BoscoyoStudios dot com and check out their pixel strips for mega trees.  Those are designed specifically for pixels, but they can also be used quite nicely for ribbons.  Cheap knockoffs for the pixel strips are available elsewhere, HC for instance, but I recommend resisting the siren song of cheap prices.  The amount of sorry you'll experience is way more than the savings you might realize.

[Brucey]

6 hours ago, saxon said:

 

If you go to brains website, superstar.com you can see videos of both styles of trees - a 12 ribbon flat with CCR and a 360 round tree with 6 CCPs. Hope that helps.

Thanks, what's the website?

[Brucey]

6 hours ago, George Simmons said:

Cheap knockoffs for the pixel strips are available elsewhere, HC for instance, but I recommend resisting the siren song of cheap prices.  The amount of sorry you'll experience is way more than the savings you might realize.

I saw HC's website and was trying to figure out how they could be sooo much cheaper.  I was wondering about durability.

In terms of the tree, I was hoping to do just a 180 tree this year but have read in a bunch of different places that the CCP's are best with a 360 degree tree and CCR's with 180.  Any thoughts?

[saxon]

oh, my bad,,,,,

www.superstarlights.com

check out the sequences he has for purchase. They just about all have videos and are named (12 ribbon tree, ccp, etc). I have a 360 tree from CCPs on my channel in my signature, if that helps.

[Brucey]

Thanks for sending the link.  In looking at the differences, it seems the CCR's give better display options than the CCP's.

One last question, instead of doing a 16" tree, I was only thinking of doing a 10, do you think it's worth it or will it just not look 'good' in the end?  Thanks again for all of your help

[ebrown1972]

Also it is much cheaper buying ccp's over the ccr's. 6 ccp's will do a 12 leg tree and during the spring sale it looks like they will be $149 each.

[Brucey]

31 minutes ago, ebrown1972 said:

Also it is much cheaper buying ccp's over the ccr's. 6 ccp's will do a 12 leg tree and during the spring sale it looks like they will be $149 each.

Exactly, that's why I'm asking

 

[Brucey]

Actually, now that I think about it, if I'm only building a 10' tree, I could probably get away with buying 6 CCP's and having a full 24 strand 360 degree tree since there's about (2) 12' sections per strand, and per purchase, it would equate to 4 total strands...

 

Maybe I will be going full circle? 

[jerrymac]

CCP -vs- CCR.      Really depends on what look you want.  CCR will give a look more like a solid line where CCP's will give a look more like Lights.  CCR's have 150 Pixels (controlled as f they were 50 Pixels where CCP's have 2 strings of 50 pixels.   

CCP's are easy to repair where CCR's are NOT easy to repair and are VERY delicate.   CCR's do NOT bend well along there axis, Really only work well in straight lines.

(same holds true for NON LOR Pixels or ribbons).   

So depends on what look you want and are you ready to put up with the handling of ribbons.

Both have valuable uses and are great products just know what you want to do with them and what will give the look you want to achieve. 

[Brucey]

1 hour ago, jerrymac said:

Both have valuable uses and are great products just know what you want to do with them and what will give the look you want to achieve. 

And that's part of the challenge.  I would jump all over the CCR's if they were less fragile but my concern is the time of the year (10 months) when they're not up and stored away that something will happen to them, and they aren't cheap...

[Mr. P]

They are not that fragile if you zip tie them or attach them to something sturdy like 1/2 inch conduit piping then store them attached. Mine are attached to 1/2 inch conduit then stored on racks in the garage. They become fragile when you keep removing and bending them.

[larryk5]

11 minutes ago, Mr. P said:

They are not that fragile if you zip tie them or attach them to something sturdy like 1/2 inch conduit piping then store them attached. Mine are attached to 1/2 inch conduit then stored on racks in the garage. They become fragile when you keep removing and bending them.

I do the same thing you do ( 12 ribbon tree) ! I have also made 4 arches using 2 CCR's and it worked out fine. One thing is that I'm very careful when handling them!

[Brucey]

Thanks everyone for your guidance.  I'm still soooooo torn as to which way to go and don't want to make a bad investment now just to regret it during the holidays.

I love the ability to do the animations with the CCR's but the tree/light effect with the CCP's is really cool.  I guess I'm just concerned that I only want to put in a 10' tree but if I go with the CCR's, it'll be a waste of almost 6' per section.

My electrician is coming in next week to install a subpanel and additional outdoor outlets to cover the additional load (have 200A coming into the house), I'm just torn on which way to go...

Edited April 8, 2016 by Brucey

[B.Y.R.G.]

If you're only wanting a 10' tall tree then go with the CCP's.  Cutting down CCR's/pixel strips i would not recommend as they are extremely difficult to solder and seal properly.  I was in your situation also with being unable to decide which tree because they both have their own unique abilities.  Why not do what I'm doing this year by adding a 12 ribbon flat tree this year and adding a 360° tree using the bullet nodes next year or vice versa.  I also went with a bullet node star on top of my 12 strip ribbon tree.  It's 30" wide, metal framed with 4 concentric stars and 220 bullet nodes (70,60,50,40) zip tied to the frame.  I went the Holidaycoro spring sale route and haven't had any quality issues and saved some money.

Edited April 8, 2016 by B.Y.R.G.

[saxon]

To answer your last question...

10' will look good, but I would use what you got and not cut anything. The CCP tree you saw in that link and my own are 5 1/2 " spacing between pixel nodes which make about a 12' string. Perfect in my opinion.

yes better animation with a flat CCR tree. Although, more care is needed with a CCR or any strip, they are not as fragile as you may think.   As far as ribbons I do as mentioned above, store them on racks high in the garage. 

I seriously doubt you will have regrets with either purchase. 

[Brucey]

1 hour ago, saxon said:

To answer your last question...

10' will look good, but I would use what you got and not cut anything. The CCP tree you saw in that link and my own are 5 1/2 " spacing between pixel nodes which make about a 12' string. Perfect in my opinion.

yes better animation with a flat CCR tree. Although, more care is needed with a CCR or any strip, they are not as fragile as you may think.   As far as ribbons I do as mentioned above, store them on racks high in the garage. 

I seriously doubt you will have regrets with either purchase. 

That's a great looking design!!  How many of the RGB LED's did you purchase to make it?  And is it 360 degrees?

[Brucey]

Oh, and 1 more question, if you used to 50 lights (25'), did you just use it as 2 strands, and if so, how did you program it?  Did you just have to do one side 'up', and the other side with the orientation 'down'?

[Brucey]

5 hours ago, B.Y.R.G. said:

If you're only wanting a 10' tall tree then go with the CCP's.  Cutting down CCR's/pixel strips i would not recommend as they are extremely difficult to solder and seal properly.  I was in your situation also with being unable to decide which tree because they both have their own unique abilities.  Why not do what I'm doing this year by adding a 12 ribbon flat tree this year and adding a 360° tree using the bullet nodes next year or vice versa.  I also went with a bullet node star on top of my 12 strip ribbon tree.  It's 30" wide, metal framed with 4 concentric stars and 220 bullet nodes (70,60,50,40) zip tied to the frame.  I went the Holidaycoro spring sale route and haven't had any quality issues and saved some money.

How did you wire it into the LOR network?  I have a 1602MP3 with the built in MP3 director and read stories where I can't use the holidaycoro stuff and e1.31 from there.