What bulb style to use?

[LightsWithSoul]

Hello everyone. Over the course of the last few days I have built 3  9ft firestick frames that will be one of the core elements in my display. My question is what style of LED light would be most effective on these? I will definitely be using warm white but I am debating between the m5 bulb type and the 5mm. I know the 5mm is really an intense light due to the small surface area that the light is diffused on. Do you think the 5mm would be too intense with obvious small light points? Or possibly the m5 style would look too dim? Also each firestick will have 8 sections and I assume 70 lights per section will be enough. If I am drastically wrong in that assumption please tell me lol. I wish I had experience in making props (or you know, so much money I could just order hundreds of strands to experiment with **hint hint wink wink Santa!**) Thanks for any input guys!

[T17443]

I use 5mm lights for my fire sticks and used 100 lights per section. They were made out of 10' conduit and had 8 sections each just like yours. Save yourself some time and build a guide where you can use a power drill to wrap the sticks. I can send you pics if it would help. If you want to see how mine turned out check out the videos at www.allenlightshow.com. My display has ten 10' fire sticks, I call them bouncy sticks (5 white and 5 blue) and two 30' tall fires ticks. 

[George Simmons]

5mm lights are quite directional and there's a huge difference in brightness viewing the lights from the side as compared to from the front.  M5 are the closest to what incans look like and they have very little, if any, directionality.

Since you haven't actually built them yet, you can still make some design changes if you want.  My poles (I built them years before the name "firesticks" came into existence) are 9 channels.  Over the years I've sequenced both even and odd-numbered channels on both poles and arches.  From both a creative and functional aspect, I recommend an odd number of channels.  Hands down.  7 or 9 channel devices offer you all the same sequencing options as 8 channels does.  And then it gives you a whole other layer of options and looks that even numbers don't allow.  Play with both in the Visualizer and I'm fairly certain you'll prefer an odd number of channels.

[gsmith37064]

3 hours ago, T17443 said:

I use 5mm lights for my fire sticks and used 100 lights per section. They were made out of 10' conduit and had 8 sections each just like yours. Save yourself some time and build a guide where you can use a power drill to wrap the sticks. I can send you pics if it would help. If you want to see how mine turned out check out the videos at www.allenlightshow.com. My display has ten 10' fire sticks, I call them bouncy sticks (5 white and 5 blue) and two 30' tall fires ticks. 

Loved the videos. Good job!!

[mpageler]

My understanding is that various bulbs types..5mm, m5, m6, c7 and c9, basical\y use similar bulb wattage.  It's more a choice of how much light diffusion you want and not that one is "brighter" than the other.

 

One of the major lighy product vendor has a uoutube video on this.

[LightsWithSoul]

8 hours ago, George Simmons said:

5mm lights are quite directional and there's a huge difference in brightness viewing the lights from the side as compared to from the front.  M5 are the closest to what incans look like and they have very little, if any, directionality.

Since you haven't actually built them yet, you can still make some design changes if you want.  My poles (I built them years before the name "firesticks" came into existence) are 9 channels.  Over the years I've sequenced both even and odd-numbered channels on both poles and arches.  From both a creative and functional aspect, I recommend an odd number of channels.  Hands down.  7 or 9 channel devices offer you all the same sequencing options as 8 channels does.  And then it gives you a whole other layer of options and looks that even numbers don't allow.  Play with both in the Visualizer and I'm fairly certain you'll prefer an odd number of channels.

I will definitely give an odd number of channels a try in the visualizer. I was worried about the directional properties of the 5mm lights as I want the firesticks to look "smoother." I think the larger m5 bulbs will help with that. Thank you very much for the input!

[LightsWithSoul]

11 hours ago, T17443 said:

I use 5mm lights for my fire sticks and used 100 lights per section. They were made out of 10' conduit and had 8 sections each just like yours. Save yourself some time and build a guide where you can use a power drill to wrap the sticks. I can send you pics if it would help. If you want to see how mine turned out check out the videos at www.allenlightshow.com. My display has ten 10' fire sticks, I call them bouncy sticks (5 white and 5 blue) and two 30' tall fires ticks. 

That is a very cool display! Love the lights that shoot down the mega tree and run along the ground. I assume the power drill technique is dependent on how the sticks are made. I have used rabbit wire to build the frame so that way none of the lights are hidden behind for instance a solid piece of PVC pipe. I only have 3 of these to build and don't mind wrapping them by hand. Just the fact that these are wire frames has me on edge to spin the lights on to them. Especially if there are any unrefined edges that might be a little sharp.

[Mega Arch]

1 hour ago, LightsWithSoul said:

....I have used rabbit wire to build the frame so that way none of the lights are hidden behind for instance a solid piece of PVC pipe. I only have 3 of these to build....

2 things :

1 - only 3 this year. Bamm.. Next thing you know & 3 more next year. 

2 - lights and cords, even if just SPT wire, weigh more than you think. I didn't check out where you live, but in OKLAHOMA we have the winter ice weight factor to deal with on top of the lights and cords. So my opinion is that it will be plenty full of lights with wrapping them around pipe. Don't want to be rebuilding during holidays. 

Good luck with however you construct them. 

 

Ok - just looked. Vegas baby. Probably not much ice. 

Edited May 19, 2016 by Mega Arch
Place - weather

[LightsWithSoul]

6 hours ago, Mega Arch said:

2 things :

1 - only 3 this year. Bamm.. Next thing you know & 3 more next year. 

2 - lights and cords, even if just SPT wire, weigh more than you think. I didn't check out where you live, but in OKLAHOMA we have the winter ice weight factor to deal with on top of the lights and cords. So my opinion is that it will be plenty full of lights with wrapping them around pipe. Don't want to be rebuilding during holidays. 

Good luck with however you construct them. 

 

Ok - just looked. Vegas baby. Probably not much ice. 

Unfortunately I live in a very strict association which really limits any decorations that are not attached to the house. Even later on if I wanted more firesticks than 3 I couldn't really fit them anywhere as the house isn't that big. I'm thinking I can get away with a few mini trees though :P. Also the thought of weight on the lights did occur to me, but I will have the rabbit wire fastened at different points along the wall so the weight won't bend it or anything. It will be sitting right against the house so no problem there. 

[jrock_at_rons]

Quote

M5 are the closest to what incans look like and they have very little, if any, directionality.

I second this.  I used M5s on my spiral tree and it turned out great.  I was originally going to use 5mm but then read all the things about their directionality. 

I"m going into my 3rd year and I'm using all kinds of bulbs in my display.  C9s, C6 and M5s (plus rgb strips and bulbs).  I think they all look great together.