stunney Posted September 12, 2019 Share Posted September 12, 2019 Does anyone know if it is possible to add extra bulbs to a CCB-II string? I've read that the controllers can support up to 100 bulbs per channel but to do this, do you have to inject power for the extra 50 bulbs? I have a couple of extra strings so if this is possible i would like to give it a go. I'm also wondering if its possible to cut these strings and add wire between the 2 sections of bulbs? I would like to build a few small props that would be spaced 3 or 4 feet apart, but would only need 25 bulbs per prop. I realize cutting the string would void the warranty. If anyone has any experience with modifying these, let me know. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stunney Posted September 14, 2019 Author Share Posted September 14, 2019 Anyone??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AussieRob65 Posted October 12, 2019 Share Posted October 12, 2019 Hi, cutting the strings and adding wire to extend them should not be a problem, so long as you don't cross the wires over. Adding the extra 50 bulbs should work so long as they the total current (amps) are within the range of the controller. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianfox Posted November 12, 2019 Share Posted November 12, 2019 You really don't want to do that. CCB-II bulbs are sold as a string of 50 or a string of 100. The CCC controller will work with either. No power injection needed. You cannot daisy chain two 50's together. If you did, the 51st bulb would still have an address of Pixel 1. It just doesn't work. And voids the warranty. And will easily fail due to weather. I have had situations like you are encountering - where things would look better if... My solution was to design the prop around the limitations of the string, and not try to adapt the lights to the prop. Unfortunately this always resulted in buying more lights. Some of us have a problem... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheDucks Posted November 12, 2019 Share Posted November 12, 2019 2 hours ago, brianfox said: You really don't want to do that. CCB-II bulbs are sold as a string of 50 or a string of 100. The CCC controller will work with either. No power injection needed. You cannot daisy chain two 50's together. If you did, the 51st bulb would still have an address of Pixel 1. It just doesn't work. And voids the warranty. And will easily fail due to weather. I have had situations like you are encountering - where things would look better if... My solution was to design the prop around the limitations of the string, and not try to adapt the lights to the prop. Unfortunately this always resulted in buying more lights. Some of us have a problem... That is not correct. Pixels are bucket brigade devices. The one at the controller end is #1 because it is the first one. Not because it had a 'burnt in address' The controller does need to know the maximum of how many nodes to send a chain of bits out on a port. each node takes its bits off of the chain, and forwards the rest. Quality workmanship is important to avoid failures to both the string and the controller. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
k6ccc Posted November 12, 2019 Share Posted November 12, 2019 8 hours ago, brianfox said: You cannot daisy chain two 50's together. If you did, the 51st bulb would still have an address of Pixel 1. It just doesn't work. And voids the warranty. And will easily fail due to weather. TheDucks already corrected the first part of your sentence. But for most vendors, voiding the warranty is correct. As for the easily fail in weather part, that depends on how good of a job you do with weatherproofing. Strings are FAR easier to splice than strips, but even strips can be weatherproofed. I run year round landscape lighting. Included in that is currently around 150 feet of RGB strip (a combination of dumb RGB strips and smart RGB strips). Essentially all of that has been cut, spliced, or otherwise altered by me. Below is a photo of the end of one 5 meter strip. It's a little hard to tell from the photo, but there are two layers of heat shrink tubing over the end of the strip. The first is about a half inch long and covers about a quarter inch of the strip, and a quarter inch of the wire. The outer layer is a little over an inch long and covers the first layer of tubing plus another quarter inch or so on each end. Both pieces of heat shrink tubing are the two layer tubes that have the goo on the inside. The strip shown has been installed since 2013 and is used every night. The only strips that has gotten water inside had the top edge of the strip tear in the middle (don't ask me how), which resulted in the strip litteraly full of water - it did not work well! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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