rheide Posted January 8, 2011 Posted January 8, 2011 As I started to construct my DIY LED arches I began to wonder if this was the best bang for the buck. Wanted to get everyone's thoughts on this....For this example, I'm going to use:$3.50 (on sale) 70 strand LED lights$205 controller (some assembly required)15ft Arch8 channels (from controller)140 lights (2 strands) per channel (so ... 16 strands total)PVC pipe and pieces and a little zip cord to make it nice - ~$10LED lights that were on sale - $3.50 x 16 = $56Using 1/2 the channels of a 16 channel controller $13/channel = $104Not counting labor we are at $170 and that is for one color.If we switch to something like blue and white, it almost doubles the price.$205 + $108 + $10 = $324CCR = $250 + 3 channels ($38.40) + 15ft PVC to attach to $10 = $298To summarize:Single Color Arch = $170Dual Color Arch = $324CCR Arch (lots of colors) = $298When going with a dual color arch, would I be better off with a Cosmic Color Ribbon?If I look back at sales prices - I see the $205 controller "could" be $180 and the CCR $200. At that point, the CCR seems even better of a deal.*** the big kicker is we are now comparing 1,150 leds vs. 150 (but I don't know how "bright" the CCRs are) - this may be where the HUGE difference is.Are my assumptions flawed?Thoughts from the experts ...Thanks!!!
heystew Posted January 8, 2011 Posted January 8, 2011 Not nearly an expert, but Several thoughts that come to mind...- if you damage a CCR, it's a lot more expensive to replace than wrapping a new string of lights- take the jump in to RGB knowing that you'll increase your programming work load. every pixel is 3 channels- brightness.... The RGB led's I use are extremely bright as I'm sure the CCR's are.- watch for the CCB's the LOR has mentioned they will be unveiling this yearjust a note: I've invested heavily in CCR like RGB strings this year and I have 6 large traditional LED arches as well. I've used the RGB strings for other things, but have not yet tried them as an arch. It seems to me that there's just something more aesthetically pleasing about traditional wrapped arches than the RGB nodes.. That said, you can do some very cool things with RGB nodes.
Gary Levelius Posted January 8, 2011 Posted January 8, 2011 If you use CCR's for the arches, be sure they are built EXTREMELY rigid as any flex in the arch is likely to damage the CCR ribbon. If/when I build more arches, I will NOT be using CCR's. They simply are too fragile for that application even though they are stunning to watch.-Gary-
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