LIGHTS AND SET-UP

[TODD HILL]

I have a question for everyone, I am new to this and plan on buying LED lights for my house first question

1. Is there a couple of places that are better to buy from for price/service
2. Is there a type that is better I am looking at doing Red & Green icicles and need quite a few sets of each. Also need some for mini trees.
3. I would like to put hook in my facia or under my eaves and would what type of hooks and if the under eaves. (I live in NH where snow and ice can be bad).

4. Spiral trees I have seen some in the forums but can't find the one that had a good way to build one.

[caniac]

TODD HILL wrote:

I have a question for everyone, I am new to this and plan on buying LED lights for my house first question

1. Is there a couple of places that are better to buy from for price/service
2. Is there a type that is better I am looking at doing Red & Green icicles and need quite a few sets of each. Also need some for mini trees.
3. I would like to put hook in my facia or under my eaves and would what type of hooks and if the under eaves. (I live in NH where snow and ice can be bad).

4. Spiral trees I have seen some in the forums but can't find the one that had a good way to build one.

1. Most I have tried so far have been pretty good.
2. Go with commercial grade.
4. That is a hard one to pin down because there are several ways to do that. Seen everything from PVC to radio towers. Climate and wind can be a factor too!! Would need to provide tons more info.

[David Rise]

1. http://www.christmasdesigners.com/1store/led-christmas-lights
Sorry, if I am a bit bias. But ya can't beat the service.
Also...
http://www.christmaslightsetc.com/led-christmas-lights.htm


2. Mostly personal preference. I'm using M5 for most of my display, but have WAC net lights for my bushes.
Commercial grades are great. Retail you have the option of replacing a single bulb. Again, commercial/retail, personal preference.

3. Still looking for an under the eaves option. Seen a house down the street, that leaves their icicle lights up year round, and they are under the eaves. Gonna stop by sooner or later and find out what they are using.

[jstorms]

3. I would like to put hook in my facia or under my eaves and would what type of hooks and if the under eaves. (I live in NH where snow and ice can be bad).

What I've used in the past are cup hooks from Home Depot and I put them just under the eves so they don't get rained on. I used white ones so they do stand out during the off season, but they do rust after a few years and I had to do touch-ups. So you might consider the brass ones. When I did it I pointed the hooks in alternating directions so the wind had a harder time knocking the lights down. For a few troublesome spots I added a zip tie binding the hook and the icicle lights.

Made for fast take down and put up after that with a long pole.

[testraub]

I have used white rubber coated cup hooks as well as "brass" ones. Both work and have never had ice on the lights. But I'm a bit South of you, and I was using incandesant bulbs. Switching to LED retrofits this year so will have to see. My Parents are in Nashua, but their smarter then some... they "Winter" in Florida

Tom Straub

[travis p]

woops make sure where ever you buy your leds that you get them( full wave and dimable) most wont dim with out damage don t guess ask the retailer if thay are..as far as a personal retailer paul at creative displays has bent over backward to help me this year this will be my first year also he will all ways get my business im going to be all led
http://www.creativedisplays.com/Home

[Steven]

• Almost all LED string lights are dimmable.
• Some LED retrofit (single C7 or C9 bulbs) are dimmable.
• Many people will see half-wave LEDs flicker, which is sometimes annoying.

That being said, I use full-wave strings, half-wave strings, retrofit C7 LED bulbs, and 12-volt DC LEDs in my display, and I dim them all.

[Guest guest]

I use both half and full wave strings as well. I dim them as well. I have never had any issues with any of them. All came from places like Lowes, Home Depot, Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Target and Big Lots to name a few places where I buy my L.E.D. strings from. I have even cut some of these strings down from 100 to two 50 L.E.D. strings as well as 50 to two 25 L.E.D. strings for my purposes and never have had any problems with the "modified" strings either when dimming or using any other LOR lighting effect on them.

And I operate some of these strings in "test mode" all year long when I am sequencing to see how well things will work and look. I have yet to destroy any half-wave string by using shimmer, dimming or anything else not at full power.

If someone is having L.E.D.'s damaged, there is another underlying problem either with their controller or the particular string they are using was not built properly.

I have L.E.D. strings that are half-wave that I've been dimming now for 2 years and they are still going strong. And no snubbers in use on any of them either! But then I usually only plug 1, not more than 2 strings together in a channel.

[Ken Benedict]

Orville - Are you using any ghost lights, Glade scents or other dummy loads on your LEDs or icicles? I had to use Glades on strobes last year on a couple of theatre dimmers. Just curious.

[Guest guest]

Ken Benedict wrote:

Orville - Are you using any ghost lights, Glade scents or other dummy loads on your LEDs or icicles? I had to use Glades on strobes last year on a couple of theatre dimmers. Just curious.

Nope, haven't used a thing on any of them. Just plug them into LOR, seqeunce them for what I want them to do in the sequencer and let 'em go. No dummy loads, no C7 bulbs, no glade plugins at the end of any of my L.E.D. strings, and two of these strings are the ones from Lowes that are 200 L.E.D.'s to a string sold on spools.

EDIT: These 200 L.E.D. light strings are the only string on each channel. Only 1 string used per channel (2 seperate channels) for the 200 count strings I have. So the 200 count L.E.D. strings don't get connected together with anything else anywhere.

Never had an issue with any of my L.E.D. strings with the exception of I did have some "rust" in a few sets that mainly came from the very cheap end from both Lowes and K-Mart. Other than the rusting issue of the L.E.D. leads and sockets on those, no issues from the LOR controllers operating any of the L.E.D. lights I use with any of the lighting control options available.



But then again, I only plug in ONE, no more than TWO strings in a LOR Channel. If I added more strings, then I think that's when the problems of flickering and other unwanted effects come up, then I'd need to add a snubber or some type of load on those "cheapo" L.E.D. sets I have.

From what I've read on many forums is that this usually occurs when you have 3 or more L.E.D. strings on a channel, you'd think the ADDITIONAL strings would stop this, NOT enhance it! And that having only 1 or 2 strings would be the ones that would bring this more to the forefront than more strings. But L.E.D.'s are a strange breed of light anyway. LOL

[Mark Showalter]

Todd,

Try this Thread for your fourth question...

http://forums.lightorama.com/forum79/26416.html

[testraub]

I'm putting my spiral tree back up again. Gotta test a few more things. Wish it was cooler, but all the hot air outta Congress is just shooting across the river. Anywho, will get some pic's or maybe some video this time. and will post when I've got it all done.

Tom Straub

[LarryDrumAZ]

Steven wrote:

• Almost all LED string lights are dimmable.
• Some LED retrofit (single C7 or C9 bulbs) are dimmable.
• Many people will see half-wave LEDs flicker, which is sometimes annoying.

That being said, I use full-wave strings, half-wave strings, retrofit C7 LED bulbs, and 12-volt DC LEDs in my display, and I dim them all.

Agreed, all the LED's I have bought from HD and Wally World are Dimmable. I do not know if I need them or not, BUT just to be safe I put a night light on each controller pigtail that powers a LED string. I have been told my MANY folks that this helps the LED's Dim better by adding some resistance to the line. I added them anyway, just to be safe. You can but the cheap night lights from HD in multi-packs or you can get packs of 50 on Ebay CHEAP!

As for the flickering, I sequence in .05 increments and the longest any of my strings in FULL ON is 3-5 seconds. The average Joe and Jane watching the show is not going to notice a 60Hz flicker in a short burst.

[Surfing4Dough]

For newbies that haven't seen this snubber thread on PC, it might be helpful for some cheap, easy ones to make:


I tend to find that if the channel has more than 3-4 strings of LEDs that they need snubbers. I don't think this is a function of the quality of the LEDs (i.e. where you buy them) but rather has to do with the controllers.

[testraub]

Just a FYI... Still assembling my Spiral Tree and trying to document. 98*+ is slowing the process. At least I'm about 1/2 way thru. :?

Tom Straub

[Surfing4Dough]

testraub wrote:

Just a FYI... Still assembling my Spiral Tree and trying to document. 98*+ is slowing the process. At least I'm about 1/2 way thru. :?

Tom Straub

Slacker!

[james campbell]

Surfing4Dough wrote:

testraub wrote:

Just a FYI... Still assembling my Spiral Tree and trying to document. 98*+ is slowing the process. At least I'm about 1/2 way thru. :?

Tom Straub

Slacker!

nothing like 98 degree weather to slow down thinking about christmas:cool:

[testraub]

Well... finally done. Set up took about 3 days what with the heat and all. File ended up to dang big to e-mail or post anywhere but on my web site. Here is the link http://testraub.x10.mx/testraub/my_spiral_tree_test.htm. Do let me know what you think. Sorry but the WMV files strat right away. Stupid old Front Page 2000.

Tom Straub

[rodman1369]

Wow! You can read tens of tutorials...but until you actually see someone building the project!!! Now I understand and think I Might just be able to take on one of these trees myself! Thanks for taking the time to get this video posted.:]:]

[testraub]

Glad to help. No problem. If you have any questions, feel free to ask or e-mail me.

Tom Straub