Jump to content
Light-O-Rama Forums

Rope Light


RaceMedic

Recommended Posts

Hello Everyone;

I am in bit of a panic mode ( just a bit ).

I thought I had all my lights in order for this year but there has been a recall on my LED rope light.

Any recommendations on where to buy LED rope light or regular rope light ?! may just go with the regular ones for now until CDI can get the LED rope light sorted out.

Are normal rope lights as bright as LED ones ... have never seen them side by side.

Thank-you for any help you can provide !

Dave

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I bought from action lighting have had great results, not bad prices either. Just my two cents.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

RaceMedic wrote:

Do incadescent rope lights come in cool white or just the warm white ?!

Thanks again,

Dave


Incads produce warm white only.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

RaceMedic wrote:

I am in bit of a panic mode ( just a bit ).

I thought I had all my lights in order for this year but there has been a recall on my LED rope light.


Dave


We are in the same boat!!! We bought 150' of both red and green. So far they look ok, but... I haven't try to cut them... yet. We'll see!!!

Are you having issues with yours set?
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I bought 4 x 150 foot rolls for snowflakes I am making for the roof.

I have used most of the first roll on several snowflake frames already. I had one bad LED out of the roll, and to me it was not a big deal, you can't even see it.

So far I have not seen a huge quality issue. I know Paul @ CDI is concerned about the quality, and I really appreciate that.

The quality issues apparently are the connections at the 3' cut lines can be flaky, and some sections go out. Also the cut lines are so light and some are not even there on some rolls.

It did take me a long time to find the cut lines, they are really, REALLY small and faint. I have not had any sections not work (yet...)

I am going to test all of my rolls this weekend and make sure they all are working and don't have any issues.

It is pretty late to be looking for a good deal on 600 feet of LED rope lights!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

John Slade wrote:

Are you having issues with yours set?

I had mine shipped to a friend near the Canada / US border ... have to take the road trip down within the next week or so to pick them up.

The question I have for myself is do I bring them over the border only to ship them back ( at a lot more money ) or do I just ship them back to CDI from within the USA.

We are away for a week during the show so my question to myself also is ... Do I trust the LED rope light not to fail or do I go with the incadescents !

Dave
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Another question I have for you folks, as I have zero experience working with rope light.

How flexible is it to make shapes ... what I mean is I am making an animated face but I have seen some rope light where the wire breaks trying to make a face or a circle.

Is that a common problem or just poor product ?!

Thanks again !

Dave

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A lot of rope light snowflakes have 180 degree bends in them w/o a problem. It might depend on where the bend happens.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Stupid question of the night ....

Some supplier advertise SuperBright rope light ... marketing ploy ?! What causes one to be brighter than the other and I guess there is really no way of telling without actually having it in your hands !

Just trying to decide who to buy from !

Thanks again !

Dave

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just finished my 4th tree with the CDI White LED rope light, and all is well, and I have not had any problems with serious bends and tweaks.

I checked my other rolls, and I forgot I bought a green roll also, and they all seem to be ok. That does not mean there won't be problems later, but so far, my order seems pretty good.

One tip, you might find one section from cut mark to cut mark. I unplugged the lights, and shined a flashlight on a somewhat parallel angle to the rope light, and you can see the little tiny cut mark much better.

Also, it is always near a resistor, but not every resistor of course. Once you find the first couple cut lines, you will see the pattern.

This photo was the first one I did, and the frames are from Val over at LED Christmas Lights during their early sale this year.

The snowflakes are about 36" dia, and they take about 30 feet of Rope light. Each one takes about 1.5 hours each now that I have done a few. I am going to have 12 of these and 3 larger ones on the roof, for a total of 15, and 6 smaller ones going down the front of the house.


Attached files 259004=14304-Snowflake.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Jeff Millard wrote:

The one hint I can give you to bend it to this extent... Light the rope and let it heat up before you try to bend it. It becomes very flexable once it warms up.

The other hint I'll give you is, once you've created the shape lock it down and don't move it around anymore. If you set it in place, it will last a long time. If you keep flexing it because it's really cool stuff... it'll start going dark on you very fast.

Jeff


Jeff is right on with the pre warming them up and not flexing after done.

I made a little stand for the roll, and just turn the whole 150 feet on, and it warms up really nice, and is nice and flexible after that.

I was told that a trick was to use a blow dryer on low, but you don't need that at all, just use the warmth of the lights.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Sorry to bring this topic to the top of the threads again ... I just got my rope light from CDI.

I know people had mentioned that the cut marks were on the rope with a marker .... is it a white mark ?! If so .. TY .. the ones on my rope light seem well marked.

Dave

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I saw some LED rope light in one of our Canadian stores but that is not important now since you received yours from CDI.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have been working a lot with the CDI rope light the past two weekends, and I found a tip that you may have already found, but I just wanted to let folks know.

The wires in the rope light are closer together than the prongs in the connector. I have found this in almost every case, with all 5 rolls that I have.

To fix it, just get some needle nose pliers and squeeze the two prongs on the connector closer together, about 1/8 of an inch. Then put it up next to the rope and the wires should match up. This is true for the AC plug connector and the inline end to end connector.

With this method I have had every connection work, and no failures at this point. Also I am seriously bending the rope onto snowflake frames and no issues there at all.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...