Where to get LED lights or at least prices...

[TheUltimate]

Sorry if this has already been posted. I did a few searches but didn't come up with anything. I planned out a design for lights to utilize 16 channels to get started. I was very proud of myself until I realized... I have all incandescent lights and only 30 Amps to work with. I added up all my lights and came up with 83.05 Amps. I quickly realized the only way I would be able to do what I want to do is with LED lights. Unfortunately the online stores I can find right now are priced between $12 and $20 for a 25' LED string with 50 or 60 lights. I'm wondering if there are sales that come up that I should watch for or a website I'm missing that has lower prices. This project probably won't happen this year If I have to spend this much on lights in addition to the LOR hardware and software. Any advice would be great.

Thanks!
Chad

[EARLE W. TALLEY]

This was posted on PC today CDI is having a sale.

The Pre Order Sale is all shipped out. Thanks everyone, and for those that missed it, watch for our Christmas in July sale. We will be 20% off for about 3 weeks.


Paul Sessel
www.creativedisplays.com

[KStatefan]

I have purchased from Creative Displays, Holiday Light Express and Magic in the Sky Lighting with good success.

[LORi P]

Hi Chad,

I have thought of a few options, but I am sure there are others.

1) If you have calculated your lights to require 83 amps, you could still use your 16 channel controller as long as you make sure that you do not have more of them turned on at any time that would cause you to exceed the individual channel/bank/controller capacity limits. Look at the Specifications chart on this brochure to see what those are:
http://www.lightorama.com/PDF/CTB16PCv1.pdf
Though, with this option, you would be very limited as to what channels you could have on simultameously.

2) Quick calculations in my head are coming up with a minimum of $2500-$3000, but potentially even more to completely switch over to LED. Ouch!

I don't know what your budget is, but it would be far cheaper to buy 2 more controllers and extra extension cords than it would be to convert to LED this year.

Then convert to LED over time, as your budget allows.

3) You might not like this option, but it is an option that would let you have a show this year without costing me money on lights or equipment than you were planning. Scale down your display to only use 30 amps. Maybe make smaller elements/props instead of bigger ones. I don't know what elements you were planning to use, but you might reduce the lights you need if you use more mini trees instead of other things that would require more lights.

4) Another option would be to keep many of your lights static, with only some being animated (few enough where you would not overload the capacity of the controller).

I am sure there are more options out there, but those are the ones I have thought of so far.

Good Luck!

[TheUltimate]

Thanks for the tips. I used your advice and will add a controller and remove a couple big features that would be amp heavy. Finished setting up the visualization of the new plan and now I can start sequencing. This will take awhile...

[LORi P]

TheUltimate wrote:

Thanks for the tips. I used your advice and will add a controller and remove a couple big features that would be amp heavy. Finished setting up the visualization of the new plan and now I can start sequencing. This will take awhile...

I'm happy that I was able to help. And I am glad that you will be able to have an animated display this year. As they always say, "Welcome to the madness!"

[rainyoregonchristmas]

If you're looking for LED's and can wait for "Disposables" you can always hit HD's Black Friday sale. Two years ago they had 50 ct 5.5mm LED's for $1.98, last year they raised them to $2.50. I have over 5,000 lights in just that brand alone and they have been ok, only 2 string failures due to corrosion on the leads which are aluminum unfortunately. They come with spares, and a "warranty" but it's too expensive to pay for the shipping to return them vs cost of string, and takes a long time to find the culprit LED so when they go bad I chuck them. I don't know if they fade. They are a cheap light, and you get what you pay for, but when you can get 24 cheap strings for the cost of 4 quality ones it's tempting.