another newbe question

[Mr Grunts]

ok I have looked all over the board and cant find the answer that im looking for.

I have gotten rid of all my incan lights and i am going with all led this year. now this is my question for ya, where is a good place to get led lights that will do everything the lor controller tells it to do, fade up fade down flash and so on. I am only running a 16channel show for the first yr but i have a lot of ground to cover so im looking to buy a lot of lights.

let me know if you have any info. i will buy online or store bought. doesn't matter as long as they are what i need.

Thanks to everyone

Dennis Smith

Toledo Ohio

[Guest wbottomley]

All of them are compiled here.

Look for full wave.

[Guest Don Gillespie]

HLE or CDI are two that i would recomend

[Paul M Krupa]

Paul at CDI

[Max-Paul]

Shame you looking for LEDs at this time of year. Buy only what you will NEED for this season. Then look for end of Dec to the first of the year for CDI and others will have what they call the pre buy sales. The vendors cut us a deal if we order and pay half up front (CDIs deal). Then when they come in you pay the other half and shipping. Dont quote me but think the savings is around 25%. But with CDI you have to buy case Qty which is a dozen strings. C9 retro bulbs in boxes of 25.

[dgrant]

So far, everything I've bought at BigLots, works very well with LOR plus they are less expensive but as noted, the time to buy lights is after Christmas. I bought a bunch from Lowes and they work well too, at least the ones I got. I know that Home Depot carries "Martha" lights...do not buy them as they won't dim. All lights I've bought from Target, all work just fine...so far,.

[Arteom]

Shame you looking for LEDs at this time of year. Buy only what you will NEED for this season. Then look for end of Dec to the first of the year for CDI and others will have what they call the pre buy sales. The vendors cut us a deal if we order and pay half up front (CDIs deal). Then when they come in you pay the other half and shipping. Dont quote me but think the savings is around 25%. But with CDI you have to buy case Qty which is a dozen strings. C9 retro bulbs in boxes of 25.

Yeah right, nowadays people have no money to spend on things other than food, in Sacramento that's just not true, by the time Christmas stuff goes on sale at 50% off most of it is gone!

However 6 years ago, I wasn't really into this hobby, but i walked into a lowes, and it was the end of January, they has a wall FULL (around 4 pallets) of White and Multi store brand incandescents Marked down to $0.10/ Box, I only got around 60 Packs

[scubado]

I've had pretty good luck with Menards and Walmart. If you have issues with fading, do a search on snubbers. There are lots of threads on info and how to make.

The videos of displays that are really bright are probably using the full wave lights. Full wave is brighter than half wave, but also uses more power, but still not really much of an issue.

[Max-Paul]

scubado,

One of the reason that I want full wave LEDs versus the half wave is that some of us can see the flickering of the lights. I suppose that some of us have faster rated brains and can process the image faster. Thus we can see the flickering as the LED shines then goes dark for half of the cycle.

[dgrant]

scubado,

One of the reason that I want full wave LEDs versus the half wave is that some of us can see the flickering of the lights. I suppose that some of us have faster rated brains and can process the image faster. Thus we can see the flickering as the LED shines then goes dark for half of the cycle.

Yeah, I've got no clue how the ones from BigLots will do till I put them up. In the house, flickering wasn't obvious but on the house will be another matter. But, they do dim properly!

[Orville]

I have used the following store brand or store bought retail LED's with no issues: {DO NOT BUY MARTHA STEWART LED's! I have not and won't buy anything wiith that persons name on it period! Her LED's are a fire hazard when it comes to LOR contorllers dimming them or so I've read!}

Big Lots

Home Depot

K-Mart

Lowes

Target {Phillips brandname}

Wal-Mart {Wal-Mart Brand name}

Walgreen's

Some store brands I don't recall the name now as their boxes have long been tossed. Just know where I bought them my LED's from. The majority from Big Lots and other stores similar to them.

All have dimmed and worked just fine with my CTB16PC Controllers, 1 V1 LOR Controller and 4 V2 Controllers. They dim, flicker twinkle, fade up/down and shimmer just fine. Still using these store bought retail strands 10+ years, 3 years on a Mr. Christmas wireless 4 channel unit, 3 years on the LOR Controllers, prior to those six years, they were used as a static display.

Edited October 12, 2012 by Orville

[Mr Grunts]

I thank all of you for your responses, just as info i had lights just when i went to my storage to get them out everything was gone just an empty unit. but no sense in crying about it. it wont get them back so this is why im on a crunch to get more lights. I was planning on switching to all LEDs just not this yr but plans have changed so im looking for any deals i can get. here is one i found on ebay. question, would you buy these? let me know cause if it is worth it i can get all the lights from there.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/x5pc-White-Color-10M-100-Led-String-Fairy-Light-Christmas-Tree-Wedding-Party-/261063009306?_trksid=p5197.m1997&_trkparms=aid%3D333005%26algo%3DRIC.FIT%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D15%26meid%3D2693318614569700082%26pid%3D100016%26prg%3D1006%26rk%3D9%26sd%3D271073775210%26

[Orville]

I thank all of you for your responses, just as info i had lights just when i went to my storage to get them out everything was gone just an empty unit. but no sense in crying about it. it wont get them back so this is why im on a crunch to get more lights. I was planning on switching to all LEDs just not this yr but plans have changed so im looking for any deals i can get. here is one i found on ebay. question, would you buy these? let me know cause if it is worth it i can get all the lights from there.

http://www.ebay.com/...d=271073775210

You DO NOT want those. They have a built in controller for their own effects, so they would be useless using an LOR ~AC~ controller. You need LED strands that are full wave without any type of lighting controller attached to them whatsoever.

Empty Storage unit, didn't I see that on Storage Hunters where they opened a bin and sold a lot of stuff, including Christmas lights? Sorry, couldn't resist that.

But sorry to hear you lost all your lights and have to start over. But LED is definitely the way to go.

[Mr Grunts]

thanks for the info, guess i wont be getn those. man this was a hurting. i need about 1000$ in lights and only have about 500 to work with

[Max-Paul]

Ya, hate storage places. Was in San Antonio, TX back in 85 and had some stuff in one of those storage places that supposedly only people who could open front gate was people with a pass code. Well got a call that several lockers had been broken into. Yep, mine was one of them. Never going to use some dang storage place again. Sorry about your loss. If 500 is all you have, then cut back the show and slowly build it back up. Well at least your going LED and this will help save money in the long run and dont have to be freezing your family jewels off in mid winter fixing burnt out light bulbs.

[Steven]

One of the reason that I want full wave LEDs versus the half wave is that some of us can see the flickering of the lights.

To see if the lights flicker, turn them on in a semi-dark room, then look off to the side, so you are not looking directly at the lights, but see them in your peripheral vision. Many people can see flicker this way, but not when looking directly at them.

The reason is that the eyes of most mammals, including humans, have evolved to detect movement (e.g. a predator) from the side. Movement is detected as flickering light.

[Orville]

I've got 1/2 some wave LEDs on some strings, but I've never seen them flicker that way. The only time I've had a problem with :LED's flickering that are 1/2 wave is when I had more than 3 strands on the same channel connected together. Seems with 1/2 waves 3 is the magic number {or has been for me}. If I add that 4th strand in or more than 4 strands of 1/2 wave LED's, then I'd have to use a C7 bulb or snubber on that channel to keep them from flickering. I usually only use 1 to no more than 3 LED strands per channel in my displays since I'm using a V1 and and 4 V2 controllers.

Don't know how the Gen3 controllers handle that flcker with the 1/2 wave LED's.

However I HAVE had full wave LED's flicker too, especially on LONG, SLOW fades. Again V1 and V2 boards in my CTB16PC Controllers, and that flicker was quite pronounced too using ONE single strand and these were sealed strands, Also had one of those fail within a month.

The store bought cheapo replaceable LED brands that were full and 1/2 wave, never had this flicker problem with them doing very slow fades {1 to 3 strands per channel}. nor have I ever had a cheapo retail replaceable LED strand fail within a month or two either.

But that's just been MY experience with the replaceable cheapo store and discount store LED brands and the sealed {more expensive} type LED strands. Your mileage may differ.

So that's why I continue to stick with the cheapo replacable local retail store LED brands, EXCEPT Martha Stewart products. Wouldn't touch those if someone gave them to me!