plasmadrive Posted December 16, 2012 Share Posted December 16, 2012 I have a bunch of Ray Wu's Dumb LED stips on my house for this years show and I just happen to look at them the other day. The silicon which covers the strip has turned from clear to milky white. These strips are thehttp://www.aliexpress.com/item/5m-5050-30leds-m-RGB-IP65-strip-DMX-decoder/499856268.htmlThey still work great, but this has me a bit concerned. I have 8 windows with these outlining them and I didn't really want to remake them again next year. If this is all that happens to them I can't see it causing too much grief, but it still should not turn milky. They have been up for about a month now and it is all of them, not just a few. Anyone else have this same issue? Craig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
james campbell Posted December 16, 2012 Share Posted December 16, 2012 mine are doing the same,have you had alot of rain,we have.I expect them to go bad because moisture is getting behind the silicone. all still work fine as well but after a year of sitting I don't expect them to work next season Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caleb Linburg Posted December 16, 2012 Share Posted December 16, 2012 My controllers failed, so I was unable to use mine this year but the are out and have been. I just went to check them and they look fine. Although they are not directly hit by rain where they are. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Simmons Posted December 16, 2012 Share Posted December 16, 2012 Is it the rain or exposure to sunlight that's turning the silicone cloudy? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tjflory Posted December 16, 2012 Share Posted December 16, 2012 I sprayed my dumb RGB ribbons (front and back) with Krylon UV protectant (4 bucks a can). They've been up since 2 weeks before Halloween and still look brand new.tj Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
james campbell Posted December 16, 2012 Share Posted December 16, 2012 Is it the rain or exposure to sunlight that's turning the silicone cloudy?hard for me to tell because we have had both Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveMaris Posted December 16, 2012 Share Posted December 16, 2012 I have one doing that as well. 6 others no. weird. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harrison0550 Posted December 16, 2012 Share Posted December 16, 2012 It is most likely sunlight doing it. I had a thread going back in the beginning of the year testing several different strips from several different venders. I had epic failure from all strips in my testing. Some turned the nasty yellow color. Some had burnt out leds with less than 4 weeks of use just sitting on my deck rails and some became brittle and snapped in half when I tried to move them. I ended up scrapping the entire strip idea and used only strings and nodes this year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plasmadrive Posted December 16, 2012 Author Share Posted December 16, 2012 I sprayed my dumb RGB ribbons (front and back) with Krylon UV protectant (4 bucks a can). They've been up since 2 weeks before Halloween and still look brand new.tjThat is a good idea... a bit late now though for me.. I sent Ray an email but he has not been responding to me lately when there are issues with his stuff. It is most likely sunlight doing it. I had a thread going back in the beginning of the year testing several different strips from several different venders. I had epic failure from all strips in my testing. Some turned the nasty yellow color. Some had burnt out leds with less than 4 weeks of use just sitting on my deck rails and some became brittle and snapped in half when I tried to move them. I ended up scrapping the entire strip idea and used only strings and nodes this year.We haven't had a lot of sun or rain.. some of both, but not lots... They still work and look great.. just cloudy silicon.. and BTW, that silicon is supposed to be UV stable according to Ray. I kinda doubt it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beeiilll Posted December 16, 2012 Share Posted December 16, 2012 I have been running tests on strips since the first of March 2012. Mostly to look at the effects of different sealants on the electrical connection area of the strips to see what holds up and what has the electrical insulation capacity.But my test strips are turning milky as well. The strips inside pieces of silicone tubing to protect them look fine so that seems to be a good reason for using the encased strips. The strips that have been exposed to direct sunlight and rain are so cloudy that you can not even see the LEDs inside the strip anymore.You also have to see whether you have actual silicone coating on the strip or a resin type of coating which is what the strip that I am testing have. The resin coating was the first pr early incantation of protection for the strips and then they went to silicone and then to silicone with the clear silicone tubing over the strip.I have had more sun this year it seems but a fair amount of rain during the period as well. I am impressed that the silicone tubing has pretty much prevented the milky/cloudy nature from happening to the strip in it though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edvas69 Posted December 17, 2012 Share Posted December 17, 2012 Beeiilll comments and findings are consistant with mine. The silicone tubing holds out best against UV. The solid silicone will cloud and get a bit of yellowing but most of that occured in the first year, the last 2 years it has slowed right down and really cant be noticed at all when the show is on, if anything it helps disperse the light better. The silicone resin seems to turn milky and the IP65 resin strip has a tendancy to let water get in as it is only sealed on the top surface and the resin coating can lift due to the thermal stresses put apon the strip and the coating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeffF Posted December 17, 2012 Share Posted December 17, 2012 Just wanted to throw this out there for people looking to why they are turning milky... I installed 12 strips over a year ago inside an arcade and none of them have turned milky so it probably is something environmental. These strips have run ~10 hours a day for over 365 days and I'd guestimate there is a less than a 1% failure rate with individual LEDs. These suckers are pretty durable even with heavy use. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Fischer Posted December 17, 2012 Share Posted December 17, 2012 If moisture is getting inside - bad news. But it's probably just sun exposure, which will have little to no affect on the appearance of your show, and they will still last a long time.I do like the Krylon UV idea though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plasmadrive Posted December 18, 2012 Author Share Posted December 18, 2012 I received an answer from Ray.Dear Craig,sorry for the problem, this is the problem of the silicon,normally, the strip would turn to yellow color.this is a common problem,even the pixel node also met this problem.now we have changed the silicon type,and have solved this problem.sorry for the trouble.I too have not had any electronic failures and from the street you can't notice.. but I wanted to know if this was common and would be a long term problem.. Seems as though they feel they have fixed the problem. Now we know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveMaris Posted December 18, 2012 Share Posted December 18, 2012 I bought mine from different sellers on Ebay so that would explain why it happened to only one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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