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Dumb RGB Lights


jbruce

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So I use a lot of the CMB24D's in my Halloween display (mainly for strip lighting some Skeleton and stuff). I know that Smart pixels is the way to go but I have some areas where I would like to get another holiday out of the good ole dumb RGB's. Any recommendations on dumb pixels and bulbs? I would prefer some C9's or maybe a pixel with a C9 diffuser on it, but I cant seem to find anything that will work... So I am turning to the forums for help!! 

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10 minutes ago, jbruce said:

So I use a lot of the CMB24D's in my Halloween display (mainly for strip lighting some Skeleton and stuff). I know that Smart pixels is the way to go but I have some areas where I would like to get another holiday out of the good ole dumb RGB's. Any recommendations on dumb pixels and bulbs? I would prefer some C9's or maybe a pixel with a C9 diffuser on it, but I cant seem to find anything that will work... So I am turning to the forums for help!! 

I just did my ridge with (HC) 8mm bullets. I used Plastic Plumbers tape, and a 12mm step reamer to make perfect bullet holes every 4th 'nail' holes in the plastic tape. (the Tape is available in 100' rolls for under $20)

The bullets face Front when I anchored the tape.  They are BRIGHT, way brighter than the C9 LED string that failed in storage.

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I have nothing to add to help you because I just ordered my first CMB24D to experiment with, but it amazes me how much is spent on this hobby when I hear things like you "use a lot " of CMB24d''s in your light show.  They aren't cheap. 

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32 minutes ago, Jefffrompawpaw said:

 

I have nothing to add to help you because I just ordered my first CMB24D to experiment with, but it amazes me how much is spent on this hobby when I hear things like you "use a lot " of CMB24d''s in your light show.  They aren't cheap. 

Old Ferengi rule:

Enough! Is never Enough!

I bought 2.

I used all the ports up last month.

Nice thing about the CMB24D is some ports can be used with RGB. Others can be used as singles (monochrome). 1 RGB ouput drives my 6 Candy cane (converted to LED strips) Propeller, another 3 mono ports Lighted path run pathway markers  . 10 light incan strings use 12V bulbe. Snip, splice... watch thoe CMB24 ports disappear :D

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Converting to smart RGB can save money. A little more money for the controller, but that one controller can control hundreds or thousands of pixels.  With that said, I do have three CMB16Ds used as part of my year round landscape lighting, but except for my Tune To signs (dumb RGB), and six traditional AC strings on a wall, everything I add for Christmas is smart pixels.

 

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3 hours ago, Jefffrompawpaw said:

 

I have nothing to add to help you because I just ordered my first CMB24D to experiment with, but it amazes me how much is spent on this hobby when I hear things like you "use a lot " of CMB24d''s in your light show.  They aren't cheap. 

I know, it's is crazy how much is spent on this! Maybe I'll have to just go with the flow and switch to smart pixels for Christmas shows... 

 

heres a halloween picture to give ya an idea, I have 6 of them in my show

IMG_0179.JPG

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2 hours ago, k6ccc said:

Converting to smart RGB can save money. A little more money for the controller, but that one controller can control hundreds or thousands of pixels.  With that said, I do have three CMB16Ds used as part of my year round landscape lighting, but except for my Tune To signs (dumb RGB), and six traditional AC strings on a wall, everything I add for Christmas is smart pixels.

 

What kind of landscape lighting can be ran off of one? I have to replace one as it's not dimming properly anymore so this might be a good use for it!

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36 minutes ago, jbruce said:

What kind of landscape lighting can be ran off of one? I have to replace one as it's not dimming properly anymore so this might be a good use for it!

I assume you mean smart pixels.  In the first photo below (taken on Valentines day), if you look at the long white wall, the pink and red lights are smart RGB strings.

Valentines-1.jpg

This is a photo shown from the perspective of the wall looking at the "back" side of the brick edging in front of the roses.  In front of each rose is about 27 inches of 48 pixel per meter RGB strip.  That is 33 RGB LEDs per rose.  They are grouped in the pixel controller so that all 33 RGB LEDs in front of each rose is treated as a single pixel.  Since you don't see the actual strip, only the light from it, there would be little point in being able to control them individually.  What you can't see in the photo is that right about the point where the strip enters the dirt, it is spliced with a short cable to the next rose.  Frankly it would have been a lot easier to just have a continuous strip and leave a third of the strip covered in dirt, but it would have been rather wasteful of RGB strip.  I had to pay very particular attention to waterproofing as the strip gets flooded regularly - the round green thing on top of a dirty pipe in front of the strip is a bubbler for watering the roses every few nights.

Roses_strip.jpg

I want to tell you the story of how I ended up going to smart strips.  When I originally lit the roses and wall, it was with warm white rope light.  It worked fine until I put the first RGB strip somewhere else in the yard.  The rope light looked terrible when seen with the RGB strip.  Each rose had the strip controlled separately with a channel off of a DC controller card.  There are 17 roses.  That means that if I went with dumb RGB strips for the roses, it would mean 51 channels.  That would require three more DC controllers (the CMB24D had not been invented yet), and more important, a bundle of cable as big as my arm.  That would not fit in the conduit that the I had installed for the 17 channels.  By going with a small pixel controller, it took two outputs from the controller that each had three wires (the left 9 roses, and the right 8 roses).  From the controller back to the house, was a pair of 12 AWG wires for power, and a single Cat-5 cable.  That fit in the conduit just fine.

In the photo below, at the far right edge, you can see the 6x6x4 PVC conduit box that holds the controller (before I painted it white to match the wall) and the conduit.

2014_2_arches.jpg

 

Elsewhere in my yard in an unfinished part of the landscaping project, there is smart RGB strip on the back side of the brick on the planter next to the sidewalk.

East_end_of_planter.jpg

And a closeup of that strip

Planter_strip_backfeed.jpg

When the yard side of the planter is completed, there will be smart RGB strip on it as well.

 

 

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On 11/15/2017 at 4:34 PM, Jefffrompawpaw said:

 

I have nothing to add to help you because I just ordered my first CMB24D to experiment with, but it amazes me how much is spent on this hobby when I hear things like you "use a lot " of CMB24d''s in your light show.  They aren't cheap. 

It can get expensive.  I purchase my LOR products during the mad grab sale in March / April.   You are signed up to receive LOR emails aren't you?

Huge savings.  And even tthough some people don't participate in the mad grab sale and just buy from the summer sale I have only missed out on one item....CCRs 5 years ago.  I joined the sale 15 minutes after it started and they were gone.

But the 8 pack flood kit...the servo dog....AC controllers....spt cable...yeah, I get those almost every year.  Eyeballing the pixel tree kit for next year..if only for the tree hardware and pixels.

Summer sale is good too.  But the mad grab has the best deals and I usually get my hands on the new stuff in plenty of time to play with them before Halloween.....my primary holiday.

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