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RGB Ribbons - How to "diffuse?"


MattMac

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Hi All - 

I'm looking at some major upgrades into the RGB world, and one of the things I'd like to do is outline all of my windows and the trim of the house with RGB ribbons.  My question is - how do I create the diffused/tube effect that I see on some houses, rather than seeing individual pixels?  Here's two photos to describe the effect I want (stolen straight from Light-o-Rama's website):

Adding Pixels to Your Display | Light-O-Rama RGB Ribbons 12V - CCR (No Dangles)

I want to have the continuous brightness (first picture) instead of seeing individual pixels (second picture).  Any suggestions on how to accomplish this?  I'm assuming I need to incorporate some kind of tubing/PVC, or is there a better way?  In general, would love to hear everyone's solutions for window/door outlines.  

Thanks for the help!

-Matt 

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Part of that depends on how far away the viewers will be.  Also the spacing of the pixels.

As far as diffusing the light, the normal way is to put the pixels in a tube.  PEX is the most commonly used - DO NOT USE PVC (It radically shifts the color).  My pixel based arches have the pixels pointing into 3/4 inch PEX tubing.  The pixels are spaced 2 inches apart and it is pretty well diffused.  Larger tubing improves the diffusion.  I also used semi clear split loom tubing on the original version of my pixel tree.  It does not diffuse as much as PEX, but was easy to add over the pixels.  Here are the construction pages for both of those...

http://newburghlights.org/pixel_tree.html

http://newburghlights.org/CCP_Arches.html

 

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I use PEX as well. It shows colors pretty nicely however, its not very rigid. So you need to plan for supports to keep it in the desire shape along edges and so on.

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16 hours ago, MattMac said:

 one of the things I'd like to do is outline all of my windows and the trim of the house with RGB ribbons.  My question is - how do I create the diffused/tube effect that I see on some houses, rather than seeing individual pixels? 

If you use RGB Ribbons as stated, they will give you that look on their own. but working around windows corners is a little complicated. If you bend them around the corners they tend to fail at the bends.  For 4 years I outlined my house and windows with Dumb RGB ribbons and the failure rate was very High. I have since replaced all the dumb ribbons with smart Pixels and out of the thousands of pixels used in my show over the last 5 years I only had 1  pixel fail. I would suggest going with Pixels and use the suggestions listed above to get that defused look you want. The below video show my old dumb ribbons on the house trim and around the windows. there are smart Pixels on the roof trim. This kinda shows how ribbons look verse 3 inch spaced pixels. 

Kenny

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