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Intelligent RGB Ribbons vs Pixel/Bulb strands


Zano

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I have a few of both so far for my first RGB show this season, but I was looking ahead at expanding and wasn't sure what I should invest in.  What are the general preferences for displays?  Ribbons or more traditional looking pixel/bulb strands?  Is it purely based on what type of prop is being used and application?  Are there any advantages using one over the other?  Any additional complications caused by one over the other?  Is one type more fragile or more reliable than the other?  

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Straight line permanent mounts the ribbons look good but they are fragile and don't like constant handling or bending, they are best for graphics on trees or places where you wants full lines. Bulbs are good if you have curves, bends or want a more traditional look with something like C9 bulbs, bulbs are hardier and easier to repair but you can see each individual pixel. As an example, trees and eaves are great for ribbons whereas rooflines are ideal for bulbs.

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Bullets can just poke into Coro (12mm hole) or plastic strips or net. Repair is fairly easy, cut close to bad node(leaves wires on good), splice.

Squares are like bullets (same forward 5mm lens style), but mount on a surface AND can't be real close to each other like bullets

Both those are single light sources.

Rectangles are really pieces of ribbon mounted  (very rugged this way) BUT they are 3 light sources  per node (great for those 7 segment numbers of olde )

I make my own bullet strips with a 12mm step reamer https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bYCzzHCoagQuKogYbaNFs7u-B2pzE4Mf/view?usp=share_link

(back side) FWIW I found the plastic plumbers tape (Lasko)  in White at my local Hardware Store (can't find this color online, only grey)

FWIW This is strong (built to hang pipes). It IS the support for my Mega tree.  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JLtBw56vnz6cICReTBFqVbM2JYfKBTmy/view?usp=share_link

It is flexible and allows things to sway a bit. Tree is 16' to star (that broke  after this was taken)  BTW the back guy at top is green weed wacker line

 

Edited by TheDucks
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Thanks for the tips and pictures!  Although the 2nd picture link does not allow me access.  

Follow up question: 

What is the best way to mount lights around a window?  One strand of bullets is too much for 1 window, but not enough for 2.  So I currently have bullets with some thin plastic with mounting holes (similar to TheDucks picture above) that are spaced closer together to get the proper distance around the window.  The problem is that it does not hold its shape and kind of bows outward in the middle of the strip.  I could fix this with more mounting locations, but I don't really have any place to attach to on the windows.  I have small hooks on the corners of the window that I previously used for basic lights.  The extra wire between bullets also pushes the strip out and sideways. 

I was thinking of maybe using ribbons instead and just wrapping it around the window, but not sure if that would work well or not.

Does anyone have any tricks for this?  Building some type of lightweight, sturdier frame?  But how do you attach it to/around the window?  Even though this seems like it should be a simple task, I find myself struggling to make it look good.  I'd be interested in hearing how others achieve this.

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Pixels vs strips.  that is a question that can generate LOTS of Opinions.  A lit of it depends on what kind of look you want.  I'm going to include a whole bunch of pictures here.  In each case I am also including a direct link because some browsers will not imbed the photos from my website. 

I have both.  For some of my stuff, the only practical way to do it is ribbons.  For example, my porch steps have bullnose brick and I have dumb RGB strips on the underside of the bullnose.

Steps_front.jpg

http://www.newburghlights.org/photos/Steps_front.jpg

Steps_wiring_looking_up.jpg

http://www.newburghlights.org/photos/Steps_wiring_looking_up.jpg

This was originally done because my Dad was largely blind and could not see the steps in the dark.  The strips did a good job of lighting up the step below each one.

I also have dumb RGB strips on the inside edge of three brick tree rings.  Turns out that a 5 meter ribbon first almost perfectly on the inside edge of a six foot diameter ring.

Tree_ring_strip.jpg

http://www.newburghlights.org/photos/Tree_ring_strip.jpg

I also have smart RGB strip along the edge of edging in front of my roses.  I have a block wall that has 17 roses along the wall, and edging in front of the roses.  There is about 2.5 feet of smart strip in front of each rose that lights up the rose and the white stucco wall behind it.

Roses_strip.jpg

http://www.newburghlights.org/photos/Roses_strip.jpg

Valentines-1.jpg

http://www.newburghlights.org/photos/Valentines-1.jpg

All of the above are used year round for my landscape lighting, and also incorporated into my Christmas show.  In each of these, the lights are either primarily seen indirectly (they illuminate something else), or in the case of the roses, the strips are completely blocked from direct view.

Almost everything for the Christmas show is pixels.  Starting with the eves.

GECE_dual_mounting_strip.jpg

http://www.newburghlights.org/photos/GECE_dual_mounting_strip.jpg

The pixel tree.  In later rebuilds I left off the clear split loom overs that diffused the pixels a bit.

2014_Top_of_strips_with_PEX_removed.jpg

http://www.newburghlights.org/photos/2014_Top_of_strips_with_PEX_removed.jpg

And the arches.  In this case the CCPs are illuminating the inside of 3/4 inch PEX tubing so you see a continuous light rather than the individual pixels

2014_Arches_crossing.jpg

http://www.newburghlights.org/photos/2014_Arches_crossing.jpg

Now here's my opinion.  For things like eves and roofline, pixels look FAR more Christmas like.  Strips make (when viewed from a distance) a continuous line and looks far more like a nightclub than a Christmas display.

For a pixel tree, pixels are almost always individually controllable whereas ribbons are often three RGB LEDs per controllable "pixel".  There are times where having a single dot is what you want.  You can buy ribbons that have each RGB LED individually controllable.  If you use the individually controllable ribbons it is the same as pixels with two MAJOR differences.  First is that with pixels, you can space them whatever distance you want, whereas with ribbons, you are stuck with the spacing of the ribbons.  Second is that a pixel string is FAR easier to repair WHEN (NOT IF) a pixel fails.  For a pixel tree, the more controllable pixels, the better.  When I built my original tree in 2012, the "norm" was 12 strings x 50 pixels and that's the way I built it.  I later expanded that to 24 x 100 and a couple years later expanded it again to 26 x 100 (a vertically hanging US flag works better on 26 vs 24 strings).

There is a lot more photos and explanations on a lot of this on my website:  http://www.newburghlights.org/

 

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That's good stuff!  Thank you!  I'm open to more opinions or information on mounting lights around windows.  I've got the bug and want to do more!

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Can't help on windows, I don't have lights around windows (really only have one window on the front of the house I could do it on).

 

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