Darrell Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 Does anyone use the "pebble pixel" light strings that are now available from a lot of the vendors? I'm considering replacing the aging standard led lights on several mini-trees (ie upside down tomato cages - 2 1/2 to 4'). The pebble pixels look like I can get a higher density since they are available in many different pitch sizes and I won't have to worry about fitting them into some strip or holder. The ones on Ray Wu's page show they are only IP67 vs the IP68. So they question is - will they stand-up to outdoor use? Are they durable enough to handle a couple years of movement and storage? These are small props so there shouldn't be any tensile load on the wire. I'm just curious if anyone has had success or failures with these. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dblack Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 No experience here, but someone suggested them to me as well to replace the rope light on my spiral trees so that I could get pixel functionality. The ones I looked at were 240 pixels I think, which is over the limit (as I understand it) for most LOR controllers. While I know how to splice wires, I am not ready to get into cutting/splicing pixels and putting on different ends yet. They definitely look cool and appear more dense as you stated. I also saw some Mini Goat Trees I think they were called, that used the pebble/seed pixels and looked like they folded up to store easily. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheDucks Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 There appears to be just 3 wires. Rays store recommends PI every 100. That implies you can cut between nodes (either extend or start a new run) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlanetChrismas Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 I deployed several thousand 12v seed pixels in 2023. Compared to bullet/square pixels, seeds use 1/6 the current... meaning fewer/smaller power supplies are needed. I used power injection every 200 pixels but real life RGB props defined with a 40% pixel curve showed power injection could be 300-400 pixels. The seed pixel lens is a little smaller than a typical bullet/square pixel. A seed pixel viewing angle is >300% (meaning it glows even on the back side (but not as bright as the front)) compared to a bullet/square pixel viewing angle of 180%. When viewed from 20 feet away seed pixel props looked identical to bullet/square pixels. 100 seed pixels with 4" spacing weigh less than 3 ounces. 100 bullet pixels weigh 15 ounces. That doesn't sound like much until props have thousands of pixels and you realize how heavy they are. Seed pixel megatrees are sooooooo lightweight and hold up fine in the worst storms. What are the seed pixel negatives? The seed pixel wire is thinner than we're used to. Can be 24-28 gauge. Splicing required some good soldering skills. You'll see seed pixel strings with thicker wire in 2024. Of the thousands of seed pixels I used, only one was bad and I caught it when building the prop. Here's the best part: a seed pixel is less than half the price of a bullet/square pixel and much cheaper to ship. In my world I'm saying goodbye to yesterday's bullet/square pixels and hello to seed pixels!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
k6ccc Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 Got a link to what you are using? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sysco Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 https://yourpixelstore.com/product/pre-buy-pebble-seed-pixels/ found this Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlanetChrismas Posted January 6 Share Posted January 6 I've tried seed pixels from 5 different sources. I'd swear they're all made by the same machine. My favorite ended up being https://pixelparadiseusa.com/product/upgraded-12v-seed-pixels-240-ct-40ft-strand-black-wire/. It already had the connector, used a little thicker wire, 240 pixels and no need for power injection. The vendor told me they should be back in stock in April. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dblack Posted January 6 Share Posted January 6 4 hours ago, PlanetChrismas said: I've tried seed pixels from 5 different sources. I'd swear they're all made by the same machine. My favorite ended up being https://pixelparadiseusa.com/product/upgraded-12v-seed-pixels-240-ct-40ft-strand-black-wire/. It already had the connector, used a little thicker wire, 240 pixels and no need for power injection. The vendor told me they should be back in stock in April. Can you elaborate on no need for power injection for a new guy? Is that meaning running them less than 100% there is no need for power injection? I have looked at those same ones you linked and thought about using them to replace my rope light on my spiral trees, but didn't want to get into cutting/splicing and power injection. If I could run 240 count off of each port on my Pixie controls that would be ideal, especially at 100%. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimehc Posted January 6 Share Posted January 6 The Pixie can only Address 170 Pixels on a port... So if you got a string of 240 - you would only be able to light the first 170 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Fischer Posted January 6 Share Posted January 6 5 hours ago, PlanetChrismas said: I've tried seed pixels from 5 different sources. I'd swear they're all made by the same machine. My favorite ended up being https://pixelparadiseusa.com/product/upgraded-12v-seed-pixels-240-ct-40ft-strand-black-wire/. It already had the connector, used a little thicker wire, 240 pixels and no need for power injection. The vendor told me they should be back in stock in April. That's a local vendor here in the Minneapolis run by Dave Mills who has a great display and a great guy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ItsMeBobO Posted January 6 Share Posted January 6 (edited) We have purchased these in white for a small Christmas tree last year and this year and didnt know what they were called. They came with a tiny controller to chase and fade. What we got in WHITE only with green wire was very bright. The ones I have are fragile and can get damaged by any accidental tug. Edited January 6 by ItsMeBobO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlanetChrismas Posted January 6 Share Posted January 6 The PixCon16 and new Aurora Core controllers can handle more than 170 pixels per port. The LOR limitation is they don't like power injection... I'm thinking because it's easy for a pixel novice to do it wrong and fry components. The trick is understanding the power requirements of pixels. A typical string of 100 bullet/square pixels draws about 60 watts or 5 amps of power when all the pixels are at 100% white. Many of us throttle them back with a 40-50% pixel curve and see little difference while saving considerable power. Most smart pixel controllers place a 4 amp fuse on each port making a string of 100 bullet/square pixels perfect and no power injection is needed. A typical string of 100 seed pixels draws 11 watts or less than 1 amp of power when all the pixels are set at 100% white. The 4 amp fuse on each port isn't much of a limitation in the seed pixel world. Play with a string of seed pixels. You'll be impressed. Using coroplast props with 12mm pixel holes? Search for "Keith's Poppers" for the easy way to use seed pixels. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sysco Posted January 6 Share Posted January 6 some good information on the seed pixels on the Aussie Christmas forums 5 volts and 12 volts Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
overlake_lights Posted March 21 Share Posted March 21 On 1/5/2024 at 12:51 PM, PlanetChrismas said: I deployed several thousand 12v seed pixels in 2023. Compared to bullet/square pixels, seeds use 1/6 the current... meaning fewer/smaller power supplies are needed. I used power injection every 200 pixels but real life RGB props defined with a 40% pixel curve showed power injection could be 300-400 pixels. The seed pixel lens is a little smaller than a typical bullet/square pixel. A seed pixel viewing angle is >300% (meaning it glows even on the back side (but not as bright as the front)) compared to a bullet/square pixel viewing angle of 180%. When viewed from 20 feet away seed pixel props looked identical to bullet/square pixels. 100 seed pixels with 4" spacing weigh less than 3 ounces. 100 bullet pixels weigh 15 ounces. That doesn't sound like much until props have thousands of pixels and you realize how heavy they are. Seed pixel megatrees are sooooooo lightweight and hold up fine in the worst storms. What are the seed pixel negatives? The seed pixel wire is thinner than we're used to. Can be 24-28 gauge. Splicing required some good soldering skills. You'll see seed pixel strings with thicker wire in 2024. Of the thousands of seed pixels I used, only one was bad and I caught it when building the prop. Here's the best part: a seed pixel is less than half the price of a bullet/square pixel and much cheaper to ship. In my world I'm saying goodbye to yesterday's bullet/square pixels and hello to seed pixels!! which controller are you using for the seed pixels? we bought a few seeds from aliexpress and they work fine with a non-e1.31 type controller, but they will not reliably work with either our Advatek or Falcon controllers. did you happen to run into similar scenario with any of the seeds you bought? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlanetChrismas Posted March 21 Share Posted March 21 Many of the seed pixels are based on WS2811 or similar LEDs and should work fine on most any E1.31 controller. Just make sure the controller is configured correctly. Confirm each output port is set for WS2811. If there's a timing parameter you might have to experiment a bit. Most of these E1.31 controllers have some sort of self test feature so it's easy to confirm they're working with the attached pixels. But... beware of some of those pixels you get from AliExpress. Read the fine print carefully to make sure they are fully addressable and use the protocol you expect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danberg2 Posted March 29 Share Posted March 29 Here is my experiences so far concerning pebble pixels. I bought a roll of 1000 of these pebble pixels (12vdc ws2811) from Ray Wu. This is 600 of the pixels I mounted on PVC Peace Stakes. I injected power every 200 pixels. So far so good. I'll have to see how they hold up in the winter. These pebble pixels have the thicker 20awg wire. Here is a link to the pixels I purchased: https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256806272932570.html I also have been looking into pixel grids for my windows. This is what Ray Wu offers: https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256806315001868.html In conversations with Ray Wu he says that the grids are not customizable and are ONLY available in 1 meter wide, and multiples of 1 meter long. None of my windows fit those dimensions. Below is is a video of my test of the peace stakes in full white mode in the back yard a couple of weeks ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhilMassey Posted March 29 Share Posted March 29 Thats a lot of soldering.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danberg2 Posted March 29 Share Posted March 29 Actually it wasn't much soldering (except for the power injection and connectors). I had Ray Wu make me customized pebble pixels. 10 pixels=>1 meter wire=>10 pixels=>1 meter wire (etc) I created the Peace Stakes in groups of ten so I didn't have so many connections (and less changes of my connections getting wet). 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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