More bad stuff from Ray.

[Rogelio]

  [RANT ON] I am so fed up and frustrated with junk.  I recently had 10 out of 20  4 core tees that were bad right out of the box.  Today I found one of the 350watt 12 volt power supplies is actually a 5 volt supply labeled as 12V.  I thought that was going to be the reason why my pixels were not working correctly.  BUT NOOO,  they have water in them!!!!  It rained here last weekend, which it rarely does in south Texas.  I bought the flat back clear 1804 pixel nodes from Ray earlier this year, before the technicolor were introduced. 
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login  I had them made with 8" spacing.
  Mine are rated IP66 by Ray.  After spending the last few weeks mounting them to pvc pipes, adding waterproof connecters, installing clips to roof to make an easy setup/takedown rig, and lining the entire roof eave and ridge including 3 gables, I find out today they will no work.
Dont know what I will do right now, but I will try to find some made in America, if they exist, next time.  Tired of low quality control and no consistency.  First part of the year I ordered some landscaping lights.  I worked out what I wanted with their rep, bought a sample, confirmed it was what I wanted and ordered a case of them.  When they arrived, They were different.  Changed housing and mounting bracket.  They claimed it is what they make now and that it was the same as what I spec'ed out.  Why bother with even getting a sample??
Anyway, thanks for letting me vent.
Roy
[RANT STILL ON]

[keitha43]

The very first generation of nodes were only ip66 and they were terrible in the rain. There were many posts about it. I was cutting and splicing almost daily. I would never do less than ip68. I paid a huge shipping bill to ship them back to Ray back then and get the newly created ip68 nodes.

[Rogelio]

yeah.  The ones with the wires in the back were really bad.  So I thought these would be better.  Had the c9 covers I bought with them, that he said would fit... but didnt, maybe the water wouldnt have gotten in.
Roy
[STILL ON]

[Steve Gase]

Your experience describes my first year with RGB, 2 years ago.
Last year I moved to a new house and didn't bother to put up the big tree -- mostly due to that that experience.

I tried to get in front of stuff this year, yet I already had my own equipment problem already today...  I decided to split more of my equipment into separate boxes with dedicated hubs and power supplies -- Last minute I ordered 5x 700W CoolMax single rail power supplies from Newegg -- EACH ONE FAILED  when I turned up the white intensity beyond 50%.  I only had 6 strips -- which should have been 173W.

Fortunately, I can buy local and solve my problem with a power supply and brand I trust --- at 2x the price. 

[arw01]

I feel for your frustration.  My experience on my items from Ray has been just fine, all the WS2811 flex strips I bought have worked great, but I would like to find some commercial grade RGB for a big project next year  that having a failing string is not an option, once they go up they won't be coming done.

Alan

[thestig]

I have had one flex strip die on me. He still has yet to get back to me about it. The flex strip was burned out after maybe 1 hour of use. I guess I need to burn in the strings and hold the money in escrow until I am certain everything is okay. I am sure he would be willing to negotiate this if he was waiting on funds.

[njKeever]

I also understand the frustration. I have one strand of nodes that I've replaced 3 nodes on, and a flex strip that I've replaced three sections on. But, the price is so cheap compared to the competition that it more than makes up for it.