roof edge...

[zwiller]

I used pipe hangers upside down screwed into the rear of the wood and hung the frame to gutter.  To my surprise when testing I learned a side effect using these was the weight of the frame/wood (3/8' exterior ply) forced the frame to the face of the gutter making the leds in a better line of sight from ground.  The same happened for the window frames using eyelets mounted to the rear of frame created a pleasant line of sight.  At first I didn't like this but then I realized what it did!     The hangers are cheap too.  You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login

To continue, the reason I chose flex strips was the ease of mounting them to the frame.  No drilling holes for nodes, etc.  If you go this route make sure you have plenty of mounting clips.     (If you run out Chris let me know  )

If you look at my vids note the top gutter line is actually 2 sections, the entrance ^ shape is prebuilt one section, as well as the sides.  I used to risk my neck climbing the entrance peak to install the gutter lights!  Now I just hang one from each side and push them together.  I actually think it might be divine intervention that flex strips are 13.5' and my roof line was 27'...

[cBell]

Flex strip attached to 1x2 strips of wood with hooks to hook onto the gutters. Running in hybrid mode.

[hicksjo]

Use dumb flex strips
use 12 channels of an mr16 to give 4 sections of control that coincide with the architectural breaks in the roof line

With the pixel tree in use these have become more of an accent than a main feature so the lack of individual control is not a big deal to me

so about how big of a span were the controlled parts?

Various ... But pretty close to 5m each, which worked nicely with 5m strips I bought

[twooly]

I've got nodes in j-channel under my eves.  It was nice to put up but I think I may change it to pvc for a little more strength.   j-channel was a little flimsy and stupid me forgot about how much it contracts in cold weather.  Made it hard to take down considering the way I mounted it.

[zwiller]

Todd, make sure you use schedule 40 since I used the cheap thin wall (sch 20?) last year and it was too flimsy for me but it is still probably better than j channel.  As a wooddorker, I think the alternating grain and added glue strength of ply makes it the best wood based material but I have decent saw to rip it.  I realize that 1X is ready to go but my experience with that stuff is that knots and irregular grain cause breaks, especially on longer pieces.  If you pick out good stuff you might luck out.  I suppose I am old school with the wood, but I am familiar with it...  Wood gets no love here...    

[jeffcoast]

count another flexstrip, I wanted the individual control and ease of putting them up evenly. Although after we played with them we didn't use all of the LEDs, just about every 3rd one.

[loveroflife96]

For those that used flex strips and didnt use all the LEDs, how did u sequence?  Just keep those channels off all the time??

[chrisatpsu]

For those that used flex strips and didnt use all the LEDs, how did u sequence?  Just keep those channels off all the time??

^^^  +1

[zwiller]

How?! 

Why?!   

[jnealand]

For those that used flex strips and didnt use all the LEDs, how did u sequence?  Just keep those channels off all the time??

You can cut flexstrips about every 4"

[chrisatpsu]

my plans so far i think is to do something similar as my smart arches, but up on the roof edge...  maybe using a clear tube to place my sections in... 

but i'm still see what others have come up with, in case i see something i like better..

keep the ideas coming...   I'm sure others (especially the 2013 new guys that are starting to join) are interested in the different methods as well...

[mitch09]

I think I am going to do the same as my window frames. 3/4" sch40 with nodes taped on with white electrical tape. My frames looked awesome this year and held up no problem to rain,snow,wind. I will run the pipe jus under my gutters. I haven't figured out how I want to mount them yet. But I think I can do my whole front roofline with 5 SSC

[jeffcoast]

For those that used flex strips and didnt use all the LEDs, how did u sequence?  Just keep those channels off all the time??

I actually just deleted those channels out of the sequence. Which made it much easier to sequence, although channel numbers if I renumber them is an issue, you can't just change the first one in the controller and have them all move the same, it puts them back in sequential order. Hence I just left all of them alone. I am using LSP to sequence if anyone wanted to know.