What do you think would work best

[ratroder]

I am thinking of outlining my roofs (second story house). I was wondering what you guys think what would be the best choice for doing this. Should I use the nodes, Or the flexible strips?

Thanks,
Ratroder

[rrowan]

Hi Ratroder,

Personally I would use string nodes. Unless you have a way to angle the flexible strings to street line of sight then you might not get full brightness. I don't know if this matters to you or not but I think the string nodes will be cheaper.

Flexible strips might be a great for things like arches (of course there is a chance to blind someone with them)

Just my 2 cents

Cheers

Rick R.

[fasteddy]

It really depends on what effect your looking for. The strip has a look that is somewhat between a string and a rope light. These look great for outlines and pump out a lot of light. The only issue is that not much light wash is given back onto the house and this is where RGB floods come in handy. For me i found it better this way as it gave me much more control of where the light was.

The LED piixel strings (Super strings here) i found to be great for things like bushes, mega and mini trees and things where you want the light to wash and be viewed from all angles.

The LED rectangular and square nodes are great for roof fill ins and using for things like coro stars.

These are only my own suggestions after using these lights in 2010, everyone will have there own ideas on how to best use the different types of RGB elements

Below is a video of my RGB display this year and how i used the different types of available RGB lights

1: For the outlines of the garden, roof and windows i used standard non digital RGB strip controlled through a DC controller.
2: For the gutters i used the digital RGB strip (like the CCR) to help give the illusion of the whole house being all pixels, I also used the digital strip for both the mini and large matrix
3: For the roof tiles i used the rectangular RGB modules
4: For the spiral tree i used the pixel strings
5: And then finally used 12 RGB floods across the house to give light wash back onto the house.

All the strip was mounted on electrical 25mm conduit and then attached to the roof, the light dispersion was great as the viseo shows and I did slightly angle the strip lights towards the audience

Video quality is not the best but you can get an idea of some of the different types of RGB lights used

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[tng5737]

re: your video - On the left front of your garage about half way up the peak there appears to be some kind of square matrix which flashes periodically.   Can you tell me what that object is and how it was made.

[fasteddy]

re: your video - On the left front of your garage about half way up the peak there appears to be some kind of square matrix which flashes periodically.   Can you tell me what that object is and how it was made.

That is just my old video camera not handling the light very well. I had to actually turn down the exposure because it was so bright. Looks like i need a 3CCD camera for good RGB video

[batdive]

Eddie do you have 2 matrices? 

If there is two can you give the dimensions of both for reference?  In measurement and pixels?


Thanks in advance,

JS

PS:  Nice set up and song.

[Trepidati0n]

I would recommend the SS nodes for the following reasons

1.  You can customize the length very easily to within 3.5"

2.  Since it is a effectively a 3 wire ribbon cable, it is pretty easy to tack them down to a "strip" of wood and all be perfectly straight with just a small amount of tension.  What I did was take a piece of 1"x2" pine and put a small shallow channel (~1/8" deep) channel in it and thus I can "staple" on top with no chance of damaging the smart string.

3.  If a "pixel" dies you lose one pixel if it is a strip, you lost the strip.



#2 can be done with a table saw and a dado blade.  Can probably get the strips for your entire house in maybe 1 hour of effort and pennies on the foot.  A bit of outdoor paint and they will last for years.

[fasteddy]

I would recommend the SS nodes for the following reasons

1.  You can customize the length very easily to within 3.5"

2.  Since it is a effectively a 3 wire ribbon cable, it is pretty easy to tack them down to a "strip" of wood and all be perfectly straight with just a small amount of tension.  What I did was take a piece of 1"x2" pine and put a small shallow channel (~1/8" deep) channel in it and thus I can "staple" on top with no chance of damaging the smart string.

3.  If a "pixel" dies you lose one pixel if it is a strip, you lost the strip.



#2 can be done with a table saw and a dado blade.  Can probably get the strips for your entire house in maybe 1 hour of effort and pennies on the foot.  A bit of outdoor paint and they will last for years.

Do you actually have any experience with these RGB elements because your information seems to be incorrect and i wouldn't want anyone getting the wrong information.

The strip and the strings work in the exact same way, the only difference is the LED that is used, the number of LEDs used and in some cases the voltage. The failure type would be exactly the same so if a node failed that didn't pass the information onto the next node then that's the same for both the strip and the strings and the modules and you would loose the rest until you removed and replaced that pixel/node. The communication for the strip, the modules and the SS string are all exact the same as they all use the same IC chip so all that changes is the way it looks.

The strip can be cut into 100mm sections as well as the modules can be cut into singles. The strip can be easily resealed with just silicone.

Now if using the non digital strip it will only fail for that 100mm section and not the whole strip.

For outlining I found the strip to be actually better as you can just attach it to some 25mm electrical conduit and then mount it into place, the strings I have found if not all aligned the same way change their intensity as the LEDs are brighter looking straight at them compared to a side view and some people may not like that inconsistency as this is always one of those things that goes down to personal opinions and the look that they are after.

The other thing to consider is that the strings are not entirely waterproof if not given the extra bit of work as suggested by RJ and many other forums. It really depends on how you mount them will determine if you need to do this extra work. The strip and modules on the other hand requires no extra weatherproofing

I hope that may clear up some misconceptions.

[fasteddy]

Eddie do you have 2 matrices? 

If there is two can you give the dimensions of both for reference?  In measurement and pixels?


Thanks in advance,

JS

PS:  Nice set up and song.

Yes 2 matrices, the small one is made up of 1 x 5 metre strip cut into 5 pieces to give a 5 x 10 matrix, the spacing between the strip is 100mm so 50 RGB channels

The larger matrix uses 4 x 5 metre strips, each strip is cut into 4 sections to give me a 12 x 16 matrix  again spaced at 100mm apart. So 192 RGB channels

Both these matrices are then covered with corex to help disperse the light better.

[ratroder]

what i was thinking of doing is along the lines of Trepidati0n's idea. just taking some 1x2 and attaching the nodes/strip to them and then laying them on my roof.

i was thinking of outlining the gutters, the sides leading up to where the second story begins, and then the whole second story roof.

i think i might be going with the nodes because i think it would end up being cheaper then the strips.

thanks for the advice.

[mokeefe]

Yes 2 matrices, the small one is made up of 1 x 5 metre strip cut into 5 pieces to give a 5 x 10 matrix, the spacing between the strip is 100mm so 50 RGB channels

The larger matrix uses 4 x 5 metre strips, each strip is cut into 4 sections to give me a 12 x 16 matrix  again spaced at 100mm apart. So 192 RGB channels

Both these matrices are then covered with corex to help disperse the light better.

Eddy,

Do you have any closeup photos of those matrices that you could share?  I'm kind of curious to see the construction details.  It's very effective, especially in that song.

-Mike

[dmoore]

Also take a look at this discussion where some of the same ideas were discussed:

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[remixsam]

OMG Fasteddy!  your display is simply AMAZING!  I watched your video about 12 times! love it LoVe it LOVE IT!

[fasteddy]

Yes 2 matrices, the small one is made up of 1 x 5 metre strip cut into 5 pieces to give a 5 x 10 matrix, the spacing between the strip is 100mm so 50 RGB channels

The larger matrix uses 4 x 5 metre strips, each strip is cut into 4 sections to give me a 12 x 16 matrix  again spaced at 100mm apart. So 192 RGB channels

Both these matrices are then covered with corex to help disperse the light better.

Eddy,

Do you have any closeup photos of those matrices that you could share?  I'm kind of curious to see the construction details.  It's very effective, especially in that song.

-Mike

I have the instructions on how to build the matix here: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login

[fasteddy]

OMG Fasteddy!  your display is simply AMAZING!  I watched your video about 12 times! love it LoVe it LOVE IT!

Im glad you like it, but it shows whats possible with RGB and it does look a 1000 x better in real life. This year should be a lot better due to software advances and from my personal learnings from 2010