smart string flex strips

[kjam22]

I haven't read too many comments (good or bad) about the flexible strips.  I am thinking about going with the flexible strips and the Coro diffuser (from holiday coro) for my roof line.  Any comments???

[mykroft]

Will let ya know shortly - I got 12 lengths of them coming.....

[JoeFromOzarks]

I forgot I bought flex strips, been wrestling with the node strings!!!   I'll test those as soon as I can and post results. 

joe

[batdive]

The flexible strips are pretty cool if you plan on something flat with a more directional light pattern.  I am planning on using them for arches just zip tie them to some PVC and have it face the street.

I am really happy with them and glad I got them.  The strips with the light diffusers would look good and offer a nice look


Hope that helps

-JS

[smartcontrols]

I have been working with them a lot. Like everything else they have both pros and cons. A lot of it would be based on how you are using them and how far away your audience will be. 2 things I did not expect is, if you have many of them close together, they are a lot brighter than I had expected and they put out more heat then I would have thought.

That is just 2 things I did not expect. Not sure what info you are looking for or how you plan to use them. I made a 75 column by 60 row matrix (4500 nodes) on a 10 foot by 8 foot wood frame. So I have a lot of nodes in a small area.
 
I will try to post a video of my matrix over the weekend. Note the word try. I tried to take it last night at 50% intensity and it was just a big spot. I will try to night at 30% intensity.

[batdive]

That is just 2 things I did not expect. Not sure what info you are looking for or how you plan to use them. I made a 75 column by 60 row matrix (4500 nodes) on a 10 foot by 8 foot wood frame. So I have a lot of nodes in a small area.
 

Hmm your kind of past the Xmas light display and moved more on to JumboTron.  Put the game on that baby =) HAHAH 



-JS

[dmaccole]

I am planning on using them for arches just zip tie them to some PVC and have it face the street.

JS:

This is something I'm considering, so any progress on that particular project would be of interest to me. Please keep us updated.

Thanks.

\dmc

[rrowan]

Do the flex strips bend in a way a arch would need?

By looking at them it seems they would be better with wrapping them around a tube/column. A arch would seem to be trying to bend them in the wrong direction. But this is only my assumption and no real prove.

Cheers

Rick R.

[taybrynn]

The flex strips are good overall quality, probably closer to a retail grade product than any of the other node options. 

I also want to use them for arches and one strip per.

They come inside a pretty nice rubberized sleeve that protects the very thin flex strip and seems to increase the light dispersion a bit.

While they are NOT ideal for wrapping onto an arch, unless your talking about the LED(s) pointing UP, they can be attached sideways onto an arch .... and allow for enough side bending to pull that off, but may require a fair number of zip ties to do properly.

I've been toying around with ways to further enhance the light dispersion while using them.  And thus far, the best I have found is using clear tubing I found at Fleet Farm for around $.29 per foot.   That was in IA, I haven't found this product in CO yet.  The tubing was 9/16 ID and 5/8 OD or something like that.   (so thin walled, which was better than thick walled tubing which absorbed too much light).  THey require over a 1/2" ID (inside diameter) to fit ... but inside a clear tub does seem to increase the light viewing angles and might also make attaching to an arch a little easier ...

[dmoore]

Do the flex strips bend in a way a arch would need?

By looking at them it seems they would be better with wrapping them around a tube/column. A arch would seem to be trying to bend them in the wrong direction. But this is only my assumption and no real prove.

Rick -

Last year I just zip tied pixel strip onto a 1" PVC pipe that was 10ft long and didn't have any issues - easy as pie to make and take down.  You can see it close up and during the day light in this "behind the scenes" video:

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[therealbigjim]

Quite a set up.....the arch looks nice and even.

[dmaccole]

You can see it close up and during the day light in this "behind the scenes" video:

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David:

Thanks for pointing that out. Of course I'd watched that video a few months back, but that was before I started thinking about pixels for arches.

Would you think that a tighter radius could be achieved? My arches are need to be short and tight ...

Thanks again.

\dmc
 

[Corey872]

Generally on forums, you tend to hear about problems - not successes.  So, not hearing about the strips probably means they just work - minimal issues.  I've picked up 8 strips to play around with and they all seem to work fine.  No big issues, so I'd second the opinion they are pretty close to full retail quality.

They bend into a very tight radius (~1 inch or less) in the 'bendy' direction.  If you wanted them on an arch facing 'forward', that would be a little harder bend.  You could cut the strip every 3 nodes and put in very short jumper wires - that would easily let you get shorter radii and you probably wouldn't notice the arch was made up of short lengths of straight nodes until the radius gets very short.

[dmaccole]

If you wanted them on an arch facing 'forward', that would be a little harder bend.  You could cut the strip every 3 nodes and put in very short jumper wires - that would easily let you get shorter radii and you probably wouldn't notice the arch was made up of short lengths of straight nodes until the radius gets very short.

Corey:

Thanks. I guess I'll just buy some to try it out.

\dmc

[tng5737]

I'll just put this out there - as an alternative to the flex strip for arches, you might consider using rectangles.  With the wires in between bending radius of an arch is a no brainer.  Also, fewer channels to program and way cheaper!