2025: Jumping back in

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BigRedNole

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Dec 6, 2016
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I started about 4 years ago with pixel lights as the outline to the main front windows on the house. The next step was to get lights on the eaves, but the height is too much for me to deal with. Back then with covid, I had time to deal with the bullet pixels. Now, I don't have that kind of time. There have been some advancements that may make doing this easier. I even went as far as buying a Pro projector and not doing pixels. That is not going to happen well because my entire front of house is brick and it is not good to look at (so much for 8000 true lumens).

Things that are making me rethink getting into pixels again:
  1. Permanent LED tracks that can be installed under the eaves. 24V versions that limit power injection. This would solve my biggest issue from before in an easier to manage solution. I just need to do the math to know how many channels the outlines would take. I think I have 130ft of eaves and need to determine whether to have 5 or 10 pucks per meter.
  2. Bullet pixels became bulky and a pain getting up including the hardware to mount in the windows, dealing with failures, etc.
  3. I have been reviewing information on Seed Pixels which would helps solve some of my issues from before. They can be used for mini trees, arches, and other display ideas without having to deal with the bulk of bullets. I have seen the greenhouse channels people use for a matrix. Would be great if something similar existed for window outlines.
  4. Leaping arches can be done fairly easily from what I have seen with seed pixels or led strips
Does anyone have thoughts or ideas on routes to take?
 
So I want to be clear that there is no easy way to do this. My philosophy is to put as much time and effort as I possibly can into making it easier the next year. Permanent eave lighting definitely falls under that category. I rented a lift and installed all of mine and it's a life-saver. I used Permatrack and have a pixel every 2 inches, but honestly I don't think it matters which option you use, just don't go cheap, you don't want to have to go back up somewhere you needed a lift to access.

Seed pixels are great, but you want to make sure you get the ones with heavier wire. The ones listed as 20AWG are much better to work with. I also order them in strings with xConnect ends already on them to minimize soldering them. The lighter wires are much more difficult to customize string length, and the closer they are together, the more difficult it becomes. That said, they are better than strip in every format I've tried. If I were starting now, my mega tree would be seed pixels so I wouldn't have all the loops of wire on the back of every strip getting constantly tangled. The reduction in weight would also be a huge benefit.

As far as windows, I outlined most of mine with Permatrack. You could also just attach seed pixels to an EMT frame and have mounting points at the corners. There are a lot of ways to make it easier to put the display up in future years. They tend to require a lot of work the first year, but it pays off in the long run. You may also have to consider storage, and a roll of lights takes a lot less storage than a rigid window frame made out of EMT.
 
Thank you for the info and recommendation of seed pixels. That was the route I was thinking of going due to weight, cost, and the belief they would make my life easier because of weight. I have seen videos of the mini trees with them, some videos on arches with seed pixels and strip leds.

For the permanent lights, I do plan on getting the quality ones with pucks. Once I have measurements, I can determine if 12V or 24V would be best. For install, I think I have someone that can do it relatively affordable. If any 1M track goes out, getting someone to replace the section shouldn't be a problem.

Storage has been a concern as well. The EMT frames take up a ton of space. They also get very brittle with the elbow connectors and have broken taking them down. They also get quite heavy. I figured with arches, they will fit better in my garage overhead storage easier if I design the size properly. The mini trees can collapse easily into storage bins. 4' of EMT is not difficult to store and the cost of 500 seed pixes is only about $40 or so.
 
Last edited:
CargoLights said:
I meant galvanized steel EMT like this stuff. It won't get brittle, and you can buy steel 90 degree elbows for the corners. You can also buy hangers for it, or it will snap to a magnet if you mount some. There are also screws in the elbows, so you could collapse them down if you need to.
Click to expand...
I current have 1/2" emt for my window frames. They were designed with Chromatrim and bullet pixels. The 90 degree elbow joints were the issue. If you moved it slightly or the frame flexed a little, those elbow joints just broke. The Chromatrim and bullet pixels add quite a bit of weight that added to the problems. Storing 7 of them as frames wound up taking a lot of wall space in the garage. I am hoping to find a way to be able to break the future frames down easily for storage.

Seed pixels and their weight is what started me thinking again. I know people have used those greenhouse solar panel things to build a seed pixel matrix. If there was a single channel plastic tube that these slide into, it would make it very simple and easy to breakdown and store.
 
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