Anybody order 2811 pixel strings WITH connectors from Ray Wu?

nutz4lights

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Dec 12, 2012
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SSIA.

I am looking at ordering upwards of 100-150 strings in the coming months and after soldering connectors on the first batch of 5-10 strings... I am thinking about trying to have Ray sell them to me with the connectors soldered on already... just curious if anybody else has ever done this.

Thanks!
 

barbotte

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Dec 14, 2011
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pembroke,on
ray has done it .. he usualy only charge around 1$ a string to do it ...with the quantity your going to order 100 plus it migh be worth it to do it ,,,,cher best action would be to ask ray directly ..
cheer
 

markl

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Mar 9, 2013
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Austin, TX
I ordered these.

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/12mm-RGB-full-LED-pixel-module-WS-2811IC-DC5V-input-50pcs-a-string-input-end-with/677874402.html

I think the cost of the pixels without connector is $17 (USD), so $4.50 more. The connectors themselves look to be 2.20, so a 2.30 upcharge for having one of them already connected. I guess that's questionable value, but I was just ordering a few to get my feet wet, and I figured I had enough to deal with without having to put more together. Not sure I'll do it when I place my bigger order.

Mark
 

nutz4lights

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markl said:
I ordered these.

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/12mm-RGB-full-LED-pixel-module-WS-2811IC-DC5V-input-50pcs-a-string-input-end-with/677874402.html

I think the cost of the pixels without connector is $17 (USD), so $4.50 more. The connectors themselves look to be 2.20, so a 2.30 upcharge for having one of them already connected. I guess that's questionable value, but I was just ordering a few to get my feet wet, and I figured I had enough to deal with without having to put more together. Not sure I'll do it when I place my bigger order.

Mark

A couple of bucks per string would be totally worth it for me. Do you have a picture of what the joint between the waterproof extension cord and the light string looks like? Heat shrink? Professional looking? The other thing for me is that, I would probably just go with the much shorter pigtails that are under a buck each.

I definitely plan on getting in touch with Ray, but the pictures included at the link above didn't show the interface between the string and the extension cord section.

Thanks!
 

kane

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nutz4lights said:
A couple of bucks per string would be totally worth it for me. Do you have a picture of what the joint between the waterproof extension cord and the light string looks like? Heat shrink? Professional looking? The other thing for me is that, I would probably just go with the much shorter pigtails that are under a buck each.

I definitely plan on getting in touch with Ray, but the pictures included at the link above didn't show the interface between the string and the extension cord section.
I've had him organise these before, and was a couple dollars per string (one on each end), so definitely worth it.. And the job looked good, heat-shrinked well. Only issue I've had with Ray's connectors over the last couple years is that he's used a couple different suppliers for the connectors, and while some still fit (tightly), others don't, due to an incompatible layout.. As long as you order them all together it's no problem, but otherwise you just need to send photos if you want to ensure you get matches!
 

nutz4lights

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Kane said:
I've had him organise these before, and was a couple dollars per string (one on each end), so definitely worth it.. And the job looked good, heat-shrinked well. Only issue I've had with Ray's connectors over the last couple years is that he's used a couple different suppliers for the connectors, and while some still fit (tightly), others don't, due to an incompatible layout.. As long as you order them all together it's no problem, but otherwise you just need to send photos if you want to ensure you get matches!
Thanks for the info Kane. My plan was to order a bunch of strings with the connectors attached and then to have a bunch of the connectors lying around for the future. When I placed my initial order with Ray, I ordered 100 pairs each of the 3-core white and 2-core white. If I were ever to need to change anything, I would keep that stash around to do so. I think some of the next strings will be black and I would definitely get some of the black ones too.
 

markl

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Sorry for the delay. My pixels are the "bullet" type. There is no external soldering; the wires from the connector are soldered directly to the pixel PCB and then silicon is injected around it all to make it one unit. I think this is a better method than just soldering cables together *if* done well. Unfortunately it looks like the process is a bit hit or miss.

If you can see the pictures, you can see the first one looks like the wires were pulled during injection, causing the casing to be "spread" at the base. The second one looks better. All in all, I think I'll put some extra waterproofing on these before exposing them. I would think this process would work better with the square base pixels which have the wires coming from the backside.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/a2bgjp78vgyrnt3/IMG_1808.JPG
https://www.dropbox.com/s/45qtctgj8o25mhk/IMG_1809.JPG
~
~
 

nutz4lights

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Thanks Mark. Were you able to tell Ray "please connect the green wire to ground, blue wire to data, and red wire to +V" or did he do as he pleased?
 
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