Don't buy Lytworx leds from Bunnings

I have purchase 1 10M roll of the Lytworx rope light, still in original packaging so I'll take that back. I've been using the Direct Deals rope light, and cutting it every 16 LED's, nice and thick unlike the Lytworx type so I can use 13mm clear PVC as a joiner to make closed loops for my stars. get about 24 LED's per metre and with the aid of the heat gun you can get some very tight bends. Most of my display this year is going to be light rope on wire star and tree frames.

Steve
 
I was looking on eBay at some 50m 500 LED warm white LED strings that come with the MFC integrated into the power supply. They are 31V, but appear to use a 2 pin plug out to the string so will also not be suitable for standard DC controllers. Bugger....

If this trend continues (and people want to use this style of lights) we may have to come up with a DC controller that can drive them. Something to think about.
 
I bought a 220 LED Lytworx string set on the way home from work today.

And of course you knew I was going to take the controller apart!

Here's the schematic of the output stage for those playing along at home. :D
 

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So if my understanding of these lights is correct then you can actually use them on a DC controller but you will either get all lights in one colour or every second light (not so handy) depending on what type of light string it is. The type where you get all lights on and different colours depending on polarity could be handy. Run them as red this year and blue next year depending on how you want your set up to look.

So the type where every second light comes on can't have all lights on at once. Are they spaced closer together to help compensate for this.
 
Yes, that's correct Roy.

I need to revise my LED diagrams as I've cut more of the string apart and found it's not wired how I thought it was.
 
I bought a set of 100 from Stratco which says "decoration lighting" on its plastic box; it has the reverse polarity too. Fortunately I bought it for a completely different purpose so it's not a big problem.

You're probably right that the type with the reverse polarity will eventually be all that we can get because it requires less wire to produce.

The single colour sets of 100 frosted lights which say "Magic of Christmas" at The Reject Shop still seem to be the 3-wire type here but it's worth checking before buying. I only bought 2 sets this year so maybe they are older stock.
 
I just bought a Lytworx 10m rope light from Bunnings and it is 36V 2-wire.

I knew it probably would be 2-wire but I wanted another sample to test with a 3-wire to 2-wire converter board I've made up.
 
OK, I finally got around to programming and testing my 2-wire adapter PCB.

This will accept 8 channels from most types of DC controllers and control 4 2-wire LED strings.

Each pair of input channels controls one 2-wire string so that means you have individual control over both sets of colours.

Here's a picture of it with both inputs for one string active.
 

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David_AVD said:
OK, I finally got around to programming and testing my 2-wire adapter PCB.

This will accept 8 channels from most types of DC controllers and control 4 2-wire LED strings.

Each pair of input channels controls one 2-wire string so that means you have individual control over both sets of colours.

Here's a picture of it with both inputs for one string active.
Click to expand...
ok you got me How Much for 3
 
lizardking(adam) said:
ok you got me How Much for 3
Click to expand...

That was just proof of concept. The final product will likely be somewhat different. I'll be aiming to keep the cost down.

I'm also thinking of making it with 2801 (and maybe 2811 as well) pixel style input so that it can tack onto a pixel controller's output.
 
And I've been contemplating something like an 18 channel/9 string dmx controlled version. Looking for driver IC's currently to keep the cost down.
 
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