LED strips on Conduit - Manageable Lengths?

BradsXmasLights

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I'm about to start slicing up my RGB strip on to conduits.

I'm rather undecided as to weather I should slice it in to many to 2 to 2.5m sections - or is it stick to single much longer lengths? Each length would have connectors on either end.

Shorter Lengths:
For:
* Easier to store & handle?
* Easier to transport (eg: fits in car - might be good for parties as well!)
* Can swapover smaller 'pre-fab' sections for repair

Against:
* Main concern... will the increased cap between the stripes end to end (for the cable connections) be noticeable from the ground? Considering all the other lights on the strip are evenly placed, will an 50mm/2" gap be that noticable?
* More joins/work :)


Be interested to know what others who have been done this path have experienced.
 

Superman

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Driver said:
Against:
* Main concern... will the increased cap between the stripes end to end (for the cable connections) be noticeable from the ground? Considering all the other lights on the strip are evenly placed, will an 50mm/2" gap be that noticable?
* More joins/work :)


Be interested to know what others who have been done this path have experienced.

there's no noticable gap as they are space at 100mm intervals anyway. I don't use connectors for the strip and just solder wires directly onto the pads and slightly overlap them when attaching it to conduit.
as you may or may not have seen ,I also use strips of coro over the top of the strip for sun protection and to dull them down a bit. they really are quite bright when your whole house is outlined with them.
S6300015%20%28Small%29.JPG
 

BradsXmasLights

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Ah i see what you mean with the cable overlap now. The Ray Wu connectors have the cable at one end so that could work for me too. But i still want to make the sections dismantable.

How workable are your lengths superman?
 

fasteddy

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One thing to be careful with when using near or full length conduit lengths is that if its not held from the centre and instead you pick it up from one end the bend created due to the weight can be so much that you can damage your strip, so always hold from the middle or if not then minimise as much bend as possible when moving around.
 

Superman

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My strip length is no longer then 3m in some sections some are 2m it depends on if they are mounted to the horizontal or whether they are on the roof apex for me.
My conduit is up the 5m in a single length. and i store it under the eaves on shelves after Chrismas.
 

fasteddy

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I thought i might add some pictures on my strip mounted to the gutter and how two pieces are connected. I feed power from both ends and have an overlapping join which cant be easily seen at night.

[attachimg=1]

[attachimg=2]
 

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BradsXmasLights

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Thanks for the pic Fasteddy.

In the end - as you can probably tell from my videos - i did end up with a join gap on my long roofline rises as I didn't have an overlap. Not perfect - but no big deal either.

As for managable lengths I ended up with 3m long sections max. This was a consistant length since i already had 2 sections of 3 meters by themselves. Sorta glad I didn't make them shorter, as soldering & heatshrinking all the connectors on to the silicon filled strips was a time consuming job.
 

Benslights

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the pictures are awsome for alls starting out in the rgb world. makes it nice and clear for us of the different ways they can be done thanks for that eddy. learning so much from this site every day
 

Bevo

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Great photos guys.

Fasteddy did you need to use corro over the top of your gutter strips?

And if you don't mind me asking what are you using to mount your conduit to the gutter?
 

Slite

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Bevo: If you look closer at the pic you can see that every now and then there is a MUCH thicker tiewrap that looks like it's used to secure the conduit to the gutters. At least thats the way I interpret it :)

/Stefan
 

fasteddy

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Slite said:
Bevo: If you look closer at the pic you can see that every now and then there is a MUCH thicker tiewrap that looks like it's used to secure the conduit to the gutters. At least thats the way I interpret it :)

/Stefan

You are correct. I used a black cable tie surface holders siliconed to the gutter that stays all year around and doesnt look that noticeable. I then just attach the conduit with cable ties all in a few minutes and its all up nice and straight
 

fasteddy

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Bevo said:
Great photos guys.

Fasteddy did you need to use corro over the top of your gutter strips?

And if you don't mind me asking what are you using to mount your conduit to the gutter?

No just straight strip no coro used here. I actually prefer it this way as i want the lines for the gutter and roof to really stand out sharply
 
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