Newbie

[crazymofo]

Hi everyone. I'm not new to christmas lights but this year after seeing a friends display of addressable led's, I have decided to take the dive and learn some cool new stuff and take it to the next level. I have been reading the 101 manual which will be a great help once i get going, and after some planning i am now ready to buy some strips and channel to start early lining the roofline to spend the year learning. I am going to be buying from Ray Wu, and I have read that emailing him directly is the way to go. Am i right to assume that he will be able to supply custom length strips eg. 2.2m, 3.7m etc? Looking forward to getting started and learning!

Cheers, Aaron

 

[Mark_M]

Welcome to ACL @crazymofo !
Glad to see you've read over the 101 manual, it's a great start for newbies.

Pixel strips have cuttable tabs every few LEDs.
12v strip tends to have 3 LEDs as one controlled pixel and 5v with 1 LED as a controlled pixel.

Example image here is 12v. You can only cut on the line between copper pads.



Rolls usually come in 5 meter lengths but you may be able to ask for a longer roll.
Although you would need to power inject at 5m anyway.


I will also warn that strips are harder to waterproof. Many use strip but it has gone out of favour with wire string pixels being easier to repair.

 

[crazymofo]

I'm using strips in channel lined under the gutters as a form of permanent lighting, and going to add on from there. Once i get this first project out of the way, string pixels for various other additions will be on my to do list. Soldering is something that I am looking to teach myself as well, doesn't look super difficult but definately something that will take a bit of trial and error. Always up for a challenge though.

 

[BAZMick]

Gday Crazymofo,
I have a feeling we've met before
Happy to lend a hand and show you the basics in setup and soldering.
Cheers Bazzy

 

[i13]

If you don't have one already, you might want to get a decent soldering iron for learning to solder and just generally doing a lot of it, especially with strips because they are prone to overheating. Having an adjustable temperature (I prefer digital), an appropriate tip size and a good amount of power should help. I overheated some strips in 2014 and they worked fine at first. What happened was the copper pads (in Mark_M's picture) fell off of the strips in the following seasons.

If you plan to buy strips, I suggest asking Ray for some end caps to fit them in case you need to change the lengths. Ask him to put holes in all of them or he will assume that you only want wires at one end of each strip and he'll send 50% without holes. I don't see the point of them without holes because the silicone glue that I'm already using seals up the holes when I don't use them. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/459153462.html

When choosing silicone glue to seal ends and joins in strips, it should be neutral cure. I'd be cautious about using the cheapest available. I've had this discolour in the sun or eventually turn bad in the tube so that it stays sticky and doesn't set. Make sure it sets before using it on strips. When joining strips, I use some silicone glue on the inside and outside of the strip's sheath with heatshrink over the top. Clear heatshrink is not essential; I've used black heatshrink and I still can't see it unless it overlaps the LEDs. I shrink it just enough to fit the size of the strip.

 

[crazymofo]

Thanks for all the tips, quite overwhelming at all the options there are to consider. Once i start i will be fine though.