Pixel Fires

[Jas0r]

Hi

Im interested to know how comon it is for pixels to catch fire? They seem pretty low risk to me but then I just read about @ozzimadman and his catching fire.

I run all 5V rather than 12V so I would kinda assume the risk is lower?
Im going away for a few days and was planning leaving the display running. Is that a bad idea?

 

[Katekate]

not very common.

5v is less risk, but 5v fires do still happen.

 

[djgra79]

Based on that thousands (possibly millions) of pixels that have been made & used over the last few years, I would say it's not "common" however there certainly was a large spike in fires over the last 12-18 months.
This website was created to try and record instances where issues have occured and all the relevant info associated to it. It's an interesting read looking at the data tab and filtering the results.
The data confirms Kate's statement, that 5v has indeed suffered far less fires, but is not risk free. What the data can't tel us is how many people use 5v vs 12v (that's a whole other story) but from my observations, the US guys are mostly 12v ("mo volts mo better") where as here in Aus there is a larger pool of 5v users.

 

[foodi]

if had mine for over 7 years outside and inside on a trree never had a fire had a few short out but thats it as they are all 5v 12v not shure as the voltage is higher which i guess is more of risk if anything goes wrong

 

[Skymaster]

Keep in mind as well that people will wave their arms and stamp like mad for one pixel burning out. No one jumps up and down and says my 10s of thousands of pixels are fine. Likewise the data in the above site is also skewed because of that fact.
Its intention is good however the underlying data cannot paint an accurate picture of what the situation is really like.
Last time I looked, the questions they asked to gather the data were inaccurate. For example, what voltage are your pixels? 5V or 12V. Next question, are they regulator or resistor. Both questions were mandatory. But for 5V, the answer is neither, they don't use resistors or regulators.

The other thing to consider is how the pixels are used. Are they in coro? Is the coro flame proof? Have you got it mounted to your house, or just in the yard? What is your house made out of? Keep in mind that many of the US places where you see these larger fire events is because they have a polystyrene cladding, which burns like mad.

So take everying you read online with a grain of salt. Come to your own conclusion and risk factor.

 

[merryoncherry]

Generally true that we don't get a good sense of the denominator, but there have been some incidents were a vendor admitted that the risk of fire was unnecessarily high, and that they made design changes to reduce that risk.

Other than that, it seems very rare, and it has never been clear to me if the fires originated in the pixel or wiring near the pixel, if the user did anything unusual / off spec, etc.

 

[Jas0r]

Cheers for the input, I'll weigh it all up but so far I have had a pretty good run for failures.