Seed Pixel question

[jollyzee]

I'm tired of repairing my hoops (1 inch PEX) that have 60/m led strips in them. Yes, I know about friends and strips, but the strips were FREE 2 years ago; now they are costing me repair time. So, I was hoping that these see pixels would be a good replacement.
The main question for me would the brightness once they are inside the hoop.
Does anyone have any thoughts or experience?
Thanks and belayed Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
This year's season is only 10 months away - I can't wait
ZK

 

[merryoncherry]

I'd say it's in the realm of things worth trying; there are many combinations that a lot of people would find suitable.

The LED modules placed on strip vary. Of course, so do the ones used for seeds. (In fact, you can often use similar modules for either application.) This affects the brightness. Seeds might be 5cm spaced, that's 20/meter, but you can double them up (or in a 1" pex tube like that probably cram in 10 strands if you really want). (Not sure if you were using 100% bright on the strip in the first place?) I know of at least 2 kinds of PEX (A and B) and in my experience they're not equally transparent. You'll need to keep the seeds to within 50-100 of the power, depending on the chips and wire used to make them, so this may figure in your plans. Seeds will also fit in a thinner PEX if needed.

So... if you are tired of repairing strip and want to try your hand at repairing seeds instead, I have plenty of scraps of Ray's 5V seeds (5 or 10cm spaced) and could mail some for testing... they fit in an envelope and so postage on them is trivial.

 

[Indigogyre]

I switched my arches to pixels for that reason. Although, seeds in pex does sound interesting and would be a good experiment. If you do something please let us know. I have seed pixels here that i ponder on how to use.

 

[Gilrock]

I have 2" HDPE arches with 60 led/m strips. I would never replace them with pixels they just look too nice. I originally tested 30 led/m strips and they were too choppy for my tastes. Every year I typically have to solder one or two of the strips back together because they seem to split apart at the solder seams. To combat that what I did last year was I zip tie the ribbon strips to the thin white Boscoyo strips so that all tension is on the Boscoyo strip.

By the way I really don't see why there is this explosion of interest in "seed" pixels. What do you get from a seed pixel that's better than a bullet pixel? I hear people making a matrix out of them and I can't imagine its easy to create the same density with them nor how to mount them as even.

 

[Notenoughlights]

I have 2" HDPE arches with 60 led/m strips. I would never replace them with pixels they just look too nice. I originally tested 30 led/m strips and they were too choppy for my tastes. Every year I typically have to solder one or two of the strips back together because they seem to split apart at the solder seams. To combat that what I did last year was I zip tie the ribbon strips to the thin white Boscoyo strips so that all tension is on the Boscoyo strip.

By the way I really don't see why there is this explosion of interest in "seed" pixels. What do you get from a seed pixel that's better than a bullet pixel? I hear people making a matrix out of them and I can't imagine its easy to create the same density with them nor how to mount them as even.

Far lighter - props aren't as heavy
smaller size (yes reduced light output but not by much)
Almost invisible at night so you only see the points of light
Cheaper.

 

[David_AVD]

By the way I really don't see why there is this explosion of interest in "seed" pixels. What do you get from a seed pixel that's better than a bullet pixel?

Seed pixels are just one more tool we can use. I think they look much nicer (and proportional) on smaller trees, especially indoor ones. The inline nature of the lights is useful in itself too.

 

[Gilrock]

Sounds like a lot of the reason people said to buy EVOs. I built a 32x100 megatree with EVOs this year and I was disappointed that the color is not quite as good as bullet pixels. Its real obvious when you have 2 exact trees on both sides of the yard. Primary colors are great but when you get to the mixed colors it was obvious. Like I had an image of a horse and the browns looked great on the bullets and washed out on the EVOs. I played around a bunch with gamma and brightness and was never happy. And it was really only 2 songs out of 21 that made me notice the difference so its easy to miss if you aren't trying to hit certain colors and have an exact copy with bullets to compare.

But I did love that the EVOs were lightweight, less current draw, and packed away in less than half the space. There was one other side effect people might not notice in that bullet pixels will hold the heavy duty Boscoyo strips straighter than EVOs will due to the heavier wire. The slight turn sideways was also messing with the look of the colors.

 

[merryoncherry]

Arent EVOs pretty much seed pixels with a bigger glob of epoxy on them to lock into a 12mm hole?

 

[Skymaster]

Arent EVOs pretty much seed pixels with a bigger glob of epoxy on them to lock into a 12mm hole?

Based on this image from the Mattos site, yes.

 

[Mark_M]

Arent EVOs pretty much seed pixels with a bigger glob of epoxy on them to lock into a 12mm hole?

They appear to be. Mattos said they are not when I showed this on Zoom. The message was 'close to seeds pixels but these our own design pcb and we picked the led. There a little bigger then a normal seed.'
But I think you'll agree from the photos that it is clear lens seed pixels which Ray Wu sells.



An EVO compared to a normal seed pixel:

 

[Mark_M]

Answering to the thread question...

The main question for me would the brightness once they are inside the hoop.
Does anyone have any thoughts or experience?

I have tried. But sadly no photos were taken.

The 5v seed pixels I have are bright in 32mm OD HDPE tubing I have. A very considerable brightness and could be seen with ceiling lights on in the room.
Although I would prefer strip over seed pixels inside the tubing. Because the seeds are 360 light output (although a prominent front side) and this can be seen as dots of light at the bottom of the tube.

 

[Skymaster]

The message was 'close to seeds pixels but these our own design pcb and we picked the led.

Thats an "interesting" one, given that it's unlikely they would have designed the silicon. This appears to be a single WS2812B style all-in-one LED, rather than a PCB, chip and LED combo.

 

[jollyzee]

I'd say it's in the realm of things worth trying; there are many combinations that a lot of people would find suitable.

The LED modules placed on strip vary. Of course, so do the ones used for seeds. (In fact, you can often use similar modules for either application.) This affects the brightness. Seeds might be 5cm spaced, that's 20/meter, but you can double them up (or in a 1" pex tube like that probably cram in 10 strands if you really want). (Not sure if you were using 100% bright on the strip in the first place?) I know of at least 2 kinds of PEX (A and B) and in my experience they're not equally transparent. You'll need to keep the seeds to within 50-100 of the power, depending on the chips and wire used to make them, so this may figure in your plans. Seeds will also fit in a thinner PEX if needed.

So... if you are tired of repairing strip and want to try your hand at repairing seeds instead, I have plenty of scraps of Ray's 5V seeds (5 or 10cm spaced) and could mail some for testing... they fit in an envelope and so postage on them is trivial.

I have plenty of scraps of Ray's 5V seeds (5 or 10cm spaced) and could mail some for testing... they fit in an envelope and so postage on them is trivial.

If that is not a belayed Christmas present, I don't know what is. That would be great.
my address:

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WOW

 

[jollyzee]

No wonder I love this forum. An exchange of ideas.

 

[jollyzee]

I have 2" HDPE arches with 60 led/m strips. I would never replace them with pixels they just look too nice. I originally tested 30 led/m strips and they were too choppy for my tastes. Every year I typically have to solder one or two of the strips back together because they seem to split apart at the solder seams. To combat that what I did last year was I zip tie the ribbon strips to the thin white Boscoyo strips so that all tension is on the Boscoyo strip.

By the way I really don't see why there is this explosion of interest in "seed" pixels. What do you get from a seed pixel that's better than a bullet pixel? I hear people making a matrix out of them and I can't imagine its easy to create the same density with them nor how to mount them as even.

I agree - The arches with the 60/m look fantastic and do love them. This year was the worst; out of the 10, I had to repair 4 and one twice. And each time it was two or more leds that needed to be replaced. Either not sending data correctly or receiving it; and not by a solder joint but in between.
If I testing with other leds will look as good as with strips I'll switch - otherwise not sure. I have a few months
Thanks
ZK