square pixels

dannyp

Full time elf
Joined
May 12, 2010
Messages
262
Location
Sydney
Having re-read the 101 manual, I am after some square inteligent pixels. The ones in the 101 manual seem to be outdated as we have moved to Ws2811 chip. Cabn anyone advise if they have used the attached pixels and how you have found their waterproofing?

http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/DC12V-input-WS2811-pixel-node-100pcs-a-string-IP68-rated/701799_735789822.html

Also as these are 12V, am I right in thinking that I will not need to inject every 50 lights, but that every 100 will do?

Thanks
 

kane

Dedicated elf
Joined
Dec 23, 2010
Messages
1,033
Location
Trigg (Northern suburbs of Perth)
DannyP said:
Having re-read the 101 manual, I am after some square inteligent pixels. The ones in the 101 manual seem to be outdated as we have moved to Ws2811 chip. Cabn anyone advise if they have used the attached pixels and how you have found their waterproofing?

http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/DC12V-input-WS2811-pixel-node-100pcs-a-string-IP68-rated/701799_735789822.html

Also as these are 12V, am I right in thinking that I will not need to inject every 50 lights, but that every 100 will do?

I haven't used those exact pixels, so can't speak for the waterproofing. But I use similar 12v pixels (although with tm1804 chips) and they are fine in strings of 100 without power injection. (in fact I don't even inject power at the end of the strings, they're just powered from the start)
 

Beefer

Apprentice elf
Joined
Feb 19, 2012
Messages
55
Their waterproofing is excellent and they are by far the best - these are the newer ones which have had the little circuit board and LED placed inside the square housing and then molten pvc poured in to seal them - they seem to be way better than the straight injection molded ones where water can occasionally seep in through the cables.
 

magii

Apprentice elf
Joined
Dec 27, 2010
Messages
50
Location
4530 Larissa Drive, Lawrence, KS
These are crap. They are better than the soft silicone molded but they have two major flaws. One, the liquid resin that is poured in rarely penetrates all the way to the bottom of the LED. This leaves a little pocket right under the base where moisture and water accumulates and rusts out the bare exposed leads on the LED. Seccond, the silicone jacket that they fit and pour into is soft. It easily pulls away from the base of the bulb and allows additional moisture into the top end, right where there is no resin.

Weather testing of RGB Pixel nodes

Those problems and more came into the design of the new pixels I had made. They are listed on Ray's site under Technicolor Pixels. If you want to see them performing under stress tests watch here.

Technicolor Pixels IP tests
 

Beefer

Apprentice elf
Joined
Feb 19, 2012
Messages
55
Hmm, I hadn't seen these problems - but only had a couple of weeks outdoors with them.

I have technicolor pixels on order anyway, so problem solved :)
 

jediknight2

Full time elf
Joined
Aug 30, 2012
Messages
196
Location
North Carolina
I used the 2801 version of those last year and got away with injecting every 200 pixels with NO color loss towards the end. The flaw being described isn't as bad as it seems. I thought I was going to have issues because of a few pixels that went out from water intrusion...I lost 2 pixels out of 700 from it. Far less than the loss in my incandescents last year. I am in the process of going through my pixels right now and I have found 5 so far out of 300 that have rust on the inside. In addition, I did write Ray on this last year and he was aware of the manufacturing flaw and it seemed like he was working to fix it.

That being said, I just ordered 7 more strings of the version you linked to. However, I DO like the technicolor..you just have to decide if its worth the extra 15 bux per string which would have come out to 105 dollars for me...
 
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