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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Group Buy: Budget CRI 95 LED Strip Lights

Nick Gardner said:
I've been running them straight off an AB battery. They get a little warmer at higher voltage, but so far I haven't had any problems.
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I haven't had any problems either.

Nils Rausch said:
I haven't bought one, but there a nylon china balls, which might be a bit stronger, and using them with LED heat is not a problem either.
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I tested out a nylon lantern and didn't like it at all. The built quality was bad and the color felt weird. I went back to paper lanterns.

Manfred Lopez said:
I'm so glad this thread has gotten back to practical how-to stuff.
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Agreed!
 
One thing to keep in mind is that while imperfect power regulation will certainly shorten the life of the lights--at $79 a roll they're cheaper than kinoflow tubes. Let'em burn. For instance I'm not going to spend $150 on regulated P-Tap adapters to extend the life of a $79 strip of bulbs 30% (wild guess) longer.
 
What do you all believe the work life durability (hours,years) of these strips will be when we are running them without regulators?
 
I'm pretty sure I posted these before but I have upgraded them with the new LEDs from Brandon and they are excellent. The dewalt one is based on a 14.4v dewalt flashlight with a 2" x 14.5" ID PVC glued to flashlight head. great work light too. Cheap and easy to get new dewalt batteries at any home depot. The cycle rate of these batteries it good too. The LEDs don't seem to have issues with the 14.4 voltage. I have made a bunch of these and they hold up well. They can also stand on their own.

The other one is based on a Lantern Lock armature from film tools, http://www.filmtools.com/lanternlock-17-mogul.html. I removed the mogul socket and mounted a 2" x 14.5" ID PVC to it. I used a 4 pin xlr so give me various option for both ac and dc power. This is very light.
 

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sam windell said:
What do you all believe the work life durability (hours,years) of these strips will be when we are running them without regulators?
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They are rated at thousands of hours at 12V. If 16V cuts that in half, which I doubt, it's still a lot.

Jamon Lewis said:
@Brandon- I never got those 2 daylight rolls I ordered.
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I'll check on this tomorrow after we wrap for the day. Very early call (4am).

Peter Strietmann said:
I'm pretty sure I posted these before but I have upgraded them with the new LEDs from Brandon and they are excellent..
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Looks great Peter! I'm using a hacked lantern lock China ball tomorrow with 9 big LED panels on the ceiling. I'll post pictures this week!
 
Jamon Lewis said:
Anybody know of any place to get 3 conductor LED cables for variable strips? I only see them in 2 connector and 4 connector.
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Do you mean the snap on connectors? Those were custom made for us.
 
No, I've been soldering and will continue to, I'm looking for 3 wires grouped, just like the ones that came with the connector kits for the fixed colored strips (which were 2, one black and 1 red) for this GB but with 3 wires instead of 2.
 
Thanks Corey, FYI what gauge should be attached to the strips? I've been running an equivalent of over 10 rolls with no problems with the gauge I have (which IDK exactly. i'll have to check) so it must be ok.
 
This is a very handy calculator! I made one in excel, but had to look for all the formulars needed.
What i found suprising, how fast one needs thick wires, when running for just a few meters or when using just a bit longer strips. This is due to the relativly small voltage of the strips.
2m of LED strip, with 3m of cable already needs a 1,5mm² or 15 AWG wire.
Using 5m LED strip and 3m cable, one needs 4mm² or 11 AWG.

I ended up with a collection of different sized cables, which I use depending on the lenght of cable or LED.
 
Peter Strietmann said:
I'm pretty sure I posted these before but I have upgraded them with the new LEDs from Brandon and they are excellent. The dewalt one is based on a 14.4v dewalt flashlight with a 2" x 14.5" ID PVC glued to flashlight head. great work light too. Cheap and easy to get new dewalt batteries at any home depot. The cycle rate of these batteries it good too. The LEDs don't seem to have issues with the 14.4 voltage. I have made a bunch of these and they hold up well. They can also stand on their own.

The other one is based on a Lantern Lock armature from film tools, http://www.filmtools.com/lanternlock-17-mogul.html. I removed the mogul socket and mounted a 2" x 14.5" ID PVC to it. I used a 4 pin xlr so give me various option for both ac and dc power. This is very light.
Click to expand...

That's great Peter!

Have you done any "run time" tests with the Dewalt battery? I'm just curious how long it would run before needing a battery swap.
 
What's the latest on the controllers????
 
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