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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

Brandon, what was the original $25 power supply that was going to be included in the kit?
 
Can you show us one with the color temperature being dialed in?

What is the color temperature range on the variable strips?

Thanks much.

Really looking forward to getting these!

Stephen
 
Can you show us one with the color temperature being dialed in?

What is the color temperature range on the variable strips?

Thanks much.

Really looking forward to getting these!

Stephen

Sure, I'll make a video showing this, probably, tomorrow. The range is 2700k to 6000k.

Excellent Brandon! Now, when are we getting them?:)

Things are moving forward with our production run (parts coming in, casing being made, etc), but I am having them make a final few tweaks to the programming to maximize the frame rates.

Here's the first video showing one of controller tests. Nice and smooth... (and stable)

(It's in 4k.)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7rWwOprhu4

(the finished controller will, obviously, have knobs)

Very nice!

Looks good!

Exciting times ahead :)

AJ

Exciting indeed! :)
 
Hey brandon, everything is looking fantastic and I want to thank you in advance for the work you're still putting in.
I did have a question come to mind regarding the fixtures. back when i looked at doing DIY, i sourced some small remote phosphor panels.

what i like about my area 48 is that the phosphor becomes one unifies light source and doesn't create the typical multiple LED shadows from all the points. so i'm just curious if you've noticed this shadow effect with these, and experimented with adding some sort of diffusion, or additional phosphor.
(i'm assuming there is phosphor directly on the LEDs)
 
I haven't had any problem with this, Adrien. I often use diffusion, but only just to soften up the light a little more.

Here's an example Corey recently posted without any diffusion at all:

VfdUmA6l.jpg
 
ok, good to know, just trying to plan ahead a little bit in anticipation :)
 
I usually use diffusion over it. But on that specific day, the sun was very bright and even a 400W or even a 800W HMI would still have difficulty raising the interior ambience levels. You will get weird shadows when things are either too close to the fixture, or the background is close to the subject. Sure the light is harsh, and probably not too flattering, but in this case, what ever push we could get we needed. But it definitely didn't look like it was lit using LED strips. I think you'll get weird shadows when you have a larger fixture, something the size of a 4' Kino tube may give you poor shadows without diffusion. It's like lighting a night exterior scene with Maxi Brutes, or dinos, at a certain distance, all the bulbs just become one, and you won't notice the multiple shadows.

Also, as much as people like to say "LEDs don't put off heat" that's a lie. It's even more so a lie when you push more voltage through them than 12Volts. I'm not too sure what V-lock batteries are, but all I know is that the tape didn't like the light being on at 100% at over 12Volts covered in diffusion. It got pretty hot. So that's another reason why I took off the diffusion. And I couldn't "Bubble out" the diffusion because the cameras could almost see the fixtures. In that specific picture, I just finished building those LEDs, never got to test them out on a V-Lock battery, I did all my testing with 12V power supplies. So I didn't know it gets that hot when you don't separate the strips. What I also did after that day, was put the strips directly onto Cloroplast, so that the cloroplast acted as a air insulator from the backside of the strip to what ever I'm taping to. They don't get hot enough to warp or melt the plastic though, just some tape doesn't handle the heat as well.
 
Funny you talk about the heat Corey as I was going to ask your experience as far as the heat. I had about 8ft of strips on one piece of chloroplast lighting a small green screen for a few hours and was surprised at how hot it got! It wasn't diffused at all, just bare on the chloroplast in a air-conditioned room. You've never experienced the strip eventually getting to hot to stay on the chloroplast?
 
A white LED strip is going to throw away around 80% of the energy consumed as heat so "LEDs don't put off heat" is indeed a big lie! (though what people probably mean is that the light transmitted is not hot i.e. no infrared)

The cooler you can keep the LED, the longer it will last. It's best to always mount it on some sort of metal to help conduct away some of that heat.

Edited:

Added some calculations just for reference (and for the curious):
* Maximum theoretical white light (5800K) efficiency = 251 lm/W
* Representative white LED strip
Litegear VHO PRO "hard" 120 X1 daylight generates 1218 lm/m at 19.2W/m
* Representative power supply Meanwell LPV-150-12 about 87% efficient
* Overall efficiency is 1218 / (19.2/.87) / 251 = 22% efficient



 
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Just curious how the timeline is coming along ... Projects are coming! And lights, I need to be building :-) please say early June ;-)
Also maybe I didn't see it but did anyone find a good ac power supply that will run two of the variable strips easily?
 
Just curious how the timeline is coming along ... Projects are coming! And lights, I need to be building :-) please say early June ;-)
Also maybe I didn't see it but did anyone find a good ac power supply that will run two of the variable strips easily?

Lights will start shipping next week. The east coast warehouse is processed and ready to ship. The LA warehouse is a few days away from being ready.

The controllers are moving forward. Parts are coming in as we speak to make them. They are working great at typical frame rates, but don't reach our target of being flicker free at 120fps yet. They will very soon though.
 
I sort of meant the controller timeline. Is June not a possibility? Brandon do you have a suggestion for a power supply for two variable strips?
 
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