Some lighting thoughts

We are always on the hunt for lighting. As we have begun building sound systems that run on 12v batteries, it makes sense to upgrade all of our lighting to use 12v instead of the mix of 5 and 12v we have used in the past. I recently came across this rope lighting along with a sound activated controller.

12v LED Addressable Rope Lights

Music Sync LED Bluetooth Controller with free app

We love both these and can see ourselves incorporating them into quite a bit of our art.

However…

Glenn an Torben both came by on Saturday and have all kinds of thoughts on lighting. Specifically controlling each pixel in a strip to do fun things. Turns out most of the rope lights group three pixels to a controller so you can not control each pixel individually.

If we do not use rope lights, the strips can be cut to the lengths we want, each pixel can be controlled and the strips are cheaper.

Addressable 300 Pixels RGB LED Strip Light

All of these strips can be controlled by an Arduino or similar unit. Glenn wants to write some programs so this is going to be a good fit.

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I saw this comment while researching and figured I would include it for giggles.

Very bright pixels. A few notes: #1 if your running on an Arduino make sure you put a 470 Ohm resistor on the data leg close to strip this will help with data spikes that will sometimes make the first pixel not respond. #2 If your using a 5VDC power supply install a 1000 micro farad capacitor across the + and – output of the power supply, this will absorb an surges the power supply puts out when it’s first turned on (stops the surge from burning out some pixels).

Also keep in mind the amount of power (amps) these can consume when your running long strips especially if you extend past the first 300 pixel strip. I bought a 5 VDC 20Amp power supply to run these, there are plenty of videos and sites that explain the hook up and power requirements of these pixels. Happy with these and will be buying many more in the very near future.

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“Designed with 3pin JST-SM connectors”

We love these connectors as they do not come out, rarely fail and are easy to manipulate in the field.