Arron Hartt from Gateway Baptist Church in Ballentine, SC brings us these awesome LED light sticks.
They cut ten foot PVC poles in half, attached 1/2 female connector on one end, then attached the iron flange to that. Next they cut a 2X4 in 1ft sections and painted it all black to hide everything. Then they attached the 512 DMX decoder to 1ft section to safely secure it.
Then came actually adding the LED tape to the poles. They basically cut the tape in half and stuck what was longer than the PVC down the pipe to hide it. Next, they stripped the wire so that they would have exposed ends. Then attached that to the DMX decoder.
Materials:
- LED Tape
- 512 DMX Decoder
- Power Supply
- Power Connector
- PVC 1/2 inch
- 1/2 inch connector
- Black Iron Flange
- 2X4 Cut in 1ft sections for the base
[tentblogger-youtube merrLRN8Jts]
Thanks for the great video – very inspiring! Don’t worry about the “best” way of doing things- this worked for you and it is awesome. I may implement it exactly as you did.
Thanks Mark! Let me know if you have any questions.
Awesome work! Wow! Thanks soooo much for the tutorial. I’m going to order these supplies right away.
Just a couple quick questions: did you add any diffusion? The light looks so consistent throughout the tape!
How well do they compete with an average stage wash? If the was was cut, could these have a “blinder” like effect?
Any suggestions for a dmx controller to program some runs through the lights, basic strobe effects, etc? Thanks so much! We’re new to this but your tutorial gave us a huge leg up!!
Patrick thanks so much glad the video could help!
No we did not add any diffusion, But we thought about adding a clear tube with diffusion gel inside the tube. Sounds really good in theory but not sure how it would look.
They definitely can be blinding at 100% we rarely use it like that tho.
I guess your talking about a light board? We use the “Elation Show Designer 1” that works pretty good trying to budget for a Jands next year.
We actually did something similar recently. We wanted some diffusion though, so instead of using the tape on the outside of pvc, we bought some of these (http://www.homedepot.com/p/Lithonia-Lighting-4-ft-Fluorescent-Tube-Protector-TGT8CL4-R24/100163152) and spray painted them with frosted glass spray paint. Then ran the tape through the inside. It turned out to be a nice effect.
For the dmx process, we used the same process, but instead of getting multiple dmx encoders, we used a led tape splitter (because we are controlling all of them as one).
Hey thanks for that tutorial vid. I’m trying to figure this out still… Love this idea, but I have no idea how DMX stuff works, do I need a 512 controller for each light pole? How does the daisy chaining work?
Well you can power two rolls of LED tape on one DMX decoder. Yes you can daisy chain one after another
Thanks for the reply Aaron! Ordering the materials for this project this week!
Looks awesome! Thank so much for posting. Quick question – probably a dumb one. How do you cut the tape to custom size to fit each pole?
Jeremiah,
Every 5 or so inches there are 3 golden ovals with a black line through it. You have to cut right there if you don’t you’ll mess up your tape.
Once the tape is cut, how do you get power to other section? Make sense?
Hey Aaron, what is the 1/2″ connector for? Thanks again!!!
Patrick that’s to attach it to the 4×4 base.
How many DMX decoders did you use? It appears there are 8 clusters of poles – did you control each cluster independently or as a group?
So very proud of you and all your hard work son!
Great job, Arron!
Question, did you use multiple DMX decoders, one for each set of rope, or did you somehow split the signal to each post from one decoder?
Yes we used multiple DMX decoders you can put 2 16ft sets of tape on one box tho.
Question here too.. Has anyone thought about running the LED strips through some clear pipe? Just something that came to mind as I’d like to do this may finish it off alittle nicer
How many dmx decoders were used for this project? Also how were you able to get the ice white color?
We used about 10ish at the end. Because we aded a lot more.
What program are you using to control the lights? I’m using Jands Vista with a generic LED RGB but can’t get control of the lights.
Jamie,
We are using Jands your issue might be on the DMX decoder check the last dip switch make sure it is down.
Yes! Great tutorial man! you are so right there are next to none out there, so thank you!
question, if i wanted to control some of the strips seperately…is that possible with this method? would those strips simply go to a different channel?
thank you again!
Chris Ross,
Yeah glad this has helped you! Yes so if you wanted to control each strip differently then it would just take buying another DMX Decoder for each strand.
Arron,
Great job on this! I have a couple of questions.
I have been able to get mine to work great, but I was wondering, you have it looks like groups of three pole with the LED tape light on them, are they all plugged into one DMX Decoder, or is each one its own DMX Decoder. Another words, did you use one DECODER for each group of three poles you have in the pictures above. I understand you used many DMX Decoders, but if you used three poles on one decoder, how did you connect them all? Since you only show one LED Tape light in your tutorial. Secondly, if you cut the tape, how did you reconnect the cut pieces to a DMX Decoder? Thanks for your help on this!
Luke,
Yes so you can buy LED extension wire for this here.
https://www.amazon.com/RGBSIGHT-Extension-Conductor-Ribbon-Lighting/dp/B0154LFKUO/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1470949999&sr=8-4&keywords=led+tape+extension+wire
Then all you have to do is connect the next strand of tape to the extension wire and then you are good to go. After that stick those in the DMX decoder with the other ends and your set. So if you cut the tape on the suggested line you have two options you can solder them together or buy a pack of these.
https://www.amazon.com/LightingWill-Unwired-Solderless-4Conductor-Connector/dp/B01DM7GRZ4/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1470950159&sr=8-2&keywords=led+tape+connector+rgb
Hope this helps!
Question, did yall use the 150 or 300 led?
Conner we used the 150s but if I were to do it again I would use the 300 because the closer pixels!
Hey how did you keep the bases from falling over? They look like they’d be unstable?
Hey Joel! They are pretty unstable if i had to this again i would probably just drill them into the floor.