Thomann's LED ropelight

[Jamtastic3]

Hey BR,

I'm replacing some old ropelight in an install because most of it has faded and stopped working. Instead of adding new sections to old I came accross Thomann's LED ropelight:

 

http://www.thomann.de/gb/rubberlight_rubbe..._1_blue_44m.htm

 

A few question's about it:

 

a) It says it's 230V, how is this as I thought you'd need a tranformer to step down the voltage for LED's?

 

b) From that, will I be able to dim this ropelight from a dimmable source (eg a normal household dimmer). If not, will I need a dimmable transformer?

 

c) Considering that we aren't exactly 230V in the UK, will the LED's lifetime be shortened dramatically or not work at all?

 

d) will I be able to cut this ropelight like the standard stuff?

 

Hope that all makes sence - although sounding noobish to something that's simple in design, I just want to cover my burning hole in my pocket B-)

I think that covers it.

 

 

Cheers!!!

[musht]

Not familiar with Thomanns product directly but of LED rope in general:

 

A) Wired as number of LEDs in series with resistor every few feet so plugs directly into mains.

 

B) Dims fine , bit jittery on move because of no thermal lag.

 

C) LEDs arent exactly all the same voltage either, extra 10V nominal a string shouldn`t make a whole lot of differnce.

 

D) Probably, but Thomann dont appear to do terminating caps and connecting caps, these can be fairly specific to brand of rope, ones from another brand may not fit without some persuasion.

 

Lot of George Square, Glasgow Christmas lights have been changed to LED, Clive seems to be happy with longetivity and performance, supplied by Blachere, unliklely to be as low cost as Thomann.....

 

http://www.blachere-illumination.co.uk

[themadhippy]

b) From that, will I be able to dim this ropelight from a dimmable source

After burning out a led ropelight last year I wouldnt risk it,not sure of the make or model but even with a 500w load lamp it didnt like it and let the magic smoke escape.

[Jamtastic3]

Eek, sounds like dimming could be an issue.

 

Thanks for that link musht, now I can can see where Edinburgh Council get their Christmas street decor from B-)

 

 

Anyone got any other advice about the ropelight?

I need at least 30m of the stuff, in blue, needs to be dimmed and cut but I can't afford to spend hundreds. As cheap as possible is the way for me.

[boswell]

B&Q, CPC

Xmas approaches and its cheap!

[jamienip]

I wouldn't bother being fussy about LED rope light, look here. It's the bog standard stuff that you can chop up every metre, it dims nicely with a load lamp, and they have all the accessories to join, y-split, terminate etc.

 

Jim.

[musht]

Eek, sounds like dimming could be an issue.

 

Thanks for that link musht, now I can can see where Edinburgh Council get their Christmas street decor from :(

 

From Blachere`s budget refurb bin, or mebbe the skip outside :-(

 

LED rope is a bit of a cr*p shoot, got some econo stuff year or so back, white was and still is pretty good and dims happily, blue from same maker had few Dark Emitting Diodes, DEDs, straight off the reel and infant mortality on others.

 

Blachere`s construction is noticeably in a different league, cost certainly is, but it is reliable.

 

Duralite conventional lamp rope isn`t that great in cool colours , but dimmed its lifetime should be pretty good, depends how much of a pain it is to change out lengths.

[Jamtastic3]

Duralite conventional lamp rope isn`t that great in cool colours , but dimmed its lifetime should be pretty good, depends how much of a pain it is to change out lengths.

 

 

Is the Duralite ropelight any better in quality? I don't mind going back to ropelight, the thing is that the ropelight is exposed in an install and so having old and new sections will be clearly visible. The ropelight in at the moment is from Thomann so I'm guessing it's Eurolite's stuff but if Duralite is any better then I'll go for that.

[musht]

Think Duralite is like the Hoover of rope light, shopping around would seem to pay off:

 

http://www.djsoundkit.co.uk/products.php?cat=191

 

Never used them, just found them from google search.

[Jamtastic3]

Wow, nice find.

 

Merci my friend.

[adam2]

Cutting LED ropelight to length may be more problematic than the incandescent sort.

Due to the low operating voltage of LEDs, as many as 100 may be wired in series.

Since the spec states that the LEDs are 28mm apart, each series string of them might be about 3M long, which might be restricting.

There might be two series strings connected together in "inverse paralell" of the same dropper resistor, one string to conduct on each half of the mains cycle.

 

In short I would advise against cutting to length, unless the supplier says you can.

[Sound In Gloucestershire]

duralite is made to be cut open, there are two little marks to cut through every metre or so