LED strip spokes

JY Tessier

Member
Wondering if there was a good option for an LED spider spoke configuration? I need to backlight 6 spoke CNC snowflakes and was hoping there was an easier option than tracing every snowflake with LED tape.
IKEA of all places has a great 3 piece version (see image) but:
A/ It's not DMX controllable
and B/ it's IKEA, eh-hum.
Is there a theatrical stage version of such a thing? SIRS-E, Chauvet, Elation and Color Kinetics don't.

Thank you!

JY
IKEA LEDberg.jpeg
 
Wondering if there was a good option for an LED spider spoke configuration? I need to back light 6 spoke CNC snowflakes and was hoping there was an easier option than tracing every snowflake with LED tape.
IKEA of all places has a great 3 piece version (see image) but:
A/ It's not DMX controllable
and B/ it's IKEA, eh-hum.
Is there a theatrical stage version of such a thing? SIRS-E, Chauvet, Elation and Color Kinetics don't.

Thank you!

JY
View attachment 18372
@JY Tessier DMX controllable as in on and off or are you looking for dimming and / or finer resolution?
Is the IKEA device rigid or flexible??
If flexible, could you purchase two and install them alternately so that every second spoke was the same while every spoke in between was lit with the other source???
If this later arrangement was physically workable, would simply switching their sources on and off alternately then give you what you're after????
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard
 
Hello Ron,
RGBW would be best. Each 'snowflake' would be it's own channel. The IKEA piece is rigid and that would be best but tape would be fine. It just needs to built in a shop (approx 24 distinct snowflakes) loaded in theatre for plug and play. Here's a diagram of what I am looking for. Each spoke can be anywhere from 8" to 12" in lenght.
Building from LED tape makes for a lot of solder points, which creates many points of failure on a portal this big hence my preference for rigid bar. IKEA has a great little plug and play fixture and I am bewildered that there isn't a professional theatrical product that does the same thing.

JY
 

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Hello Ron,
RGBW would be best. Each 'snowflake' would be it's own channel. The IKEA piece is rigid and that would be best but tape would be fine. It just needs to built in a shop (approx 24 distinct snowflakes) loaded in theatre for plug and play. Here's a diagram of what I am looking for. Each spoke can be anywhere from 8" to 12" in lenght.
Building from LED tape makes for a lot of solder points, which creates many points of failure on a portal this big hence my preference for rigid bar. IKEA has a great little plug and play fixture and I am bewildered that there isn't a professional theatrical product that does the same thing.

JY
@ship Hi Bri'; can you steer OP @JY Tessier in a useful direction??
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard
 
Back like 25 years ago, I used to help build Frost Lighing's (Chicago) snow flakes for holiday's displays. Back than it was some core ball which rods were installed into. Than around it we used to wrap the normal X-Mass light strings about them up and down.... I'm sure there was some science from experimentation about string verses rod length etc. like multi-curcuites. Like 25 years ago.

Probably 12 years ago I re-created the concept with wood core center blocks, and the threaded rod bolts to cable spool cores. By this time we had more interesting types of X-Mass lighting strings. Our's couldn't be programmed beyond the scene we set it at when plugged in, but it worked out well and still have it.
 
JY, you have a very difficult problem which RGBW or Digital tape probably won't solve dependant on the not mentioned scale of the spoke length. Assuming a 30" spoke length, one might assume at best a 1" dia. spoke length would be the absolute maximum diameter of a spoke dia.. That's a little small in OD for LED tape to wrap around or go parallel to, but can work with in parallel.

If the center of the tape were applied to the spokes, the rest in width of tape not wrapping but parallel /linearly to the 1" pipe was silicon ed or hot glued to the support, you would have something that might work. A lot of soldering in inital thoughts.

If you have the engineering brain, the time, money and labor... You could possibly with smaller say 3/4" tubing size engineer a node type of snowflake. This will be very labor intensive. Nodes and or diodes, RGB (possibly digitital but I don't think yet) are getting more powerful and smaller in size. I have a few R&D'd with that are small but not bright enough. Size of power, verses size in fitting I have seen.

Once made a Trident for some Disney Princess play, a LED microphone stand for a band, and in general LED bars for anther band way too frequently amongst other projects like LED gernades at the core of balloons and other globes.

Modern programmable X-Mass lighting wrapped about a spoke - even down to 1/4" shaft of it I think far superiour in scale and time spent. Pre-program the light string before it flies. This verses buying individual nodes, drilling at least 3/4" polycarbonate tubing for the nodes bought, and stringering them for chase in each pre-configured node. Than dealing with the wiring harness etc... a nightmare I'm currently dealing with in some huge flown LED tape digital tape cubes. This would be a though build in either case. I recommend the commercially programmable light stings for which choice you want to repete. Wrap it about some threaded rod, and go home at night.
 
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