Surface Mount LED Strips

[Roger Holmes]

I'm working on a refinery which features two Walthers North Island refinery kits and the TomyTec refinery.  The real refineries that I see from I-55 at Joliet, IL look like Christmas trees at night with all of their white lights.  I'm wondering if anyone has experimented with surface mount LED strips.  I found self adhesive  12 volt strips on Amazon for $4 to $15 but they don't specify the width of the tape.  They also appear to be mounted on a flexible circuit board which is a tan/gold color which wouldn't look good on the white refinery towers.

Electronics is not my forte so the thought of wiring multiple individual LED's would make the lighting project a no-go for me. 

Any thoughts?

[peteski]

You might get some ideas from https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=29654.0

But no matter how you glue them on, they will not look like the hundreds of real lights placed on the walkways in refineries.  for that you really need to mount some really small SMD (Surface Mount Device) LEDs and mount them on light poles.

[central.vermont]

This link might also be of some use as well.
https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=31342.0

Jon

[tehachapifan]

I am also interested in the width of the tape used on these as they may be a good way to light up my container crane, particularly the underside of the boom.

[C855B]

These tapes are typically 8mm (~3/8") to 12mm (1/2") wide.

I did find 5mm-wide tape here:  http://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/top-emitting/nfls-ss-x300-series-30-high-power-led-super-slim-flexible-light-strip-sample/880/

At $26 per 1000mm they are quite expensive relative to the Amazon tapes.

[tehachapifan]

Ooh, those just might work! They're still just a tad too wide, but not by much. Might be able to fudge them in place on the crane.

Thanks!

[John]

These tapes are typically 8mm (~3/8") to 12mm (1/2") wide.

I did find 5mm-wide tape here:  http://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/top-emitting/nfls-ss-x300-series-30-high-power-led-super-slim-flexible-light-strip-sample/880/

At $26 per 1000mm they are quite expensive relative to the Amazon tapes.

saw something similar in costco yesterday

[RWCJr]

I bought the 5mm wide strip LED's from SuperLED to experiment with. The strip can be cut into 3 light segments. Plan on using a trim pot to be able to adjust the input voltage for some degree of control for the brightness, for use in lighting structures. Robert

[TiVoPrince]

Consider 
placing strips in channels under a 'base'.  Dim some of the LEDs with Tamiya smoke and canopy blue to get some variety.  Personally I have a get love for the LED strips, they are simple and very effective inside structures because they mimic common everyday ceiling lighting.  Warm white becomes fluorescent with just a little canopy blue. 

eBay stuff is about the same as what you see elsewhere.   When shopping for LEDs, 5050 is brighter but bulkier than 3528.  Often you can find 150/300/600 in 5M spools, I find that I mostly use 3528 strips with 300 on a 5M spool including a nifty light under the shelf above my workbench.  Brilliant light, minimal heat and practically zero clearance.  5metere spools are really not so much as you will find a lot of uses for LED strip once it is in your hands.  Power can be easy since you can scavenge/repurpose lots of failed home electronics for wall transformers.  Don't forget to extract the socket from that failed device..

[Roger Holmes]

Thanks for all of the replies.  One of my initial observations is that using LED strips mounted on the exterior of a structure  (i.e. my oil refinery) the color of the flexible circuit board would be objectionable.  Has anyone painted the surface of the strip to help hide it?  Of course, care would need to be taken to keep paint off of the LED's but I'm a much better painter than electrician so I am still considering the  self adhesive LED rolls.  For my purposes the refinery will be viewed under intense room light most of the time so I can't have something that will look obvious stuck on the towers.

[peteski]

Painting the LED strip is ok. Paints are non-conductive (even silver). The conductive traces on LED strips are also coated with an insulating film.

[carlso]

Roger,

You may have seen this picture before. I built this refinery out of three Walther's kits, one Plastruct kit and some scratch built items. I used 40 3v, bright white, LED's and some fiber optics, in one column. The fibers do not show well at all. The LED's are from Evan Designs and are very easy to work with. Hope this is of interest. Enjoy!





Carl