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Homemade LED Ribbon China Balls-Rolling Experiment
  • Ok guys, I'm just going to start a thread with all my findings, success' and failures in the search for a homemade China Globe option like we say in the American Hustle thread. Of course name brand LiteGear ones here http://store.litegear.com/product_p/lrp-vho60-x3-1m.htm.

    I also found some cheap Chinese ones from Amazon Prime. Why did I pick these?

    1. Free shipping
    2. If they are defective or don't put out the correct light described, I can send them back easily. This only applies to the US folk, sorry about that guys.

    Anyways, here's a few links to the ones I'm trying out.

    1. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002QQ48TK/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

    2. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00710K0DE/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

    3. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002Q907EW/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

    I'm going to start off with #1 above as they came in first. I'm not going to get to into the design and build quality at this point as I'm just evaluating whether these cheap LEDs can even be used. If so, relatively easily, we'll get into the other stuff.

    Tonight I just did a down and dirty test with the Pocket Cam and the Sigma 18-35 shooting ProRes 800asa at 3200k in Film Log. I just stood in a blacked out room and held the strand of LEDs about 12-16 inches from my face. Once again, just trying to get an idea of whats going on. Here's a some screen grabs of before and after a quick grade.

    @pundit @BurnetRhoades Here ya guys go. See if these are worth a shit :)

    Update: The third pic is the first rigged up piece. I'm powering it off of one of my batteries I used on my GH2. Works prefect and the mic stand holds it well for testing. Think I might be on to something cheap and useful here.

    LED Test1-1_1.1.2.jpg
    1800 x 1013 - 226K
    LED Test1_1.1.1.jpg
    1800 x 1013 - 139K
    IMG_0251.JPG
    720 x 540 - 111K
  • 61 Replies sorted by
  • Hi guys, sorry I've been out of the loop for a bit. Currently in the middle of a business trip.

    @Joshua_Cadmium, performance wise, there is no significant difference between the 5630 and 5050. The 5050 is an older package type with a larger footprint, so many manufacturers are switching to the 5630. For some applications though, the square look is preferable and that is why we are still continuing with the 5050.

    If you plan to run the strip without a dimmer, you'll want adequate heat sinking for the strips as well to ensure longevity. Mounting them on an aluminum or metal surface would work well.

    The ribbons come in lengths of whatever you order them up to 5m. (If you order 3m, they will come in a single 3m strip, if you order 7m, they will come in a strip of 5m and a strip of 2m.)

    The strips are available directly from our webstore. I'm not sure if the moderator will allow me to post the URL directly, but if you google "high cri led webstore" you should find us as the first search result.

    We're a bit short on our stock right now so shipping times might be a bit delayed. We are replenishing our supply as quickly as possible.

  • 3-5 meters would be great for me too since you claim a higher out put, though if 8 is the longest and they are dimable , I might want to go with that. Should we order from you or straight from the site? These might be a great alternative!

  • @alex_yujigroup I'm in the UK and extra double interested in Hi CRI stuff -- can I buy from you?

  • @alex_yujigroup - I'd be happy with a 3Meter length strip. I'm not versed in soldering. I'm sure it's simple, but sometimes I like to leave the manufacturing to those with manufacturing experience.

  • @alex_yujigroup - Thank you for this information. Ultimately, CRI is a more important factor to most of us, even if it is at a small premium. I appreciate what you've told us and hope you'll continue.

  • @alex_yujigroup, Thanks so much for coming over here! I actually ran into your online store a week or so ago just through Google searching. Your daylight numbers are absolutely fantastic!

    I've got quite a few questions. I was planning on initially buying around 10 meters of the Violet Chip ribbons. I noticed that the 5050 and the 5630 have the same light output, so what is the main difference between the two? How close will each strip match to one another? I know that larger LED chips require heatsinks (and fans) in order to prolong the lifespan and maintain color, so will the ribbons or the 13.5mm COB (which I was also looking at) need a heatsink of some sort or a fan on them? Can you order the ribbons in lengths longer than 1 meter (so that they don't need the extra step of being soldered together)?

    Also, does the Violet chip emit any harmful UV that needs to be blocked? As well, what is the eye safety classification of the Violet chip LEDs (IEC specification EN62471)?

    Thanks so much again!

  • @vicharris, they can be soldered together as long as you'd like, but we've found that the voltage drop becomes too large for anything longer than 8 meters.

    How long would be ideal for you?

  • @alex_yujigroup Thanks for all the great info! I'll have to go over the specs a bit more and probably order some from you to test against these other cheaper ones we are getting from Amazon and other retailers.

    Also I really can't tell from your website but can you attach multiple meters of lights to one another? I'm sure you can but just thought I would check.

  • Hi everyone,

    Alex here from the Yuji Group - I run the high CRI LED webstorewhere @rockroadpix came across our high CRI LED ribbon. I just wanted to introduce myself here in case anyone had any questions about the product, and make a couple clarifications based on some other forum members' comments.

    We manufacture high CRI LEDs using two different methods. The first uses a blue chip with red and green phosphors added into the package. This allows us to get 90-95+ CRI, which is in line with some of our competitors, but we do have an advantage in luminous efficacy (90+ lm/W) and pricing. (Keep in mind that we declare our CRI values as "minimums" on our website, while other manufacturers use "typical" values).

    Our second method uses a violet chip, with red, blue and green phosphors added to the mix. This gets us CRI values of 95 minimum and 97 typical. In addition to the CRI values, our R9 and R12 values are above 90, which means that deep reds and saturated blues appear very natural and full, unlike other LEDs. As of now, I am not aware of any other LED manufacturer that can provide all R values above 90.

    As @BurnetRhoades mentions, pricing for the violet chip LEDs are slightly more expensive. This is a reflection of the higher procurement costs for our violet chips and phosphor production costs (smaller economies of scale for this special product). For users who do not need perfect color rendering, our blue chip LEDs should suffice, and our pricing is competitive with, if not lower than, our competition.

    As far as the question @vicharris raised regarding the number of LEDs per meter, when considering brightness, I encourage everyone to consider the total lumens output of the ribbon rather than just just the density. Currently, the majority of LEDs for LED ribbon fall into three power categories - 0.06 W, 0.2 W, and 0.4 W. In addition to the density, depending on the type of LED used, the total power consumption (and consequently brightness) will also be different. Many LED ribbons with 120 LEDs per meter typically use the 3528 LED, which uses a 0.06 W chip. At 120 pcs per meter, this comes out to 7.2 W, which should provide about 700 lumens. Some may offer 120 pcs x 0.2 W each, which almost provides 24 W, but this is not very common. Our product that @rockroadpix links to uses 5050 LEDs. While many in the industry use 3 x 0.06 W LEDs to achieve "0.2 W" 5050 SMDs (actually only 0.18 W) - we use a single LED of 0.4W. At 60 LEDs per meter, this comes out to 24 W per meter. This provides about 2400 lm - much, much more than the 3528 120 LED/m products.

    Of course, brightness is not everything, and higher densities are desired in many applications for the evenness in light that they provide.

    My apologies for the long post - I'm curious to learn more about what you guys are doing and am eager to provide any help or info that I can.

  • @vicharris Are you just saying that you dont need, or shouldnt use, LEDs for daylight work, but only for lower light? Im assuming thats what you meant, so it would make sense to get warmer ones since they will mostly be used in warmer indoor scenes?

  • @BurnetRhoades Dammit! More stuff to test. Never thought about that. I usually bust out the Bebees for that though. ;)

  • My last experiments were done with Ikea balls and Xenon 35 Watt car lamps. Powered by 4s lipo. The light was too harsh due to the spot source inside the Globe. Where do you geht the globes from?

  • @vicharris what about moonlight?

  • @joethepro Those are the same brand I'm testing but at 6000k. I really never saw a use for daylight ones since they would barely make a difference in the day. Hard enough to get my 1x1 LED panel to make a dent!

  • Yep, I got there via search for 120, but it was a tease, or another product...

  • Yeah, 60 is not many of these little suckers at all. My 600 strip is 120/m as well.

  • Nice, and these appear to be on-par with the LiteRibbon product when you opt for the 95CRI violet chip but when you factor in that they're at half the density (60/M versus 120/M) they become quite a bit more expensive per meter, by almost 38% :(

  • @andyharris & @vicharris - I concur with the others about size of the china ball. Andy, your test looks really nice to my eye. One thing you could do is is hang a little duve on the ball to contain the spill that is not the subject. That would give you a slightly more contrasty feel as there would be less light bouncing around the room. I wish your led tape was available in the US!

    Found something-

    http://store.yujiintl.com/collections/high-cri-led-strips-ribbon/products/high-cri-led-ribbon-5630-smd-60-led-m-90-95-cri

    Nice CRI.

  • Yeah I realize this is more about LEDs, but I was thinking more of being inspired just to get any sort of china ball. The LEDs are a pretty awesome option for portability, Ill most likely pick some of those up as well.

  • @BurnetRhoades Not 100% certain but I'll do a test with the 600 strip against the 509 LED panel found here. Of course being 3200ish, they put out less light but I can't look into the panels when they are full on but I can these.

    @joethepro Kinda think you missed the point here. CFLs in china globes have been around and aren't really the same thing we're doing here. We're trying to find a portable, low voltage solution that we can emulate the lighting found in American Hustle. Walking around and lighting talent as well as lighting people where there's zero power. But glad you found it useful anyways.

  • @andyharris Clover is an exceedingly adorable girl, my goodness, so charming. You've tempted me to pull the trigger on a 24" globe and a trip to the hardware store to grab some light socket adapters and get a few CFLs in them. Should be a nice cheap solution.

  • Vic, would you say that the individual LED in the strips you got are putting out less light than what you have in one of your panel lights?

  • Thanks for your help. Hopefully we'll get a cheap, nice solution here everyone can afford and build.

  • @vicharris - Yes, getting a larger china ball will reduce the range somewhat if you have the same lights inside, however it will be a much larger, more diffuse source, which is one of the big reasons why people light with china balls. I have some big 30" balls (!) that I put the very large CFL bulbs into. The great thing about these big china balls is that they quickly light an area with great diffuse light and are one of the few light sources that can easily appear in a scene without seeming like a movie light.

    But because they light in all directions, the light is not particularly strong for the wattage.