upgrade from standard LED rope lighting.

I'd look into the commercial grade of rope lighting available from 1000 bulbs, etc. These should give you a much better life expectancy compared to the cheaper alternatives. If you really want to make sure they last you can buck up for the LED version but they certainly don't fall under the cost effective category.

Was your original rope LED, or just regular rope lighting?
Big price difference

good read:

http://ezinearticles.com/?LED-Rope-Lights&id=837095

I used LED for mine and not too badly priced at around $160 or so for 50 feet. Granted much more than standard lighting but I like the way LED looks and lasts a long time. Got mine off some guy on Ebay as he had exactly what I was looking for in terms of length and color.

I got my 60 ft of blue LED rope light from cbconcept.com and I am very pleased with the quality of the 1/2 inch LED string. Good crisp light. BUT, it's actually too bright for my application so I will experiment with a dimmer later this week.

Bigmouth, please let us know how the dimmer works out. I'd like to know if the LEDs will present any problem for a Grafik Eye.

OK, I completed my first dimming test. Overall I would say I had mediocre results.

First I grabbed a wall switch dimmer I had laying around. It was a leviton paddle switch dimmer intended for incandescent lights.

I wired up the 120v LED string and gave it a try. First off it does dim. However. The dimming curve is not linear. There was a very small range of the paddle that had a dimming effect and it was very hard to zero in on a specific amount of dimness.

I also noticed some variability in the level of dim between bulbs. I investigated this further and determined that the angle you look at the bulb makes a difference as well as some bulb to bulb variation.

I don't think it is a deal killer for my application I think with a better dimmer I might have better results.

Unfortunatly LEDs can't be dimmed by conventional controllers as used by incandessant lights.

LEDs are "transconductive" hence non linear with respect to current and voltage and they have a threashold where they just stop working when you get below that voltage.

What you need is a constant voltage variable current device or even a PWM controller to get the right linear effect.

Someone has to sell these, no?

Gosh

Well that saves me a few bucks. Most of my lighting scenes are set to dim the rope lights at a certain percentage. Guess I'll stick with the standard fare for now.

On a side note, are the rope lights from 1000bulbs etc. a higher quality than what you get at home depot? I am in need of about 30 ft more is all and don't know what I'd do with the remainder of a 150 ft roll.

I would NEVER use regular rope light. LED is spendy but truly the only sensible thing for permanent installs. Less heat, less energy and most of all, not pain in the butt changing or splicing when segments go bad (since they don't).

Mine are from 1000 bulbs and have been great for a year now...


I have found mine work really well with the Grafik Eye, if that is what you are using....

Ah ha... so if they can control LEDs nicely... I HAVE MY SOLUTION... (well, so does the guy who started this dang thread).....

Gosh

UPDATE:

I tried another old rotary dial dimmer that I had and I'm able to dim the 120V LED rope just fine.

Great, it now seems that we have a definitive answer.

Did you still have the same issues with variable bulb brightness, angle, etc. that you had with the first dimmer?

Yes but since i can hit the right level it's not as noticeable.
I think I have one bad section because even at full brightness I can detect a little bulb to bulb variance in one section. It's a none issue for me because it's near the end and I bought more feet than I'll need.

I will be contacting the company tomorrow and see what they say about the section on the top of the pic: