I hope this becomes a great

I hope this becomes a great seller for all of you concerned as it looks like a great product.

Got my order in!

OK, guys, I've got my order in.  Yes, it's still more expensive than the cheap strings of LED's from China, but these are also vastly superior.  Get your orders in!

I wonder what the equivalent is?

I wonder how many strings of Chinese LED's would you need, side by side, to produce the light per foot that these do?

I suspect Michael could

I suspect Michael could likely figure it out and give you some very good numbers regarding the question.

Cents per Lumen

Can't speak to LED strips but I did do a quickie comparison to CFLs. Your LED strips = $0.04 / lumen initial cost. CFLs = $0.003 / lumen initial cost. CFL light costs less than 1/10th what your LED light costs. Given the power supplies for the LEDs operate at roughly the same efficiency as CFLs there is no long term power savings either. Even comparing lifespan the CFLs still win out. The CFLs could be replaced over 10 times before being equal in cost. 

I am not anti-LED. I have them on my own layout. Just presenting my findings.

So if my math is correct

the 250 pack costs $960 before any taxes, costs of power supply, or anything else.?

Am I missing anything?

Taxes

GST, PST or HST in Canada. No sales taxes on US orders.

Still need to add the cost of Power Supply, SMD LED's, and SMD resistors.

21 LED's and 3 Resistors,

Thanks Bill....

that five pack is a little more palatable to my budget especially since I might have a different use for the strips.  I already have my existing layout lit by CFL's  and I'm reluctant to go to the trouble to change it now.  However, I was wondering if it might be possible to use blue LED's  and use these for  a "night lighting" scenario.  Thoughts? is there a blue LED  available in the size these boards use?  I'm almost sure there must be.

Michael

CFL's

CFL's are definitely cheaper overall, but I'm not a fan of CFL's.  I was one of the first to buy in to CFL's almost 10 years ago.  I've been quite disappointed with the overall quality of the bulbs I've purchased from several manufacturers.  I don't get anywhere near the lifespan out of them as they are supposed to get.  My wife recently bought a few for the bathroom vanity.  Two of them failed within the first three months of installation.  I'm now in the process of converting to LED.  It's not about the money (LED's are still much more), I just don't want to be replacing bulbs all the time, and I do like LED lights.  We'll see if I have premature LED failures.

The other thing I like about the strips is how compact they are for the light they produce.  I don't have long tubes or a series of bulb holders and bulbs all along the layout, just a simple, low profile strip.  They are quite versatile.

CFL light costs less than 1/10th what your LED light costs.

But how much per cubic inch of space taken up?

pqe

??

Don't exactly understand the question. A common 5 meter 5050-300 strip has roughly the same output as a single CFL. I suppose if you wadded a string into a ball it would be about the size of a CFL. So, I'll say the same? 

Power Supply recommendation?

Bill or Michael, do you have a recommendation on what sort of power supply to use in dedicated service? How many amps capacity should one shoot for per board?

Power Requirements

We're working on finding Michaels detailed posts about power etc.

Ordered my first 5 boards

Bill,

Just ordered my first 5 boards to try out. Thanks to Michael and yourself for making these available.

Ross

I remember very well why I

I remember very well why I didn't want to start selling anything on this forum, there's too much work involved ! But now that Bill talked me into doing it I'm kind of stuck with it...

To answer questions in noo particular order:

• I have no idea how many cheap strips you would need to get to the same light output, I have no data available.
• The strip eats a maximum of 7W per foot at 24VDC which means it draws a little less than 0.3A. Please be aware that white LEDs have pretty big tolerances as to their forward voltage so this number might fluctuate from batch to batch. I recommend buying LEDs for a layout in one order so they all come from the same batch. Mixing strips with LEDs from different production runs might be visible because of different current draw and therefore different brightness.
• This board will only accept white LEDs, to my knowledge nobody manufactures colored LEDs with the same foot print.
• Power supply needs: I recommend buying a power supply that provides at least 8W per strip so you have enough head room. A ten foot strip should get a 80W power supply or bigger. Don't buy a special LED power supply, it's not needed.
• You need good size wires to feed the strips: I use AWG14 for the G&AM. I feed both ends of a string to reduce voltage drop across the boards. Measurements taken on my layout showed 23.8V going into a string of 20 boards and only 21.5 coming out at the end because of conduction losses. Adding a second feed from the end fixes the problem.

If anybody has more questions please let me know, I'll try to answer them.

"No good deed goes unpunished!"

Or so I have heard that saying!  Thanks for stepping up on this and answering questions.  I've seen how great your LED strips look on your layout and I'm considering them for mine.  When I said something to the wife about that she said: "Why do you want to hang LED lights when you already have the track lights installed?"  I told her that I could use the LED lighting for daytime lighting and use the track lights (with blue bulbs / bulbs tinted blue) for night running.  We shall see...............

The gory details

Anyone interested in reading the gory details about these LED boards can look at Michaels of Blog beginning around page 9:  http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/10793?page=9#comment-98202

Another question

It's hard to tell from the photos, and while I could wait until the boards come in, I thought I'd ask.  Do the boards have a connection to string them together without wires, or do you jumper them with wires?

Also, still trying to figure out a power supply to get, so if anyone has any thoughts or links to one you think would work, feel free to post it.  I'm likely going to be running two strips of 15 and two strips of 10.  

Hopefully we can also make this thread a helpful hints for those of us purchasing these excellent light boards.

Dave, the strips have through

Dave, the strips have through hole pads on both ends for connecting wires or for jumper wires from board to board. And before somebody asks: they have two holes each (.1" diameter) for mounting them. They can be mounted straight to a wooden support frame like I'm doing. Do not mount them to anything metallic as they have electrical connections on the back side! They do not need heat sinking.

If you are installing 40 strips you should buy a 320W power supply like this one: http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/QPDF-320-24/Q653-ND/2377494

Hey Michael -

Does that power supply have a fan, or is it fanless?  I have a small layout room and don't need any extra noise!

Does that power supply have a

It' has a fan. That's why I'm using these 480W German made power supplies that don't need one: http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/DRP024V480W1AA/603-1229-ND/2236879

I wondered the same thing...

I've already got a reel of eBay strip lights on hand.  A board, some LED's and resistors, maybe a light meter...I feel a side-by-side comparison coming on.

I've already got a reel of

Kevin, I'm looking forward to your test. I had to think of your post that I read earlier when I took pictures for my blogs this evening. I'll post two of them here because they will (I hope) show the advantage of the LED light. Both pictures were shot with the same camera and the same camera settings and not photoshopped in any way.

The first one was shot at my German H0 layout that's illuminated by two strings of 2 x 40W fluorescent fixtures. The illumination is not bad but the light is very diffuse, it does not look like sunshine, more like a cloud covered sky. Contrast and colors are acceptable at best:

The second picture was taken at the N scale G&AM layout which is illuminated by a single LED strip. This looks a lot more like a picture taken in sunlight. It has better contrast and better color saturation:

Side by Side Test

Yes, so am I.  I expect to be very impressed with the LED boards.  I do not expect the cheap strips to hold a candle, (pun intended) to the boards, but it will still be interesting to compare them.

Thank-you for the photos.  Your HO layout lighting is fluorescent like mine but I have even more shadows.

If I can achieve the quality of light you show in the N scale layout photo, on my layout, I will be very pleased indeed.