Thank you to all of you who offered help on my quest for new and
better lighting for my new cases. The cases were installed just after
Christmas with led strips lining the edges. The light is very white
and the gems sparkle like never before. This is an enormous
improvement over the halogen lights which I had previously–very
yellow and also hot. The led strips were supplied by Cyberlux–a
company which was suggested by one of you–I’m sorry I’ve lost the
reference so I can’t thank you directly–they are somewhat
experimental for the company which is hoping to make display lighting
part of their line.
Now I want to change all the lighting in the store to this beautiful
white light. Thank you all so much for all the good advice and
suggestions.
Janet Alix, in beautiful if a bit soggy, Mill Valley
Is this LED lighting a style that would make a good choice for
shows?
My question, as well, Noel. I went to the website, but there is
little info on the LED strips. These lights use modest amounts of
electricity and are showing up in flashlights & solar lights using
rechargable batteries. So I’m also wondering if the strips could be
connected to a battery for case lighting and avoid the need for a
generator or paying a fee for plug-in electricity! I recently read
about solar powered LED lights coming into use in remote villages in
India as an alternative to kerosene.
Although there is likely a significant upfront cost, long-term
savings might make LED lighting a good investment. We need more
info!
Judy in Kansas, where inquiring minds want to know
I don’t really know but I think it could be worked out. The LEDs are
in strips that could be attached to strips of wood or whatever. There
are also transformers but then there are those with halogens too, if
I remember correctly. I don’t know if the LED strips are particularly
vulnerable to handling–I didn’t actually work with them as the
Cyberlux company ended up working directly with the cabinet guys who
were building the cases for me. Cyberlux seems to be interested in
developing their product for this kind of thing so they might be
willing to help you get this together. They are more expensive than
other lights but at a show you don’t have so many cases to deal with
so that might not be too prohibitive. The fact that they don’t get
hot is really wonderful. With the halogens we had a couple of
instances when we accidentally allowed a chain to touch one of the
halogens and that created an instant arc–a bright flash and melted
chain link–more excitement than I’m usually looking for at set up
time. The light is really white and beautiful. There are other LED
options that can be used in overhead lighting and I’m investigating
those now for outside the cases…
Yours,
Janet
Note From Ganoksin Staff:
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I called the company this afternoon after reading Janet’s comment
and left a message for the salesman to call me. I have several
questions to do with outdoor as well as indoor shows and my gift
shop. After calling them I searched the archives to see an older
thread but ran out of time (I have to work on apps).
I can’t speak for Cyberlux, but I can tell you that the new
generation of bright white LED’s work on 3.5 to 4.5 volt dc current
sources - in other words, 3 normal flashlight batteries.
I have a headlamp that uses 3 AAA cells to power it, and it lasts
almost forever! The manufacturer shows 70 HOURS of intermittent use
from the 3 AAA batteries, powering 4 LED’s at full brightness. I
estimate that continuous use would diminish the time by 20%, to
something like 55 hours. Obviously, D cells would last a very long
time.
It seems like a battery compartment built into each case, with a
multiple position switch would be very nice; one position would be on
all the time, another position might turn off if ambient light was
high, a third position could flash the lights for attention getting,
while an additional setting for low power consumption might be nice.
Are any of you interested in individual spot lighting? Do you want
focused light, or case light?
I recommend calling Cyberlux–they give a contact number on their
website. I think your battery idea is really good and it might need
some sort of special set up to make it work. I remember not only the
fee for hooking up being a problem but also running cables all over
the booth sometimes when the source was located in an inconvenient
spot.
Janet, after reading your post I called the Cyberlux company to ask
them about using their lights inside cases at shows and for track
lighting. I was told a salesman would call me back that afternoon.
It’s been 3 days and I’ve not gotten called back and assume I won’t
receive a call. I am curious if they were customer friendly and easy
to work with because there are quite a few companies out their
working with LED lighting but a recommendation is always the best
place to start.
I got a call from the salesman, but I was not home to get it. He
asked that I email him since he was on the road and his cell phone
was acting up (or something like that). Apparently Janet’s post has
caused a surge in calls into the company. I emailed him and told him
that we are all interested and gave him the link to Orchid.
They did call me back in the beginning but then they started working
directly with my cabinet guys and I was ( happily) out of the loop.
They seemed quite customer friendly and told the cabinet guys that
they wanted to develop case lighting as a product line for them so I
don’t understand why they aren’t getting back to you. I’d give them
another call and if they still don’t respond then move on to someone
else.
Also, the lights in my cases are small bulbs stuck in a kind of
strip. I don’t know if the company does track lighting–I am finding
out that track lighting LEDs are available but I don’t know if
Cyberlux has them. Maybe your question about track lighting threw
them off?
The cabinet guys liked them a lot and managed to communicate with
them enough so that I do have their lights in my cases. So they must
be calling somebody back…
Hope you can make this or something like it happen. I don’t have any
special connection to the Cyberlux company and was just a person
inquiring about the lights at the beginning–pretty much like you.