Where to buy EL wire?

This place probably has it:

Sparkfun?

I like! Thanks.

Got a link for programmable LED strips? Retail places like Adafruit and Sparkfun want big $$$.

nb

--
vi --the heart of evil!
Support labeling GMOs

Ever been to Deal Extreme

I don't know about them. I got stuff I ordered in dribs and drabs over a months time, had my email address sent to some Nigerian scam artists, and they are still sending me email advertising after opting out several times.

Never again.

Amazon had led strips at a halfway decent price ~$20 for 6 feet single color bare strips on a reel, and ~40 for RGB programmable strips.

I ordered form DX a couple of weeks ago and almost instantly got an email requesting that I scan both sides of my credit card and give them the first three and last four digits of my SSN. The email almost beat the order acknowledgement from DX itself (they had already charged my CC).

Haven't heard anything from the scammers again but it'll probably go on forever.

I've used DX for years and they have never passed my email onto anyone else. Of late they are starting to almost spam me - about 1 email a fortnight - I can live with that.

--
We have failed to address the fundamental truth that endless growth is  
impossible in a finite world.

It's not the spam that's the issue. It's the connection with scammers that makes me nervous dealing with them anymore. If the scammers are reading their email (or worse), I have no interest in doing business with them anymore. I don't do business with crooks.

ote:

uit

ail

er

n

that

g their

=A0I

It's more important to find a good vendor rather than a good deal. (IMHO)

George H.

I have dealt with them for years. I also see no evidence of a connection of them with scammers. One of the problems humans have is that we often draw connections between unrelated events.

I keep close track of who has what information by providing everyone I deal with, with a unique version of my name. As I said I have no evidence of DX dealing with scammers.

--
We have failed to address the fundamental truth that endless growth is  
impossible in a finite world.

The events *were* related. The scammers had my order information!

Bought from them lately?

I don't know...

I'm getting both phishing, and what appear to be legitimate spam from them - legitimate only in the sense that it appears to be from deal extreme, in spite of opting out.

I sent them an email and they sent me a separate opt out page that was supposed to cut it out forever and from all categories, and it did for a couple of months.

In my case I ordered from them and had a run of scam/spam from people who seemed to know what I ordered. That died away and restarted with a second order (the second had several items which were delivered slowly over a period of a month, the digital caliper was late and turned up at Harbor Freight for a dollar or two less before my order appeared from DX).

Maybe your email has a good spam stopper. Mine just advises that it appears to be phishing or from a spam/scam site then displays it.

I wouldn't say DX is the cause. They appear to be legitimate to me, but they either have horrible security or employ people who sell email addies on the side. Thankfully, pay pal hasn't been compromised.

--Another good source is

They have discounts from time to time too; there's one for bulk purchase, one for Burning Man and one for their occasional Solder Fest or whatever it's called, where you can go to the store (in Oakland, CA) and get a good tutorial on working with the stuff.

--
        "Steamboat Ed" Haas         :  Steel, Stainless, Titanium:    
        Hacking the Trailing Edge!  :  Guaranteed Uncertified Welding! 
                         www.nmpproducts.com 
                   ---Decks a-wash in a sea of words---

5 months later, this is a good link. I'm actually close to Oakland, so maybe I'll check them out in person. Thanks.

$100 for a RGB Led strip light, when the Amazon price is ~$30 with an infrared controller.

One of those places. The costs are high, but they may make it simpler for you to buy a single item, or collect together things of a similar nature that would otherwise cause you to shop at multiple outlets.

Even Edmund Scientific forty years ago was like that. IN some areas the prices were great, some other thing weren't, but if you were building a science project, it meant you could get everything from one place.

I once sent away for a catalog aimed at "audio snobs", thinking it might be a source of parts. It wasn't, because they sold only high end capacitors and the like (for that maximum high fidelity sound) and each cost an arm and a leg. But you could buy in single quantities.

Michael

--Heh woulda posted sooner but I lost my connection to usenet when Sonic dudded out..

-- "Steamboat Ed" Haas : Steel, Stainless, Titanium: Hacking the Trailing Edge! : Guaranteed Uncertified Welding!

---Decks a-wash in a sea of words---

--Gook to know! Does it have the same addressability?

-- "Steamboat Ed" Haas : Steel, Stainless, Titanium: Hacking the Trailing Edge! : Guaranteed Uncertified Welding!

---Decks a-wash in a sea of words---

From reading the descriptions the controllers have some preprogrammed scripts they will do, and then you can only control rather large segments individually.

That would be a "problem" in any case IMO. The strips are ~3/8" wide, they'd need distributed controllers to decode serial data, and it's a cinch they wouldn't run 100-300 traces and the connectors that would take. Typically they run on 12V and put three leds in series with one dropping resistor.

What I'm looking for is some Christmas lights using the leds that change colors individually (pre programmed with a canned script)

Amazon is also representing sellers in China - another thing to be aware of when dealing with them. China prices are generally lower, but you have the hassle of a registered mail to sign for, long delivery time, and royal pain in the butt to return defective parts. I did see light strips by stateside sellers though.