How To Use Flexible LED Filament Wire for Lighting Projects!

We experiment with LED filament wire, a flexible form of LED lighting that is most commonly seen in LED edison bulbs. Norm walks through how to get these lights up and running and the different ways to string and power them to use in scale-model lighting projects, like this Blade Runner-inspired mini "neon" sign!

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Shot and edited by Norman Chan
Music by Jinglepunks

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Intro bumper by Abe Dieckman

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[tested]

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[Boylei]

Thank you so much for the kind shoutout, Norm! I really appreciate it. Always so inspired by your work!

[skrimper]

Wow, LED light strips have come a long way. Almost looks like neon

[BKMakes]

Seconds into that opening sequence had me thinking about a Big Trouble in Little China diorama, with Lo Pan descending the stairs/escalator. Thanks for the inspiration Norm!!! P.S. love your dragon!

[DarrellAyer]

It’s interesting that you would have had to use fine metal wire to hold the filament in place. Isn’t that how glass neon tubes are traditionally held on their signs? The channels were a fantastic work around as well.

[LaserGadgets]

You can't even just buy them in Germany it seems. Did not swap over yet. Awesome.
Norm makes great tutorials though! Always fun to watch and informative.

[jefffisher]

The 1.2M filament I bought gets uncomfortably hot to hold, but not enough to burn you. I went down to 22.8V from the rated 24.0-24.5VDC

Thanks for the video!

[kulmajaba]

This is so cool and makes me want to make some neon signs for my home! I've always thought they are cool but the scale with most previous materials would be just way too big, this is the first time I've seen something that makes me interested in making scale signs. Thanks for the inspiration!

[whosle]

All of these projects you are doing recently have been swimming around my head for months!

[jeffreyhaines]

Tested team is killing it lately with all these videos!

[maifantasia]

This looks ideal for an outdoor fishpond project I'm working on. The lighting, for the project, is hidden (indirect) is not submersed and is not exposed to the elements. The regular LED strips are not so good due to 'shadow effect' caused by the spaces between the individual LEDs. My initial solution was going to be to run two, overlapping LED strips. However, this seems like a much better idea.

Thanks for the heads up on the flexible filament.

Edit to add: ships to Thailand, excellent!

[bajasoobnut]

I am definitely going to look into these for projects for my vehicle and elsewhere, one idea for holding it down is to basically add small bumps that protrude into the channel and so that way it holds into place without using wire and the like

[BrodyLyon]

10 times out of 10, I have no clue what Norm is saying when he talks about electricity, but I still find it cool.

[TimmCosplay]

This is incredible! Thank you for introducing this new lighting tool to me.

[guitfidle]

Wow Norm, that looks amazing!! I was working on a project at my last job where we had to secure a bunch on LEDs inside small sections of silicone tube. A dab of hot glue is the best thing to hold this kind of thing in place. It will conform to the round profile and lock it in place, but since it is silicone based it is easily removable.

[anthonyp]

Looks great. Snapped up one of those USB power supplies. No idea that even existed.

[RicardoPenders]

what about current limiting? are there resistors built-in?

[Impatient_Ape]

Does the manufacturer integrate the correct amount of resistance in this LED filament wire so that you only need to hook up 3 volts? That would probably explain the fixed-length of the wire. Normally, we add a current-limiting resistor in series to LEDs, even near the minimum driving voltage.

[gabiballetje]

You could also make really small holes, like 1mm or smaller if you can, and use some fishing line, knot it at the back, it's mostly see through, you could also use the flexible stretchy wire sometimes use for bracelets, mostly on those semi-precious stone bracelets, also see through, is a bit thicker than fishing wire though.
But it will not be as visible and thick and hard to work with compared to copper wire.
Although the copper wire could also have a somewhat authentic look to it.

[BeastlyJ]

Thanks for this. I was trying to learn more about this after watch Boylei Hobby Time