FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
PRODUCT INFORMATION
What is PermaTrack
PermaTrack are tracks made of aluminum with (23) 12mm holes spaced 2” apart. Perfect for inserting pixels that you can mount along your roofline for a permanent year round professional LED holiday lighting solution. We sell you everything you need at a fraction of the cost of other companies that charge a LOT of money to sell and install permanent lighting on your house or business.
Unlike other track solutions that are mounted directly to your house making repairs very dangerous, our tracks are mounted by attaching mounting brackets to the home and the PermaTrack is connected to them. This makes it very easy to take a PermaTrack off of your house, bring it to the ground for repair, and then remount it without any tools needed. This keeps you safe by not having to carry several tools up on a ladder.
What comes in a PermaTrack box?
Track and mounting clips. This includes 13 lengths of 45.25″ x 1.5″ x 1.5″ tracks. ~ 49′ total and 3 brackets per track ~ 39 brackets total
For the Puck Track it is 15 lengths of Approx 1 Meter of tracks. ~ 49′ total and 3 brackets per track ~ 45 brackets total. RGBW Puck Lights. One string for each track
How do I get the LEDs for my PermaTrack?
PixelPacks – these are 299 12V RGB lights that come in 13 strings of 23 wired pixels with 4” of wire in between. That’s one string for every track section in a box of PermaTrack.
Do you have the Puck Track as well?
Yes… We have Track for Pucks as well They are 4 inch centers instead the two inches centers for the Pixels.
Can I Get different hole placement?
Yes… It would be a special order so just contact us at [email protected] for more information
How do I control and program my LED lights?
The WiFi Dig-Quad controller can handle up to 2400 lights. We now sell this in a Ready to run Controller that you just plug in and add the lights. You will have to change some settings such as how many lights each out put has and
If you are using the Puck lights you will need to change the protocol of the output(s) from WS2811 to the SK6812RGBW Protocol so that the lights work correctly.
What is WLED?
WLED is a free program that is already installed on the controllers and is a free download for your phone or accessible from a computer that allows you to control the colors and movement of your lights 🙂
The WLED app is available for iPhone or Android in their respective app stores.
You can find all the documentation about how to get the most from WLED at https://kno.wled.ge
What is the best Hole placement Direction?
Bottom or Side holes – truly it is a matter of your preference.
The most popular track is bottom holes – we sell five times more track with holes on the bottom rather than on the side.
Customers choose the bottom when they want to see the individual lights & the glow on the house. This is the standard Christmas light look.
Track with holes on the side have a couple uses.
1. When part of your roof line doesn’t have a soffit – the track with holes on the side can be mounted directly to the fascia so that the lights keep the same downward orientation as the track under the soffit.
2. You can mount this track with the lights pointing directly to the street – When pointed toward the street you can see the individual lights but less glow on the house.
3. Lights towards the house – You will not see the discreet individual lights but you will see the glow on the walls of the house, this is great for HOAs that restrict Christmas lights being up on the house all year long since the lights themselves are not visible from the street.
What is PermaTrack made of?
*8062 Aluminum.
Can these lights be individually programmed or are they all run off of preset programs?
Yes, they are individually addressable. There are also preconfigured effects so you don’t have to tell each pixel exactly what to do each time. The software we recommend and include on our controllers is called WLED. Information about what it can do is available at https://kno.wled.ge
Yes, you can tell specific pixels what to do based on their number. That is possible, but is a cumbersome thing to do with WLED. If you want that level of control you will probably want to look at xlights, which is a software that runs on a PC and sends information to the WLED controller.
What colors do you sell?
Light Brown
Dark Brown
White
Black
SUPPORT
Getting Help
The best place to get help is Discord: DISCORD
There’s also Reddit: REDDIT
There are a lot of knowledgeable people in those groups. By posting your issue in one or more of those places we have a much better chance of finding the answer.
All the documentation for WLED is also online: https://kno.wled.ge
And the QuinLED (digQuad) boards are all documented at https://quinled.info
If you have controller issues, check the troubleshooting Flowchart: https:/drzzs.com/noworky
Size and Certification
12 mm / The pixels we sell are CE and RoHS certified.
Buying extra track
We will send a box filled with 5 lengths of PermaTrack for roughly 19’.
Click the link below:
PermaTrack ~ 19′ Pack $99.95
- This box contains five lengths of PermaTrack, and this is the smallest grouping that we are offering with free shipping for this box of 5 PermaTrack.
- Each box comes with 15 mounting brackets.
Where are you located?
We are in Lehi, Utah
We have 1 1/2 tracks of light up working, then it stops?
Have you tried changing the number of LEDs in the LED Preferences? The default is 30 so if you don’t change it to match what you actually have, only the first 30 will light up.
Does the Power Supply use a ground wire
Yes… there is a post for power ground and neutral
Do you just cut the pixel string when you come to the end of the house and have pixels left and cover the cut end?
Yes. Unlike traditional lights these RGB pixels are all individual and you can trim them.
Do I need a step down converter?
No, all the controllers we sell or support have a regulator built in now. As long as the input voltage matches what the LEDs are expecting you are good to go. (12v power supply for 12v LEDs, or 5v power supply for 5v LEDs)
What is the screw size to mount the DigQuad to an electrical board?
M2.5 is the magic size of screws to mount the dig quad controller to an electrical board.
How to protect your controller and lights:
Be careful when connecting new strings of LEDs. Some have small bits of exposed wire and if those wires touch it causes a short and will blow the fuse. Also, don’t ever cut LED strips or string wires while the LEDs are connected to the controller. The scissors or cutters can also cause a short that can blow the fuse or damage the LEDs.
….If you think you have blown a fuse. Try connecting the power output to the 3rd terminal (which corresponds to the 2nd fuse) or replace the first fuse with one of the others and see if that works.
Make sure you have a DC power supply so you don’t blow the DigiQuad – you CANNOT use a transformer providing AC power.
….If you think you have blown a fuse. Try connecting the power output to the 3rd terminal (which corresponds to the 2nd fuse) or replace the first fuse with one of the others and see if that works.
Make sure you have a DC power supply so you don’t blow the DigiQuad – you CANNOT use a transformer providing AC power.
When do I need voltage injection?
There isn’t an exact number of pixels before you need voltage injection. There are too many variables involved to make an absolute rule.
Our General Rule is Power Injection Every 299 Lights but brightness, distance from the power supply, and which effect is selected are important factors.
A decent rule of thumb is this: if there are more than 299 12v pixels in a line, plan to run a pair of 18 or 16g wires along with the pixels and Use a Power T or tie them into the +/- wires about half way through the run. That might not always be necessary but it doesn’t hurt anything to have extra and it’s easier to do at the beginning than try to add it later.
Each Pixel Pack String has power injection wires at one end to make power injection easier as well as Power T’s that plug in to the end of a string.
Lights flickering or not showing the effect chosen
This can be a result of low power or Data is to weak when reaching the next Pixel. Also if you have to many Pixels on an output it can affect performance
Things to check
- Make sure that you only have 600 Pixels connected to an output.
- If you have a jump from one pixel to another of over 6 feet use a Data Extender in the middle of the wire in between the pixels
- Make sure that the Automatic Limit option is unchecked!
- Make sure you have power injection a minimum of every 299 lights (One box of track)… (Every 100 Pucks)
What is the longest distance the first Pixel can be from the Controller?
This is the question! I wish there was a exact answer we can give you but there are to many variables at work but we can give you these ideas
- Using a thick Gauge wire such as a 16 or 14 gauge 3 core stranded wire allows data and power to flow with less resistance. Meaning that less power/Data is lost per foot of wires. We have had customers tell us that they have gotten up to 50 feet using this method.
- There are toggle switches on the Dig-Quad board under the ESP32 Board for each Output
The toggle switches on a Dig-Quad control the value of a resistor on the data output, essentially allowing you to adjust the signal strength for your LED strip depending on the length or complexity of your setup, effectively acting as a “data booster” to ensure the signal reaches all LEDs properly. SO just flip the switch for that output (the output right in front of the switch). Using this option we have had customers get up to 70 feet between the controller and the First pixel on that output.
3. Use both options and get the maximum distance.
Once again these are NOT hard numbers but what have been reported by customers
SHIPPING
Free shipping for orders over $200 /
$20 Shipping for orders $175.00 to $199.99
$10.00 Shipping for orders .01 to $174.99
Local pickup
If you live close enough to pick your order up just pick “local pickup” as the shipping option and it takes $20.00 off each box
OH Canada!!
We do not charge more for shipping to Canada. We pass the customs over to you and we undervalue the items to keep it as low as possible.
MISC
Do you have Bulk Discounts?
Yes, bulk discounts start at 50 Boxes but gets better at 100 or more
What do you sell?
- PermaTrack in 4 color options made of steel or aluminum
- Pixels (Lights)
- Ready to run Controller Box (Which has the software already on it)
- Power supplies
- Wire
- Click-Its
- Data extenders.
- We do not have
- Endcaps (SFL-Designs.com has them and many other accessories)
- You can find end caps here https://sfl-designs.com/?store-page=search&keyword=permatrack
Tips for pushing pixels into the PermaTrack
Wear padded gloves and use the back side of a screwdriver. Just need something blunt and easy to hold onto. Great idea to loop the Pixel wire between holes:
Warranty
All parts we sell we warranty for a year from the purchase date for a full replacement.
I changed my mind and would like to return the PermaTrack
We are happy to offer you a refund on unopened Boxes or Lights or Permatrack. If the bag of lights is opened we cannot take it back as we have had bad experiences with a few customers trying to return damaged products
if you want to ship the PermaTrack back to us.
Buyer pays all Shipping fees
We charge a $20 restocking fee per box box of track.