Dimmable Hexagon Lights -- Well worth the wait and effort!
I initially posted a 1-star review because the shipping delays were dragging on and on and on. World events, etc. -- all vendors and customers were caught in the middle. The order came after about 8 weeks and was complete .
The plan was to install 4 hexes in a straight line directly to the drywall ceiling of a long relatively narrow utility room with parallel soffits about 4 1/2 feet apart. This was my first installation of this type of product and it was more difficult than expected.
In retrospect, many of on-line videos were not helpful. The particular LED strips I bought push into the connectors with no snaps to hold them together. I found that no more than 1-3 LED pieces could be handled at a time. All of the videos I viewed showed assembly of relatively large arrays which I don't think can be done without something to hold the pieces together. Also, laser levels were featured, but I found that using an inexpensive laser level led to errors. There was nothing wrong with the line thrown by the device, but the tripod stand of my device is flimsy and adjustments are done by nudging the device -- a little bump and the line moves several inches. I made mistakes and I was not happy with the alignment of the pieces using this device.
For the second go-around, I temporarily screwed a pair of 12 foot long steel tape measures (just the tapes without the holders; about $5 each) to the ceiling parallel to each other and separated by the distance between the screw holes of strips + 1 inch. That allowed me to position the LED pieces between and perpendicular to the tape measures. I installed 5 LED pieces 32 inches center-to-center with simple drywall anchors. (The tape measures made it easy to get the LED pieces in exactly the right spot.) Once those pieces were installed, for each hex, I installed 2 pieces joined together to form one side of the hex and another 2 pieces together to form the other side of the hex. With the perpendicular pieces screwed in, the position of the side pieces was locked so no measurements were needed. The steel tape measures I used came with an adhesive tape and that pulled off some paint. If I do this again, I'll use fiberglass tape measures. This approach worked well and was far quicker, more accurate, and cheaper than working with the crummy laser level. (Maybe a high quality/expensive laser level would have worked out.)
For a residential installation in a relatively small area, the triac dimming is a necessity and works well. I'm very happy with the overall result. The lighting is excellent and the fixture has a unique appearance and looks good in this setting.
