FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What is PermaTrack

PermaTrack are tracks made of galvanized steel or 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. ~ 50′ total and 3 brackets per track ~ 39 brackets total

 

 

How do I get the LEDs for my PermaTrack?  

PixelPacks – these are 299 LED 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.  

https://www.permatrack.us/shop/pixel-pack/

How do I control and program my LED lights?

The WiFi Dig-Quad controller can handle up to 3200 lights. The controllers come with WLED installed ready for setup. 

 

 

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 

 

 

PermaTrack Hole Direction?

Bottom or Side holes – truly it is a matter of your preference. 

The most popular track is bottom holes – we sell three 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?

Currently PermaTrack is made of two options: 

*24 gauge galvanized sheet metal which is much thicker and stronger than the typical gauge used for rain cutters. This option will no longer be available when the current stock runs out. 

*8062 Aluminum.

 

 

 

SUPPORT

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.

 

Pixel 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

 

SHIPPING

We give our customers free shipping over $200 purchases so that you can focus on what matters and that is your awesome project.


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.

 

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) 
  • Controller (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)
  • Prebuilt controllers in water tight boxes
  • You can find end caps here  https://sfl-designs.com/?store-page=search&keyword=permatrack

 

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.

 

Does it use a ground wire

Yes… there is a post for power ground and neutral  

 

 

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. 

 

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. 

 

 

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:

If you are using bullet style pixels it is best to use gloves and pixel pliers.

The pliers can be found at https://www.rgb-man.com/online-store/Pixel-Pliers-p178504992

 

 

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.

 

 

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. Generally you can go several hundred 12v pixels before you need voltage injection. 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 about 400 12v pixels in a line, plan to run a pair of 18 or 16g wires along with the pixels and 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.

 

 

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.

 

 

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 if you want to ship the PermaTrack back to us. We charge a $20 restocking fee per box.

 

 

What colors do you sell?

  • Walnut Brown (lighter in the picture)
  • Brown (darker in the picture below)
  • White
  • Black
The left is Brown – the lighter is Walnut Brown