JimCanfield Posted April 14, 2008 Share Posted April 14, 2008 A friend of mine soldered up my CTB16PC for me this weekend and I hooked it up to my mini trees and it is AWESOME!!!!!! It is nice to finally see the effects first hand and not just in the visualizer. I must say hooking it up to my laptop was a breeze, assigning the unit ID was easy, and all the instructions were easy to read. Thank you to all who designed and built these.Edit: the only problem was that my dog peed on my mini tree and now 1/2 a strand is out.... now I have to look through the 6 strands to find which one is out. Should be a challenge. Any suggestions? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evan.a Posted April 14, 2008 Share Posted April 14, 2008 search and use thishttp://www.lightkeeperpro.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimCanfield Posted April 14, 2008 Author Share Posted April 14, 2008 I do have that, thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nnewby Posted April 15, 2008 Share Posted April 15, 2008 JimCanfield wrote:Edit: the only problem was that my dog peed on my mini tree and now 1/2 a strand is out.... now I have to look through the 6 strands to find which one is out. Should be a challenge. Any suggestions?i second the LKP. i hope those 6 strands are either the heavy duty lights if they are end to end, or you have 2 sets of three end to end strings. just remember the 3 strand rule Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimCanfield Posted April 15, 2008 Author Share Posted April 15, 2008 nnewby wrote: JimCanfield wrote:Edit: the only problem was that my dog peed on my mini tree and now 1/2 a strand is out.... now I have to look through the 6 strands to find which one is out. Should be a challenge. Any suggestions?i second the LKP. i hope those 6 strands are either the heavy duty lights if they are end to end, or you have 2 sets of three end to end strings. just remember the 3 strand rule actually, the trees are 2 colors (red and green, 100 minis per strand) each on it's own channel; so there are only 3 end to end Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iresq Posted April 15, 2008 Share Posted April 15, 2008 You certainly don't want a visit from the strand police! Every year, I make it a point to have one string made of 4 strands. I am just crazy like that.Congrats on your first controler. They are like potato chips. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeffF Posted April 15, 2008 Share Posted April 15, 2008 I have had six strands connected to each other for the past 3 or so years. I know you're not supposed to, but there are alot of things you aren't supposed to do that we take pleasure from. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Simmons Posted April 15, 2008 Share Posted April 15, 2008 Jeffrey,If those were 100-light strands, I'd like to know where you got the "superman" 3A fuses for the plugs? I've never been able to go beyond 5 strands of 100's without crisping a fuse. What's your secret?George Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeffF Posted April 15, 2008 Share Posted April 15, 2008 No secret that I know of. I have also plugged in 3 or 4 mini-strands and then a blow-mold on the end without so much as a pop.Now that I think about it. I had eight strands plugged in end-to-end when I was making my new leaping arches. I did two layers, the first being 8 strands of multi-color minis and then 9 strands of clear minis on top. To make sure I wasn't hurting the multi-colors, I would power them up after wrapping each clear strand. Yeah, a little snap from the plug, but no fuse pop.And actually, if you think about it, each strand is ~0.33A. So 8 x 0.33A = ~2.64A. A little room to spare for the initial startup current. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Simmons Posted April 15, 2008 Share Posted April 15, 2008 Jeffrey,Actually, that math has haunted me for years. Despite the numbers saying I CAN, I've been unable to consistently achieve your results. I don't think the cold hard math takes into account our cold hard winters. Or maybe the length/guage/quality of the various extension cords those anxious little electrons were attempting to squeeze through at the time had some bearing. I suppose it's even possible that we might even have exceptionally robust "startup current" out here in Lake Woebegon land.George Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeffF Posted April 15, 2008 Share Posted April 15, 2008 You made me go try to blow the fuse on one of my unfinished arches... and I couldn't do it with 8 strands.I tried barely putting the plug in the socket so the "sizzle" noise would keep going... no luck. Then I tried using a power strip to turn it on/off as fast as I could for a minute or so... no luck.Don't know what it is, but the darn thing just won't blow. (yeah, Christmas Light sickness in full effect here... even in April... :shock:) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimCanfield Posted April 15, 2008 Author Share Posted April 15, 2008 Ok get this..... I washed the ends of the main male end that was peed on and let it dry all day. I came home and tried the lights and they all worked:shock: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Simmons Posted April 15, 2008 Share Posted April 15, 2008 At least your dog-peed set came back to life. We've got an English Mastiff and where upon he pees in our yard, no lights light again. The last two seasons he managed to find two different spots where cords branched off and he shorted out both. If I was superstitious I'd definitely consider it a bad omen that he managed to deluge the only 'unprotected' spots in the yard each season. No rinsing with water will reverse this boy's effect - and both went the same way - they blackened and smoldered and melted. Cost me a handful of hd cords, a couple of splitters and some well-chosen cuss words while freezing my arse off trying to perform emergency re-wiring in the middle of December. Dogs - you gotta love 'em...George Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimCanfield Posted April 15, 2008 Author Share Posted April 15, 2008 Oh my, what a mess. I agree, the joys of owning a dog! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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