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MGoBlue102

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My mega tree needs 96 channels to function properly.  Last year I mounted 6 boxes to a sheet of plywood under the tree.  I want to take the boards out of the boxes this year and put them all in one box with Daisy Chain connecting each board in the same box.  I'm not finding much as of yet on the internet in the line of retailers selling various size enclosures.  Can anyone lead me in a direction here? It looks like the enclosure needs to be large enough to hold 6 eight inch boards.  Maybe two columns of three rows is how I would place them.  I am also thinking about running electrical outlets straight to the edge of the panel instead of having pigtails hanging out.  

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Well, I don't really think there is a box big enough to hold all of it.  Looking at Lowes, the biggest weatherproof box I can find is this one:

https://www.lowes.com/pd/WIEGMANN-SC-Gray-Steel-Weatherproof-Interior-New-Work-Old-Work-Standard-Enclosure-Floor-Electrical-Box/999958895

It's 12x12x6.  It would easily hold three of them, so maybe two of these boxes?  I'm just not sure what your looking for exists.

Anyways, hope this generates ideas on what you could find and use.

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There are boxes plenty large enough, but you likely would need to go to an electrical supply store.  

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Take a look at boxes from Bud Industires.   Seaching on Amazon would be quick way to see what sizes are available.  

 

I've been u8sing Bud's for my pixel controllers and powersupp;ies.  Just wanted more room than the Cable Quards provide. 

 

I really like the Bud's because of deep straight sides and a double locking gasketed door.   Hole drilling was so much easier than on the CG's I had been using 

 

Going with 2 boxes would also be an option. 

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Wow, thanks.  Just looked at Buds, approx 24x32 box runs nearly 600 bucks.  Quite the price but this early in my looking, not sure if that is the kind of number I will be forced to pay.  

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Sorry, this idea offends my sense of proper package design. One box allows heat stratification/build up,  unless noisy fans are used. Increased weight and additional power needs. Those bring other problems: foreign mater ingestion, blocked grills.

Are you mounting these boards at the top, where space is limited?  Weight and 'sail' area become an issue.

Or  at the ground, where you could place and assign a controller per closest  group. Each box becomes smaller (easier to mask), string feeds become shorter and more than likely, you will need to break up AC power circuits anyway

 

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Why not build your own enclosure?  I can't find it now, but I saw something where someone built a box with 9-10 controllers inside and wheeled it in and out of their garage each year to put in a centralized location in their yard.  If I find it, I'll post the picture here.

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I did the same basic build for my mega tree when I made up one box for controller cards for it.

I have 96 strands of 70 count LEDs for the tree and a 3 channel star.  I have to use 2 strands per channel (only because I made the tree bigger after I had the box built) but that has not been a big problem at all to my sequences and shows when I was still doing them.  I have not had a show since 2014 due to health issues and other things but maybe I will get going again.

I used a metal 24 x 36 x 8 deep NEMA enclosure which I picked up from an electrical supply house cheap ( they had ordered it for a customer who canceled the order on them).  

I put in 4 of the CTB16K cards, 32 outlets (cut so that it is really 64 single outlets), 2 ecs weatherproof Cat connectors, 2 30 amp weatherproof power connectors, and 4 lighted switches to be able to shut off any card for work if necessary.  I mounted the box on a stand and painted it green with a big red bow so it stands next to the mega tree and just looks like a big present out in the display.  The only drawback to it is that it weighs 87 lbs so you don't just pick it up and walk around with it!  But it also makes it hard to steal at the same time I guess.  It has worked out great for me here in upstate NY for many years so far with no fans or any trouble at all.

 

controller1.jpg

Edited by beeiilll
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25 minutes ago, TheDucks said:

Sorry, this idea offends my sense of proper package design. One box allows heat stratification/build up,  unless noisy fans are used. Increased weight and additional power needs. Those bring other problems: foreign mater ingestion, blocked grills.

Are you mounting these boards at the top, where space is limited?  Weight and 'sail' area become an issue.

Or  at the ground, where you could place and assign a controller per closest  group. Each box becomes smaller (easier to mask), string feeds become shorter and more than likely, you will need to break up AC power circuits anyway

 

So the thought is not to have 6 individual gray plastic boxes mounted onto plywood with 16 black chords hanging from each one like last year.  Just not as neat as I want it to be.  Thoughts are to take the 6 boards out of the enclosures they came in, get rid of the pigtails and mount the boards all in one large enclosure, still mounted away from the surface and spaced apart to allow ventilation/cooling etc but then also attach outlets to the outside walls of the enclosure so that the entire unit is self contained including the LOR director.  All you would see from the outside would be the walls of the box with outlets (Standard outdoor outlet covers as well).  Unit would be mounted at ground level, possibly on the pole itself at the base.  

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3 minutes ago, beeiilll said:

I did the same basic build for my mega tree when I made up one box for controller cards for it.

I have 96 strands of 70 count LEDs for the tree and a 3 channel star.  I have to use 2 strands per channel (only because I made the tree bigger after I had the box built) but that has not been a big problem at all to my sequences and shows when I was still doing them.  I have not had a show since 2014 due to health issues and other things but maybe I will get going again.

I used a metal 24 x 36 x 8 deep NEMA enclosure which I picked up from an electrical supply house cheap ( they had ordered it for a customer who canceled the order on them).  

I put in 4 of the CTB16K cards, 32 outlets (cut so that it is really 64 single outlets), 2 ecs weatherproof Cat connectors, 2 30 amp weatherproof power connectors, and 4 lighted switches to be able to shut off any card for work if necessary.  I mounted the box on a stand and painted it green with a big red bow so it stands next to the mega tree and just looks like a big present out in the display.  The only drawback to it is that it weighs 87 lbs so you don't just pick it up and walk around with it!  But it also makes it hard to steal at the same time I guess.  It has worked out great for me here in upstate NY for many years so far with no fans or any trouble at all.

Oh damn, completely forgot about the 3 additional channels needed for the star.  That means I need an additional board.  Hmm.  I too have been running 2 strands per channel just because it looks better never to have only one strand lit at a time with it being so large, it shows better with 2 strands.  Great thought about the kill switch too, had not thought about that.  Right now, first things first.  Thinking about that enclosure.  In my mind, I'm not thinking I want to drop 600 bucks for it.

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16 minutes ago, namecipS said:

Why not build your own enclosure?  I can't find it now, but I saw something where someone built a box with 9-10 controllers inside and wheeled it in and out of their garage each year to put in a centralized location in their yard.  If I find it, I'll post the picture here.

I have not ruled that out either, would just have to learn how to weld and purchase necessary equipment to fabricate.

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2 minutes ago, MGoBlue102 said:

Oh damn, completely forgot about the 3 additional channels needed for the star.  That means I need an additional board.  Hmm.  I too have been running 2 strands per channel just because it looks better never to have only one strand lit at a time with it being so large, it shows better with 2 strands.  Great thought about the kill switch too, had not thought about that.  Right now, first things first.  Thinking about that enclosure.  In my mind, I'm not thinking I want to drop 600 bucks for it.

Check with electricians, electrical supply houses, any companies doing upgrade work on equipment.  You can find enclosures like this out there (in fact I have another one of these just sitting in my basement at the moment)!  Might take a bit but you can find deals on them if you look around.  I had to fill in some holes in a couple of other boxes similar to this with epoxy but the boxes were cheap to buy so why not!

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I remember the post about the other person who used a plastic garden storage shed for a bunch of controllers and wheeled it around as needed.  Fairly cheap way to get a lot of room for controllers and other items in one space.

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14 minutes ago, beeiilll said:

I did the same basic build for my mega tree when I made up one box for controller cards for it.

I have 96 strands of 70 count LEDs for the tree and a 3 channel star.  I have to use 2 strands per channel (only because I made the tree bigger after I had the box built) but that has not been a big problem at all to my sequences and shows when I was still doing them.  I have not had a show since 2014 due to health issues and other things but maybe I will get going again.

I used a metal 24 x 36 x 8 deep NEMA enclosure which I picked up from an electrical supply house cheap ( they had ordered it for a customer who canceled the order on them).  

I put in 4 of the CTB16K cards, 32 outlets (cut so that it is really 64 single outlets), 2 ecs weatherproof Cat connectors, 2 30 amp weatherproof power connectors, and 4 lighted switches to be able to shut off any card for work if necessary.  I mounted the box on a stand and painted it green with a big red bow so it stands next to the mega tree and just looks like a big present out in the display.  The only drawback to it is that it weighs 87 lbs so you don't just pick it up and walk around with it!  But it also makes it hard to steal at the same time I guess.  It has worked out great for me here in upstate NY for many years so far with no fans or any trouble at all.

 

controller1.jpg

Thanks for the photo, that definitely makes it easier to envision.  Very clean.  I was thinking of having the outlets exposed to outside of box with covers to keep size down somewhat but this might be still an option depending on actual size box I end up finding.  I have 4 color verticals, red, white, green, blue 100 ct strands, 32 each then I have 32 additional strands running over top of the verticals that are white spiraled down.  I just posted a couple photos in another thread if anyone wants to see the actual tree.  

 

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Your welcome.  I forgot to mention that there are fuse holders under those switches for power to the cards.  Can't really see them in this picture.

I have run 32 strands of white and blue LEDs as spirals on my tree as well.  I used two more controllers in sperate boxes to run the spirals though.

The Red, Green, blue, and white plugs on the left are the ones going out to the mega tree strands in this photo.  I too use 4 colors in my tree.

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2 hours ago, beeiilll said:

Your welcome.  I forgot to mention that there are fuse holders under those switches for power to the cards.  Can't really see them in this picture.

I have run 32 strands of white and blue LEDs as spirals on my tree as well.  I used two more controllers in sperate boxes to run the spirals though.

The Red, Green, blue, and white plugs on the left are the ones going out to the mega tree strands in this photo.  I too use 4 colors in my tree.

Did you paint those vampire clips or did you find them already colored?  Love the concept to help manage.

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I just took the covers for the plugs and painted them with Krylon fusion paint to get the colors.  Yea, it makes things a lot easier to keep track off for me.  I have 4 color strings on all my windows, doors, and roof so I use8 conductor cord to run the lines out from under my front deck up to the roof and windows for the strings.  With the color coding, it is a snap to hook things up quickly.

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4 minutes ago, beeiilll said:

I just took the covers for the plugs and painted them with Krylon fusion paint to get the colors.  Yea, it makes things a lot easier to keep track off for me.  I have 4 color strings on all my windows, doors, and roof so I use8 conductor cord to run the lines out from under my front deck up to the roof and windows for the strings.  With the color coding, it is a snap to hook things up quickly.

Oh, sounds like you have some serious history.  Getting ready to run my outlines this summer, I just posted looking for guidance on controller placement etc. on another thread.  I am going with pixel strips encased in aluminum channel with white diffuser for the actual lights.  Since they will remain year round, I want more flexibility to make them any color for any reason any day of the week.  Got all the product, now it is time to start hooking it up.  Probably going to rent a bucket truck for that event just to avoid ladders for so much work.  I plan on having those controllers out of site and permanently affixed but add the house to my annual christmas and halloween display by connecting the networks together. 

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i did this with 6 controllers in one metal box, got my design from Kevin Strickhouse, search for Strictly Lights on facebook and you can see the design. 

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