window and ouline frames - ?

[saxon]

I made my window frames, 6, and put my 2811 strips on the face and soldered the corners, PITA.

I am now wondering if running them on the inside would have been better - whats the norm?

 

I also want to know if you experienced people could tell me if you also make frames for the eaves and gutter lines or just tack them up with clips. Both have pros and cons, just wondering what people have found to be the best.

 

Thanks

~Matt

[dgrant]

I created window frames first year for regular LED's, then this year, I added dumb strips to them. I've zip-tied them down to the inside edges. Now I've not yet put them up but thinking about doing so and sequencing them for Halloween lighting...oranges and purples so I might do that. This will be the first year with RGB so only time will tell how they hold up being exposed to very cold temperatures, snow and ice too.

[steve synek]

I left my CCPs up all year. I haven't fired them up yet to see how they are holding up. My previous strings of LEDs (outlining the house) stayed up for 5 years with out a problem. Time will tell. You can see how I did them in my videos below.

Steve

[saxon]

Thanks for the reply

 

So it seems you both ran your pixs on the inside of your frames? perhaps I should have as well, it took longer than expected and had to seal the corners. Oh well, they are done and going up today.

 

Thanks for the pics, Steve. Looks like some good craftsmanship over there.

 

Anyone else care to chime in if they ran your strips on the inside or face of your frames?

 

~Matt

[dgrant]

Let me clarify, I fabricated simple wood frames that fit into the brick surrounds of the windows, for the outside of the house. On those simple frames, I have warm white LEDs that I've used for the past two years. This year, I added RGB strips to the inside edges of those same frames to illuminate the window. I maintained the original LEDs too so they can be used as sequenced already. This year, I'm trying to insure I'm not running both the RGB and white leds at the same instant as its not needed. Essentially two props in each one times 7 windows.

[wmilkie]

For the eaves, roof lines and windows, I cable tie my lights to 8 foot lengths of metal corner bead(HomeDepot), then just hang the whole thing at whatever location its going to. easy to store and set up.

[sax]

For my eaves, I have CCRs. They are up year round mounted with glazing tape.

For my gutters I have smart strips from china. I zip tie them to emt purchased from Home Depot. I then drilled 3 holes in the emt and hang with s hooks. Got to be honest and say I thought this was going to be crap. But they have been up over a week and I am impressed with them. They hide pretty well believe it or not and install was super quick. I tried different sized s hooks to get proper height on the gutter. I wanted them right at the top.

I plan to add window strips next year. I have vinyl and brick. It looks to be a challenge. I will keep eyeballing the forums for successful and easy solutions.

[Mr. P]

My HOA doesn't allow me to leave lights up year round so I mount my strips for the eaves and windows on 1/2" pvc pipe and snap them into clips which stay on the house year round as they can't be seen.

The clips are here:

http://www.holidaycoro.com/Half-Inch-PVC-Pipe-Mounting-Clip-p/768.htm

After the Holidays I unsnap the frames and store them. This was the easiest for me.

[saxon]

Thanks for the responses-

 

Mr P..I used the clips also, they worked great for me. Everything - eaves, gutter, windows is on PVC and clipped up. I finally finished today and.......AWSOME! This is my first year doing a show and I dove into pixels beginning of the year, over 500 pixels. When they first came on and no smoke, yeah, I got giggly. It came out better than expected! I started this post wondering if I was doing it the hard way or not and it seems I am in the norm and like the post above, whatever works best for you.

 

Thanks

~Matt 

[Mr. P]

I love the clips, I have over 500 on my house and after all the frames are made and the pixels and strips are zip tied to the pvc pipe it's just a matter of snapping them on. When everything is done I unsnap and store the frames, it cut my setup and tear down time in half.

My HOA does  weekly drive by inspections of the properties and they asked me the other day if I was decorating this year, I told them the lights were already up and they couldn't see them. The white clips and frames blend perfectly in with the eaves and windows.

I have 300 more clips on order for the Christmas decorations this year.

[Watts UP]

I just did my windows and used 1/2" pvc  (with LED's) worked out great 1 roll 1 window folded the corners. Hope to use the plugs

I have now used over 400 feet of PVC for other lighting projects.

[Ed K]

This discussion was a great source for one of my main problems as I plan for 2016:  How to hang CCRs (or any lights) on my house that has not gutters (some design nerd had that bright idea).  Anyway, a single CCR mounted on a 1/2" PVC pipe will be the perfect solution for me next year (2016).  I then will just clip the PVC pips to my eaves, using the mounting clips from Holiday Coro.  Never knew about this solution until reading this forum.  Thanks!!

 

Question:  For those who used this method for windows with CCRs, how do you handle the CCR at each corner?  Bending the CCRs, and unbending them for storage, can wear them down, from what I understand.  Do you have four sections, each with a separate CCR, but conected to the one next to it?

 

Thanks.

 

 

Ed K