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What to use for Rainbow Spot enclosures


TJ Hvasta

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I just got my RS order from ChristmasOnManor (thanks Greg!) and suddenly face a dilemma.. what to mount the RS boards in.. I have several halogen cases from HD for the Floods, but not sure what to mount the Spots in.. the halogen cases seem like overkill for a 2x3" board..

I had a thot to use landscaping enclosures I think I can pick up at HomeDepot.. they'd be small enough, but I believe they have a frosted plastic lens.. could I cut/hot-glue plexiglass to replace it? What would/did you do?

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Something I thought of tonight as I was finishing up a project...

I have CoroStars from HolidayCoro and naturally wanted to use my stuff in them. So I have a Rainbow Spot in every star and 2 Rainbow Brain's controlling them. After I got them all done and looked down at the stars I realized that the spots were not covered, which is an issue. As I usually ponder things over a Twix bar, I head to the kitchen. As I looked over my shoulder I found a chinese soup container in the sink. Thats when the light bulb went off! I will be using the small chinese clear plastic food containers to cover all my spots, which will keep them water proof enough for me.

Now, time for some Wonton soup!:D

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Greg, as I'm planning to use the Spots primarily as lanscape coloring, but secondary for Halloween and Christmas coloring, I really wanted to find something a lil more permanent, hence the landscape light enclosure idea.. I'll try to upload a pix of the pieces I have already. I checked HD for their landscape lights but they didn't have anything out but walkway lights, so I'm heading to Lowes for a couple halogen RF housings and see what they have for RSpots.. I'll let you know what I find.. The tupperware was my first tho for portable boxes, just don't know how the lids(not clear) would disfuse the light..

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All I have are RBF's. If the RB sopts arent any bigger round than a MR16, then u can do what I did for my MR16's. I used some landscape flood light enclosures that were specifically for MR16. FOund them at Lowes a few years ago on sale. I try to post pic's

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The Spots are pretty small, just 2"x3", a lil longer with the RJ45 jacks installed.. I have one housing from my lo-volt landscape lights (that havent worked in a long time) to play with.. if I can get it to sit inside it correctly, I still have to hotglue some plexi- over the opening (old cover long since hazed/broke).. I want to chk Lowes for their lo-volt lights, see if they have anything that'll work. HomeDepot didnt have anything that wasnt smalll solar sticks..

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Here is what I did with my MR 16's. I had to modify the mounting the mounting of the MR16 lampholder and make it shorter due to the extra lenght in the LED MR16. I read a post over at PC a while back on using styrofoam to hold the MR16 in the enclosure.

Attached files 214579=11943-DSCN0730.JPG

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did not know they were shaped like that. ur right sq peg round hole.

maybe u can use the small halogen work light enclosures???

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I have 1/2 a solution right now...

I got a clear florescent light protecter tube.

Then I got a bunch of these from end caps.
http://www.christmasonmanor.com/store/product.php?id_product=33

Place the light in a small section of tube, I think 4-6 inches should work, I can gat back to you once I make one, right now I have all the pieces, just need to build them.

Then you can us the hocks on the end caps to attach the lights to some thing. Some are going to be tied to some stuff already in my display I will probably attach the rest to wooden stakes.

Only part I have not figured out yet for sure is how I am going to run the wire in and out of them.

I think I will just cut a grove out for the wire and maybe put some tap over it to make sure no water can get in.

The floods I am stile not 100% sure what I will do... I am thinking I am just going to modify some clear food containers..

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For the Floods, go to HomeDepot or Lowes and get the 250w halogen worklights, gut them and hotglue the Flood boards to the inside.. I have 4 of them and they work perfectly, can even be mounted on 3/4" conduit for permanent outdoor mounting. The ones from Lowes are abt a buck cheaper, larger and already painted black, larger glass for better light wash too.

I have the 4' flourescent tube sleeves also, and the caps that come with them (they have the slot in them for the tube prongs). As there is no way to mount them, hot glue, or screwstrip (for car radiator hoses) to a metal bracket is the only way I see to use those. I need something more permanent, like the small landscape flood housings used for lo-volt sets.

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As for mounting I am thinking of using a zip tie from the hocks on the caps I linked to, to what ever I am mounting the lights too. The caps fit rather snugly so I don't see an issue with the caps coming off (especially since in 4 inches of tube will have two caps).

As for a permanent, more year round solution, I really dont have any ideas, if you find one plese let me know.

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I sorta had an idea of using the flourescent tube sleeves, hot-gluing the end caps to seal them, then hot-gluing the back of the sleeve to a piece of angle aluminum or steel with a stake mounted on it to go into the ground..

Attached files 214880=11956-RBSpotHousing.jpg

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That will certainly work TJ. Very creative, which I love!

Just a recommendation, always make the tubes (not including the end caps) longer than the light you are enclosing. This is what we do for Blizzard as well. It gives you a little room for "play" and allows plenty of space for cat-5 cable.

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  • 2 weeks later...

TJ Hvasta wrote:

I just got my RS order from ChristmasOnManor (thanks Greg!) and suddenly face a dilemma.. what to mount the RS boards in.. I have several halogen cases from HD for the Floods, but not sure what to mount the Spots in.. the halogen cases seem like overkill for a 2x3" board..

I had a thot to use landscaping enclosures I think I can pick up at HomeDepot.. they'd be small enough, but I believe they have a frosted plastic lens.. could I cut/hot-glue plexiglass to replace it? What would/did you do?


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