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How I protect my LOR Light Controller From Theft


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Nuff said dudes.

I use a 7 foot cable with loops at either end that wraps around the cement column on our porch, then a long neck lock ties it all together at the locking bracket on the lid of the 1602 controller.

But you do need a long neck lock with about 3" or so of length. The standard size padlock loops are too short and won't be able to close down and lock.

Then I cover it all up afterwards with a large plastic garbage bag.



Attached files 76036=4661-DSC04642.JPG

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  • 2 weeks later...

txstraitfan4.

I got the LOR1602W with the MP3 card. So I just load all my sequences into the SD card, and stick the SD card onto the MP3 daughter card inside the controller and it runs the show from there. No hookups needed to a PC!

You can see more photos of my new Halloween setup here:

http://www.lauderdalechristmas.com/halloween-2006.htm

Along with all my sequence videos for the 12 Halloween songs that I have completed.

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It has nothing to do with what your setup looks like, but rather, what is in the heart of the evil doer. I've had my most beautiful items stolen, and my most ugliest as well.

But here's a funny one. One year a neighbor 6 houses up the street had an ugly set of lights, and they stole his lights, then obvioulsy worked their way up to my house, saw my nicer lights, and ditched the neighbor's lights on my front yard and took mine instead! I guess he wanted the free upgrade

Somehow I felt blessed that he chose my lights over the other guy's light. Makes me feel that I made the right choice in picking them out when I bought them.

Hope he's still enjoying them.

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jeffostroff wrote:

It has nothing to do with what your setup looks like, but rather, what is in the heart of the evil doer. I've had my most beautiful items stolen, and my most ugliest as well.

But here's a funny one. One year a neighbor 6 houses up the street had an ugly set of lights, and they stole his lights, then obvioulsy worked their way up to my house, saw my nicer lights, and ditched the neighbor's lights on my front yard and took mine instead! I guess he wanted the free upgrade

Somehow I felt blessed that he chose my lights over the other guy's light. Makes me feel that I made the right choice in picking them out when I bought them.

Hope he's still enjoying them.

could i have some of your lights too, I would enjoy them....

Thats really funny, I guess he couldn't carry more than one set.
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Thanks for the picture. I need to lock all my controllers down also. I was going to put them all in the garage but figured I would need 2000 more feet of wire which would be another $200 or so.

I am kind of figuring it might be worth it though to just spend the extra $200. Once I buy all my locks and cable (for 5 boxes) I might only be saving $100 and it would be better for the boxes and easier to work on if they were all in the garage.

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Life will be a lot easier for you if you just put your controllers where the lights are. I also cover it with a garbage bag for weatherproofing it and for camouflage.

Also, the Mega tree will house 2 of my 16 bit controllers in the center, where they will control 32 channels of light for 4 different colors of LEDs on the tree.

That's the best place to put them, and they will be hidden from view by the 48 strings of lights circling the tree, plus a bag over them, plus they will be tethered to each other and the mega tree structure.

They would have to have a whole platoon come and take the entire Mega tree with controllers, after they unplug everything. My money says they move on to the neighbor's candy cane arches.

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I was thinking about this... take the boxes and remove the power plugs that would go to the wall.

Use 50ft cords that have the female end cut and wire them up and run the cord into the garage or house.

Doing this will mean that the main power will have to be cut to steal the box and with the 30amp boxes you will have to do it twice and if i were a stealing one i would reconsider.

You need to make it look like they just cant unplug them and go. The high voltage at all times is a must too.

What do you think?

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It has nothing to do with what your setup looks like, but rather, what is in the heart of the evil doer. I've had my most beautiful items stolen, and my most ugliest as well.
Sure it does, when you are talking about controllers. Now lights, or whatever may be a whole different story. If an enclosure simply looks like a receptacle box, who would want it? If it has Light O Rama plastered all over it, and it's in a fancy plastic enclosure, it might look more appealing. This is simply my opinion, but I use nothing but "ugly boxes" out along the road, and have never had any problems. They are basically unoticeable. But on the other hand "live and learn". lol :)
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Just remove the label and it looks just like a distribution box. I doubt any one would bother removing it if you drill it down tight.

What I do is to drill some holes inside the box. Drill it down tight. Then just lock up the box cover.

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Bill,
I agree with you on the ugly boxes. Some of these boxes the guys make are just too pretty. Makes me want to put them in a display box under glass.

Me on the other hand use old Rainbird and Hunter irrigation boxes. Some Ritetime and Orbitz. Then drill me some big old holes in the bottom (cause water don't run up hill and top it off with some flat black spray paint so they don't shine when lights hit them. Then I take a big old sledge hammer and pound some 2x3 boards in the ground screw them to the boards and walk away. Shucks I don't even like to look at them when the sun is out.

But you know what? They all work the same.:laughing::laughing:

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Bill Hoffman wrote:

If you used "ugly boxes", like I do, you wouldn't have to worry about it. :D

Thats what I do... plus I rigged my boxes to weight about 60 lbs (lots of wood and pressure treated is heavier), then still do the trashbag thing... I keep my stuff outside but under the eave drip of the house give extra chance at avoiding water and very heavy tropical thick bushes for my foundation warmer plantings give me a great hiding place. Then around the outside of the plantings I arm a bare wire "cow shocker" so go messing with my stuff and get shocked pretty good (hell I run into the darn thing a few too many times, OUCH). I only got vandalized once like in 1997... since then I keep putting the word out with the current generation of kids that the yard is loaded with high voltage booby traps and a few other security measures I dont want to elaborate on and I have been left alone since.
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My Dad used to run thin copper wiring around the bulb of C7's and power them to give just the tingle of a shock. It was enough to scare away the kids.

ADDED:
By the way can anyone recommend a brick anchor to mount the box. I was going to go along the same lines as Jeff and planned on mounting an eye bolt and running a cable though it and the box and then mounting the box to the wall itself.
Greg

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This is how I see it....


You have a locked box bolted to the side of your house, or is staked really good into the ground. Now if I was I thef I would know thaty their had to be som king of electroninc device in that box. If the box is unmovable, I would think that the board might not be mounted to the case or, not scewed in. So I get my snipers and unlock the box and i yank on the board. The case holds but the controller snaps in half, from being under stress.



That was what I though of. So you might say to just put it in the garage. But Richard pointed out that thwe cords are $$$$$ it would be cheaper to keep them outside and save the $$$$$ to have a back-up fund ready to buy a new controller for only $$.


My plan? Board in a plastic box but the screws are in the soft plastic so the board could pull right out. PLUS the controllers are hidden UNDER a big bush that the only way to get to it would be to go behind the bush, scraping the house so everyone inside can hear you., AND you will be caught on a motion-activated camera that snaps a LOT of pictures. So I think I have a good plan. And also, the main reason the boards are a little loose, lets say some lights shorted out and a bush caught fire. The fire is small so it doesnt get to the house, but I want the controllers off-line and out of their so no current going to the fire messes stuff up. The only problem is the cables going in/out of the box. I think I have come up with a way to pull hard enough at a certain angle for them to come right-off. And if the termanels are demaged then I can solder in a replacement part.


/ all of the above paragraph is a "Worst Case Senareo" None of that will probaly never happen, I just like to have a plan for every problem /

Ok,

yada yada..


Im Done


---Daniel L

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I'm kind of lucky. The house so old it has a coal door to the basement. Mounting all the electronics there and snaking out extension cords through the door.;) Naturally, I'll use a can of foam insulation to seal it off to keep the critters out. Yard is small enough (50'x40') that I won't go broke buying extension cords.

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On a related note, I hope that LOR includes some sort of software to deal with the possibility of a LOR unit going online (either by theft, power, or general failure). It would be very friendly if it were to let me know something as it continued limping through the display with the channels it has left.

Or an offline/animation-only mode that would actively alarm in some way if a LOR module disappears.

Lots of different ways it could be done, but it would be nice if the software itself took some hand in letting me know when something fishy is up.

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THat would be cool! Like if you had 5 controllers id'd 01,02,03,04,05. LOR can look for # 05 (end of chain) and if it cant find it it could kill the show and start up some ear-splatering tones. Just use a tone generator and when your ears hurt, then make a sequence with it. Oh that would be SO COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!! Dan could you do that? Huh?




--Daniel L

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