CCR arch Vs traditional LED arch

[LightsinMaine]

Just curious if any of you have some good video of a CCR arch used in a show. Not sure what would look better traditional wrapped arch or CCR. Any opinions???

[steve synek]

I have 3 CCR's used as arches. I don't think it matters which way you go as both look good. In my opinion, for $200 dollars for a CCR, you can't go wrong making two 8ft. arches capable of a lot of different colors. I don't think you can come close to this price if you were to wrap LED lights yourself. Additionally, storage space is much less using ribbons. If you were to use incandescents, you might save some money. Though I am in the primitive stages on programing the CCR, I do like the possiblities of 25 pixels per arch. Thats a lot of possible colors and high definition control.

Steve

[ItsMeBobO]

The CCR arch can be built in an hour. Measure cut glue your PVC. Cable tie the ribbon. Cover your controller.

I spent many hours wrapping incan lights and the pvc broke at the joint when I bent it. No more wrapping for me.

[Donny M. Carter]

Steve, I looked at your video. How many CCR's do you have in your display?

[steve synek]

Donny M. Carter wrote:

Steve, I looked at your video. How many CCR's do you have in your display?

Donny
I have 3 CCRs used to make 6 arches and I have 3 more CCrs on my mega tree............which might change for 2011.........but that's what you can see in my one video.

Steve

[LightsinMaine]

steve synek wrote:

Donny M. Carter wrote:

Steve, I looked at your video. How many CCR's do you have in your display?

Donny
I have 3 CCRs used to make 6 arches and I have 3 more CCrs on my mega tree............which might change for 2011.........but that's what you can see in my one video.

Steve

Wow...those do look great Steve. I was thinking of getting (3) CCR to make (3) 16' arches but I think I like the idea of more smaller arches since my house is not very large. Would make it look more symetrical to house size........Thanks all

[LightsinMaine]

Steve, Do you use the LOR software to program your arches? I've seen people mention with CCR using other programs to program these....any advice?

[PaulXmas]

Steve,

Did you cut the ribbon?

[steve synek]

No, I do not make any alterations to the ribbon in order to create the two arches. I just make a gentle bend of the ribbon between the two arches.

I use LOR to program my ribbons. I do not use any of the macro effects. I do use the RGB feature in the LOR program.

I am uploading another video now which has a little more arch movement.

Steve

[sasmuse]

steve synek wrote:

Donny
I have 3 CCRs used to make 6 arches and I have 3 more CCrs on my mega tree............which might change for 2011.........but that's what you can see in my one video.

Steve

Hi Steve,
Great setup. Was wondering how you housed the CCR controllers for the megaTree and arches? Would you please share how you did that?

Thanks,
Sally

[steve synek]

sasmuse wrote:

steve synek wrote:

Donny
I have 3 CCRs used to make 6 arches and I have 3 more CCrs on my mega tree............which might change for 2011.........but that's what you can see in my one video.

Steve

Hi Steve,
Great setup. Was wondering how you housed the CCR controllers for the mega Tree and arches? Would you please share how you did that?

Thanks,
Sally

Sally
Here is a picture of the Walmart containers I use for my CCR controllers and power packs. I put one controller and one power supply in the smaller container and just leave it on the ground for control of my arches. ( Arches use 3 containers). The small container has a "burp" type lid that I sealed with silicone. I also seal around the wire connectors with duct seal to keep water out. I have used this type of container for 3 years and have never had an issue with water infiltration through the wire holes. For the mega tree, I just place the large container on the tree frame and run the wires out the bottom. All three controllers and power pack fit in one container.

Steve






Attached files

[steve synek]

Jeff Millard wrote:

steve synek wrote:

I have 3 CCR's used as arches.

Steve,

Thank you for the video! It's awesome! Would you please post close ups of your arches? I want to duplicate what you did. It's perfect!

Thanks,

Jeff

Jeff

I didn't take any pictures of my arches, but the set up was very simple. I drove two pieces of 1/2 rebar in the ground and left about 15 inches sticking out of the ground. I than slipped a 3/4 inch PVC conduit over the rebar to form an arch. That's all the support I used. A 10 ft length of PVC worked out perfect for my location. This allowed me to keep the ribbon about 10 inches off the end of the PVC and out of the snow for a while (we got a lot of snow this year and the ends got covered eventually). For the 2nd arch, I over lap the first arch about 8 inches so that the "V" between the two arches is about 8 inches above ground. I pre-mark the CCR between pixels 25 and 26 with a colored tie wrap to make set up easier (I roll the ribbon up after the season and just leave the color marker in place). I roll the ribbon out and start from the center of the two arches using my colored tie wrap for positioning. I than attach the ribbon to the conduit with tie wraps at every 4th or 5 th pixel on the first pass. After the ribbon is in in place, I go back in put a tie wrap on every pixel joint. I don't have an exact number here, but I would say pixels 24 thru 27 are not secured where making the transition from one arch to the next. (You could mark pixels 13 and 38 as a guide for the top position also).

I did tweak my 4th 5th and 6th arches slightly as my yard slopes to the right as you can see in the videos. I added some scrap PVC to the 10 ft length of conduit to raise the arches slightly. I added 6", 8", and 10" to the arch and added a couple of inches to the overlap to compensate for the length. I know a picture is worth a thousand words, but I hope this helps.

Steve

[khawes]

steve synek wrote:

Jeff Millard wrote:

steve synek wrote:

I have 3 CCR's used as arches.

Steve,

Thank you for the video! It's awesome! Would you please post close ups of your arches? I want to duplicate what you did. It's perfect!

Thanks,

Jeff

Great explanation! Thanks a bunch.
Jeff

I didn't take any pictures of my arches, but the set up was very simple. I drove two pieces of 1/2 rebar in the ground and left about 15 inches sticking out of the ground. I than slipped a 3/4 inch PVC conduit over the rebar to form an arch. That's all the support I used.   A 10 ft length of PVC worked out perfect for my location.  This allowed me to keep the ribbon about 10 inches off the end of the PVC and out of the snow for a while (we got a lot of snow this year and the ends got covered eventually).  For the 2nd arch, I over lap the first arch about 8 inches so that the "V" between the two arches is about 8 inches above ground. I pre-mark the CCR between pixels 25 and 26 with a colored tie wrap to make set up easier (I roll the ribbon up after the season and just leave the color marker in place). I roll the ribbon out and start from the center of the two arches using my colored tie wrap for positioning. I than attach the ribbon to the conduit with tie wraps at every 4th or 5 th pixel on the first pass. After the ribbon is in in place, I go back in put a tie wrap on every pixel joint. I don't have an exact number here, but I would say pixels 24 thru 27 are not secured where making the transition from one arch to the next.  (You could mark pixels 13 and 38 as a guide for the top position also).

I did tweak my 4th 5th and 6th arches slightly as my yard slopes to the right as you can see in the videos. I added some scrap PVC to the 10 ft length of conduit to raise the arches slightly. I added  6", 8", and 10" to the arch and added a couple of inches to the overlap to compensate for the length.  I know a picture is worth a thousand words, but I hope this helps.

Steve

[steve synek]

Food for thought.

I just had a thought about my display that might help others with controller enclosures. I keep all my controllers close to the lights they control and limit the number of wires running about. I now use the 1-50, 1-50, 1-50 pixel lay out- 3 separate controller containers. With that said, if I were to redo my 3 ribbon, 6 arch set up- I would reverse either the 1st or the 2nd ribbon lay out in order to get two controllers in a single container. My current configuration does not allow this as the controller leads are a foot or so short of being able to allow two controllers in one container. Or put another way ribbon one goes pixel 1-50, ribbon two goes from pixel 50-1. This would allow me to put controllers for the 2nd and 3 rd ribbon in the same container. This would take a little more time in the initial sequence set up, but I would prefer the one less controller container in the yard.

Steve

[PaulXmas]

steve synek wrote:

Food for thought.

I just had a thought about my display that might help others with controller enclosures. I keep all my controllers close to the lights they control and limit the number of wires running about. I now use the 1-50, 1-50, 1-50 pixel lay out- 3 separate controller containers. With that said, if I were to redo my 3 ribbon, 6 arch set up- I would reverse either the 1st or the 2nd ribbon lay out in order to get two controllers in a single container. My current configuration does not allow this as the controller leads are a foot or so short of being able to allow two controllers in one container. Or put another way ribbon one goes pixel 1-50, ribbon two goes from pixel 50-1. This would allow me to put controllers for the 2nd and 3 rd ribbon in the same container. This would take a little more time in the initial sequence set up, but I would prefer the one less controller container in the yard.

Steve

I was wondering about that, if you could house 2 controllers in one container.

So the distance to too far.... ummmm

Couldn't you create another track and reverse the second controller, then cut the second controller in the main track, then paste into the reversed track?

Thats what I did to reverse my arches...

[LightsinMaine]

I guess I need to look at my electrical on this. From what I calculate each CCR uses rouchly 3 amps of power? I only have (2) 15 amp service breakers dedicated to my outside decorations. Guess I need to do some calculating. Not sure if I want to have the added expense of upgrading my service box (wife might kill me). Maybe traditional arch with LEDs might be my only option......

[steve synek]

That 3 amps is at 12 volts..............ribbons are not amp hogs. You have to have a lot of ribbions to have to worry about an electric upgrade.



Steve

[LightsinMaine]

Thanks for the clarificatio Steve.....I was getting worried I'd have to change my plans all of a sudden!

[PaulXmas]

3 AMPS?!?!?!

I just about fell off my chair when I read that!

[LightsinMaine]

Paul I thought the same thing....I'm thinking there's no way I did that correctly.....glad I asked the question! Hoping to be able to order (3) CCR for arches come summer sale....