Did Anybody Else Have A Murphys Law Weekend?

[jimswinder]

For you guys...it's "Murphys' Law"...

for me, it's the "Winder Curse"...

1) One of my LOR1602W's had not only ONE CAT5 connection go bad, but BOTH!!

2) One of my new CCR Power supplies decided to quit working...

3) Plus a bunch of other small events...

Oh well...still have Thanksgiving Day to get it all done...

[PMC]

Well, Saturday was install the inflatables day, so as my 20ft snowman was 50% filled a strong gust of wind made frosty fly to the north pole, so as I am chasing this snowman up the street, I could do nothing but laugh

[JoeKinne]

I have everything but the CCR's up and running.......and then I blew a fuse....on one of my new Hybrid trees (8 channels of standard 14' mega tree with 8 channels of spiral on it)...right after I had finished the initial test of it and put the final spiral into place, effectively locking the controller into into the tree (mounted to the center pole). I was able to squeeze myself into a hole between the spirals(made wider by my butt). I found the fuse that was out (the primary one of course) at which point I attempted to climb back out....with my wife watching through the window I managed to trip and fall my way out of the tree (apparently by butt grew in size while I was in there). I got the new fuses (Radio Shack to the rescue) and tomorrow night I will attempt to replace the fuse and fix the tree.

My wife is reading this over my shoulder laughing as she remembers it fondly while wishing that she would have had a camera handy for posterity!
:cool:

[jimswinder]

JoeKinne wrote:

she remembers it fondly while wishing that she would have had a camera handy for posterity!
:cool:

you mean handy for YOUR "posterior"....

[JoeKinne]

Whatever......

[Rick Childers]

I tried to get ambitious this year, I am paying the price
* I don't have a single sequence completed.
* I still have one of my new props to complete.
* I only have half the lights out
* I lost all last weekend to take my Son on his first Cub Scout Campout
* No regrets there
* I took three vacation days to make up for the campout time lost
* My Daughter got sick, and i had to take care of her for two of those days
* I had to work work 13 hours yesterday
* Tomorrow I have to go to a non-optional "Team Building" event for work, no chance to do lights.


It goes on and on. I am not going to make it for the 26th, but maybe December 2nd. . .

Yeah, I know, quite your bitchin

[Guest guest]

When I first put out two old plastic cutout type items, an ELF with a Christmas Tree and a Santa that I had added White LED light strings too, worked fine on the living room floor, got them out and ran first test show, didn't light, so checked and power was getting to the strings.

Both strings went bad from the time I moved them from the LR to their spot in the display!

So had to take them down, remove the bad strings and replace with LED strings that had their own light controller on them. So I had to redo all 16 of my sequences where these were to fade up or down, shimmer or twinkle as now they could only be 100% ON or 100% OFF.

Never fails, at least two items seem to fail every year from the time they're tested until they get moved into their place in the display.

Funny thing about this one was they were tested less than 20 minutes prior to the time of their placement!

Always something, somewhere gotta be fixed sooner than you hope or think.

[beeiilll]

Ha Ha - "Winders Curse" Good one Jim

Actually I think that the Murphy's Law aspect is directly proportional to the influencing factor of age plus display size and complexity!

I have 64 extension sets for my mega tree lights that I had to modify some in-line female vampire plug positions this year (I forgot about changing them when I put them away before (Hmmm - age?) and I had them all laid out in the front yard for seperation of the 4 colors and realized that I had to make the change.
Aww Crap! Oh well, just do it on the lawn.
So I take my tools and a can of electrical sealant out to fill the holes from where the old plugs were at. I get about 3/4 of the way through changing the plugs around and realize that my legs are getting wrapped up in the zip cord behind me as I am crawling around. So I set things down and reach around to get untangled.
OF course as soon as I start to get up and untangle the whole mass of zip cord starts to pull towards me. And naturally the can of sealant had to tip over and spill. Now mind you this was a fresh can, yessir - none of that small can with just a little in it for me! This had to be a brand new, full, pint can of sealant!!
And it had to go all over the mass of zip cord that it was tangled in as well.
So here is this 59 year old man in his yard cursing up a blue cloud while standing in the middle of a mass of zip cord that he is trying to desperately seperate quickly before the sealant sets up and welds all the cords together!

I look up and not 30 feet from me on the road in front of my house is a car with a couple of guys who work for the county, just laughing so hard it should be a crime! I had not even seen them pull up but they got the best show (in their opinion) of the year - so they say.
They did tell me that they wanted to get out and help but they were laughing too hard. Gee thanks guys.

So after they pull away, I go back to my own living h__l on earth and get things straightened back out. Get some cleaner and get most of the sealant off things. Get the cords straigtened back out and go back to finishing the changes on them.

Oh yea, had to go borrow a can of sealant from another electrician in town to finish things. Just told him to not ask and I would get him a new can!! ARRGHH

So finally get the changes all done, things cleaned up and put away and ready to finally go back to the original point of putting the extensions on the lights for the mega tree (for those of you who forgot what I was up to in the beginning).
I get one cord out and installed on the tree - no problem, the changes work just like I wanted them too.
I go to get another cord and slip in the grass (I forgot to say that this was a damp and misty day) and slid through the line of cords and got them all tangled up again !!!!!

Isn't it amazing how such simple things can be so challenging for us at times!! And this whole episode only added about 3 hours to the time for that day as well!

Well at least the two county guys got a good laugh that day. Me - I may take up drinking for a serious pastime hobby to this serious pastime hobby !!!

Bill

[BrownOut]

JoeKinne wrote:

I have everything but the CCR's up and running.......and then I blew a fuse....on one of my new Hybrid trees (8 channels of standard 14' mega tree with 8 channels of spiral on it)...right after I had finished the initial test of it and put the final spiral into place, effectively locking the controller into into the tree (mounted to the center pole). I was able to squeeze myself into a hole between the spirals(made wider by my butt). I found the fuse that was out (the primary one of course) at which point I attempted to climb back out....with my wife watching through the window I managed to trip and fall my way out of the tree (apparently by butt grew in size while I was in there). I got the new fuses (Radio Shack to the rescue) and tomorrow night I will attempt to replace the fuse and fix the tree.

My wife is reading this over my shoulder laughing as she remembers it fondly while wishing that she would have had a camera handy for posterity!
:cool:

Sounds like you mixed Ohm's Law with Murphy's Law.

[Guest guest]

Wasn't as much a murphys law weekend as it was a "how the hell did it get to be november already?" weekend..got a lot done, but i'm paying the price for being gone a lot over the past few months, and not pushing as hard on props, etc. during the summer.

For me its December 2 to be ready, at the earliest.

[Terry Hurrle]

I don't have Murphy visiting this year. (well not lately) CRS is my problem. I never remember where I put things. I am sure they are where I normally put them and when I go to get them they are gone. I go buy a replacement for something and the other one comes back.

[ericnagel]

Split a 12-3 wire (for 2 more 20-amp circuits) into 2, only to realize one of the wires was 1' too short of the circuit panel. Had enough wire to re-do it, but that's typically how my stuff gets done.

[pstigerfan]

I wrapped up my setup this weekend, went to run a test and I ended up blowing one of my controllers (it wouldn't even power on). Don't know what I did, but I need to investigate it further.

So I move everything off that controller onto the others and run the test. Look inside and the lights are flickering on and off in my kitchen and living room area. Turns out the plugs I am using are on one circuit (instead of 4 like I thought they were). So I'm gonna be spending my night tonight re-running extension cords to power my controllers.

Hopefully, nothing else falls over. I plan to light up Thanksgiving night.

[thevikester]

Yes, oh Yes...I found myself questioning my worth many times! Saturday, finished lining up the lights on my roof, I'm a bit anal, and have to have them lined up straight, when the method I used almost forbids that idea...LED's, 3 color, 4 inch spacing, hit the switch, and whammo, everything goes dark...so I start with light string one, replace fuses, it lights, 2nd string, light fuses, replace, so forth down the line,...6 strings later, they all work, for the first color, all the while, I'm pulling staples out of the wires! Stupid protector plastic with staples won't penetrate the roof, so had to go old school.

So now I'm ready...all clear lights are working, Red, & Green...working! So I figure, time to plug in the gutters as well...damn it! Red lights go out on the roof ridges..why? I don't know, cuz they can..Atribute to a couple of staples, and the new surge of power shut em down...more fuse replacements. Finally after a couple more hours in the dark with my miners helmet and light on, they work. I go to bed, wake up Sunday to start my Christmas Lightshow 20 foot mega tree with the PVC circles and risers...tree goes up surprisingly easy, attach the hand winch, and 96 strings of light...run it to the top, lights are draped nicely over the edge of the PVC, all I have to do is bring the strings to the center and attach to the controllers. Piece of cake...made with dog s%$t. I put the cable in the winch wrong as it wouldn't lock, I had to redo the cable or jam something into the sprocket to hold it in place...should have jammed something in there in hindsight, but no, wanted to do it right, so lowered 96 strings, and they all kind of drooped inside the PVC, and created a mess no one should have to face on a Sunday..
So I redo the cable, and start untangling lights...by this time, sun is going down, i must hurry! I get 9 strings up, and its dark, I won't go down without a fight! Miners helmet back on, light switch on...I can see, but only a limited area...after 2.75 hours of frustration, all lights are back up, and lifted into position...its now 9 pm, i'm tired, going to bed. Should have left the miners light on as I stepped in my dogs fresh doo doo to cap off my evening..instead of cleaning it off, I put them in a bag, and threw in the garbage, I had no fight left in me!

Tonite, if I dare, I will plug those lights in to see if any of them work, I can only imagine how many are out due to my "untangling technique" which will leave me in the same position, having to lower to replace, but you can bet I will wait for my wife to pull strings out while lowering...no more drop it and figure it out.

best part, neighbor lady saw me out there struggling, and brings me over a plate of food for dinner since my wife was out of town at a funeral. She felt bad for me! And the hot chick down the street comes walkin by, and says...hmmmm, looks like you have some knots there...not my finest moment!

[jimswinder]

thevikester wrote:

And the hot chick down the street comes walkin by, and says...hmmmm, looks like you have some knots there...not my finest moment!

ROTFLMAO!!!

At least she didn't say "looks like you have some knots there...or are you just happy to see me?"

:shock:

[thevikester]

jimswinder wrote:

thevikester wrote:

And the hot chick down the street comes walkin by, and says...hmmmm, looks like you have some knots there...not my finest moment!

ROTFLMAO!!!

At least she didn't say "looks like you have some knots there...or are you just happy to see me?"

:shock:

I wish she would have said that...would have been my que for "taking a break"

[caniac]

we were getting ready to raise the flagpole and heard a popping sound, the better half had tightened the power cord to the wrong section of the pole and it snapped the end off of the topper (LED rope light). after a five minute "f-me to tears" temper tantrum we found some extra led lights and did a halfway decent job of zip tying them to the rope light structure, not perfect but looks good when it is 20feet up.

[Guest guest]

caniac wrote:

we were getting ready to raise the flagpole and heard a popping sound, the better half had tightened the power cord to the wrong section of the pole and it snapped the end off of the topper (LED rope light). after a five minute "f-me to tears" temper tantrum we found some extra led lights and did a halfway decent job of zip tying them to the rope light structure, not perfect but looks good when it is 20feet up.

Sure, blame it on the wife. It's always the wifes' fault right?:shock:

[mmkooiman67]

RAIN! I thought it was supposed to be sunny California.

[Dan Williams]

I jim sorry to hear about your bad luck but don't feel so bad it appears i may have the same problem. I "think" i may have two bad cat5 connectors bad too. I assume you are talking about the rj45 cat5 plugin pin on your showtime board? If so, if you could tell me how you fixed this i would greatly appreciate it. If you replaced them solder etc.. please any advise would is gravely needed. I believe this is my issue because the connectors move slightly on board so i think it's possible they may of come loose and not sure how to correct for this. The only thing i haven't done is try a phone cable into the unit from computer but not sure if that is possible.

look forward to your help

Dan