Been a productive day

[Guest guest]

Well I finally finished up my 5 outlet {10 outlets total} electrical panel for outside and got it installed and did the "water sprinkler" test to be sure they aren't going to short or trip. I sealed the entire assembly with silcone around all internal power connections on the outlets, around the faceplates and around the entire parameter of the housing. So far, so good, has held up under rain and the sprinkler and no GFCI trips.

Mounted one controller outside for testing to be sure power was going to the outlets.

Modified an old telephone box to house my DC-MP3 Showtime director in outside, mounted the Director unit in box.

Mounted my MBB Eclipse 4000 FM Transmitter and antenna on the dining room wall, then fed the audio cable from the FM transmitter to the outside DC-MP3 Showtime Director.

Ran speaker wire along the same route from inside the dining room area to outside for outdoor speaker mounting {speakers not yet mounted, their location still under consideration}. Which will be fed by an FM Radio in the dining area tuned to my display frequency, and connected to the speakers outside.

Ran Cat5 cable ran from Controller #1 mounted outside to DC-MP3 Showtime Director and secured Cat5 cable run using screw down plastic cable clamps.

Ran a controller test of all channels and everything checked out 100%.

The fun part will be mounting the other 4 controllers when the time comes and running their Cat5 cables to the other controllers, power cords {extension cords} to what the controllers will be controlling in the display.

I already know where they will all be mounted, everything should be fairly close with a few exceptions to their controller. Just got to get my mounting boards and get them mounted up for when the time comes to move my "testing" controllers, lights and other items to the outside world from my LOR Test Room.

So, yep, been very busy getting some things somewhat set up in advance.



P.S. my outlet panel doesn't look as good as I'd have liked, but at least it's weatherproofed and works! Even if it is ugly, but it is mounted out of sight, as is controller #1.


EDIT: Photo's can be seen here:

https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=7d6d47dfa1c635ae#cid=7D6D47DFA1C635AE&id=7D6D47DFA1C635AE%212072

[rescue_653]

What is that bundle of wire under the plugs?

[tjflory]

What will you be plugging in to the outlets?

tj

[Guest guest]

rescue_653 wrote:

What is that bundle of wire under the plugs?

That's the speaker wiring. Definitely not AC wiring. I just needed a spot to coil it up and get it out of the way until I decide where the speakers will be mounted.

[Guest guest]

tjflory wrote:

What will you be plugging in to the outlets?

tj

5 CTB16PC Controllers. Controller 1 is already plugged into the outlet bank.

[WilliamS]

Your going to need a cover on those outlets. Im sure they pass the test now but once you start running cords dirty water will equal tripped GFCI

[tjflory]

So each duplex plug is on its own circuit?

Where are the breakers? Are they GFI?

tj

[Guest guest]

Funtobewith11 wrote:

Outlets not GFI. Did you use a GFI breaker?

No they are standard outlets, but they are protected by 2 GFCI circuits.


The circuit they are plugged into are on a GFCI protected circuit, both inside and outside.

The outlet that is to their left is the GFCI external outlet that is plugged into the outside outlet, which is protected by an internal GFCI inside the house. May be overkill utilizing the second GFCI outside, but better safe than sorry later.

[Guest guest]

GoofyGuy wrote:

Your going to need a cover on those outlets. Im sure they pass the test now but once you start running cords dirty water will equal tripped GFCI

Nope, had one heck of a rainstorm here after I got them installed out there and had the controller plugged in to them and running some slow fade tests during the storms and during the "sprinkler" test. Never tripped either of the GFCI's once.

As long as there is something plugged into them, no water gets into the circuits, that's why they have the plastic protective covers on them that insert with prongs directly into the power receptacles that currently are not in use.

I've never had an issue since I started using them in light strings on the end female plugs, before I started using them, I had GFCI trips out the wazoo.

Aside from that, these would be no different than an extension cord powering the controllers on the ground, and I never had those covered, nor did I have any GFCI trips with those connections on the ground, and many of these cords were indoor extension cords, hundreds of them being utilized. If they had any open receptacles, I just plugged in one of those plastic outlet inset covers and never a problem with any of them.

And like said, these have already been through some harsh electrical/rain storms and never had a trip of the GFCI once. Doubt that I will, I made sure I covered every electrical connection with silicone to waterproof it, then sealed it with some other sealants and another spray of sealer over all that, including the wood that holds everything. I think these are fairly well weatherproofed for the duration.

They are also too close together to put covers over them, which from my weatherproofing tests, they just don't appear to need covers.

[Guest guest]

tjflory wrote:

So each duplex plug is on its own circuit?

Where are the breakers? Are they GFI?

tj

Nope, I am mainly LED, so they are all tied together on one circuit.

And yes, they are GFCI protected x 2.


I've ran my entire display off the same circuit with GFCI protection since I started in this hobby 2 years ago.

At first had a lot of GFCI trips due to water getting into the light string plugs, bought those plastic protective caps, they plug in like a male plug into the open female ends and on the pass throughs on the male ends, and never had another issue with GFCI tripping.

[Guest guest]

Like said, it's not pretty, but it's weatherproof and functional for my display needs, and it is protected.

[tjflory]

Understood.

Good luck and please be safe.

tj

[Guest guest]

Orville wrote:

Funtobewith11 wrote:

Outlets not GFI. Did you use a GFI breaker?

No they are standard outlets, but they are protected by 2 GFCI circuits.


The circuit they are plugged into are on a GFCI protected circuit, both inside and outside.

The outlet that is to their left is the GFCI external outlet that is plugged into the outside outlet, which is protected by an internal GFCI inside the house. May be overkill utilizing the second GFCI outside, but better safe than sorry later.

I might be missing something, are you saying you have two gfci outlets essentially daisychained? An indoor GFCI outlet, that feeds another GFCI outlet, and then your outlet box plugs into it? I'm not a licensed electrician, but my understanding has always been that cascading GFCIs like that is not a good idea (and again, I may be misinterpreting your wiring approach).

So with one (or a pair...) GFCI outlets protecting everything, if you have an event that trips it, you go 100% dark, correct?

Again, I may be misunderstanding your wiring scheme, so correct me if I am.

[Guest guest]

The GFCI outside is plugged into the outdoor outlet, which is not a GFCI {factory installed}, but there is a GFCI outlet connected to it. My GFCI outside is on a plug that plugs into the standard outlet supplied, then the 5 duplex outlets are plugged into that GFCI circuit. So I'm not sure I'd call them daisy-chained, but they are somewhat interconnected.

It was done this way so that the display GFCI would be the one to trip off and NOT affect the other outdoor components, pond and fountain bird bath that are plugged into the original outdoor outlet.

I have tripped the secondary GFCI with no ill effects to the primary one inside the home, I have also tripped the interior one which shuts down everything outside, no matter what's on it. The secondary is strictly for the display operation.

Maybe you can call it daisy-chained {I'm not sure}, but I've never had any issues doing this in the past where the interior outlet fed power via a power cord from the secondary GFCI that powered my controllers and display elements.

And yes, if the secondary GFCI trips it shuts down the display and controllers, the display would go dark, just not the pond/water features in the garden area as they are NOT plugged into the secondary, but the primary outlet that is wired to an internal GFCI outlet {my avatar is one of the items the primary GFCI controls}.

However, I am in the process of rewiring a circuit specifically to the secondary GFCI so that it {the display, controllers} will be on their own circuit. I just have this as a temporary set up to see how some things are going to hold up in the elements, not actually planning on leaving it like this.

Like stated, it's still in the working progress stage to get things done before time to move things outdoors for the display.