"fun" Time Setting Up My Holidaycoro Singing Pumkin Face

[Torqumada286]

I've had it for a couple of weeks now, but due to family and work schedules, I wasn't able to do any work on it. I started on the frame. It was very hot and humid yesterday and by the time I had the boards cut for the frame, I was soaked with sweat. I assembled the frame and put the coro board on the frame and decided to move everything inside.

Inside of the house, where it was much cooler, I applied all of the lights and the grabbed the appropriate controller for the face. I then discovered that half of the labels I had made for this controller when I put it together had the ink run on it for some reason and the numbers were missing.

I then had to go back and test the power cables and find out what channel was what. Once that was done, I got everything plugged in and had to fix some of the lights that weren't working. Once that was finished, I was then able to test the face. Everything worked properly, but it did take a good amount of time for the problem solving.

On to my next project(s)!

Torqumada

[EARLE W. TALLEY]

If you are using the normal black dangle cord set with the controller, a silver sharpie works wonders and will last several years. I marked some of mine 4 years ago and they still look good.

[eeek]

If you know a cable guy or can hunt one down, they have address ID tags that work well.

[Torqumada286]

I went with the Silver sharpie. It worked well.

Now I'm looking at making one of my own.

Torqumada

[Orville]

Paint Pens also work well for marking the dangles too. Only drawback is they take a wee bit longer to dry than the silver sharpie.

I also mark my power cords since I use the dual cord set up.

I mark one with the controller ID # and the letter A and the other with just the ID #.

The main cord that supplies the power to the card and channels 9-16 is marked for example is: 01A, and the other for channels 1-8 is just marked 01. This way I know to plug in 01A first for main power to the controller/ch's. 9-16 and then 01 for the first bank of channels {1-8}. And I know those power cords belong to controller #01.

Although it doesn't really matter which cord you actually plug in first, it will work either way.

But having 5 controllers all plugged into the same area, this just makes it easier to know which power cords go to which controllers when plugging/unplugging for having to do a reset of a specific controller, or when doing a set up/take down of the controllers.

Edited September 4, 2012 by Orville

[MtDew4me]

Torqumada, I hate to mention this now but you may want to consider putting a coat or 2 of black paint on the wood frame to waterproof it. It also helps hide the frame at certain viewing angles.

[Torqumada286]

I may do something like that Orville. Thanks for the advice.

Torqumada

Torqumada, I hate to mention this now but you may want to consider putting a coat or 2 of black paint on the wood frame to waterproof it. It also helps hide the frame at certain viewing angles.

I'm using pressure treated lumber. It's already pretty dark.

Torqumada

[MonstrousMike]

I used 2x2s instead of 2x4s. Much lighter and less bulky, but still quite sturdy. I painted the frames with flat black exterior paint before assembling. This seems to have worked pretty well.