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BUS BAR OPTIONS


Acguy1999

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Hey follow LOR'ers...

I'm posting this to try and get a feeling for what some of you maybe using out there for a 12 volt bus bar.  Here's why I'm asking:

 

So I have 18 PVC candles that I made last year.  The original design used tea light candles and as you can imagine that was a pain in the a$$.  So this year I purchased pre wired flickering LEDs which look so much better.  Anyway I've got all these candles that I need to wire to a single power supply (which I already have) but I'm trying to find out what is the best way to connect 18 sets of wire to a single power supply.

 

So if you have any thoughts or suggests...please share.

 

Thanks

Brent 

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I'm sorry, I'm having a very hard time understanding what you are trying to light, but I do enough electrical to have a suggestion or two. I'm assuming this uses a 12 volt (or something like that) power supply. In that case, likely the easiest would be to go to your local home improvement store and get some electrical box ground bus bars. Here is a 23 position version available from Home Depot

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Square-D-by-Schneider-Electric-23-Terminal-Load-Center-Ground-Bar-Kit-PK23GTACP/100129430?N=5yc1vZbm0j

Again, I'm assuming that these lights use a low voltage power supply. Mount two of them to a board along with the power supply and you are set (assuming this will be in a protected location). Use one for each output from the power supply.

BTW, if this is high voltage, this needs to be very well protected and you REALLY need to understand the safety issues.

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Jim,

You are correct, I'm working with 12 VDC.  I appreciate the Home Depot link.  I saw those but wasn't sure if there was something better the folks were using.  So I picked those up today.

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So exactly does this work...You have a single power wire from your 12V psu, going into one screw...and you have a dozen wires coming out of a dozen of the other screws to your various candles, is that correct?

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Yes you are correct. I purchased two bus bars. One will be the positive and the other will be negative (or ground). I plan on getting it setup tomorrow and I will post a couple of pictures when I'm done.

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Hey guys.

As I stated last night I have attached a picture of the completed power supply and bus bars.  The power supply purchased from HolidayCoro.com ($14.99), Enclosure purchased from DIYLEDExpress.com ($10.00), bus bars from Lowes ($8.00 ea).

 

Brent

post-12743-0-83293200-1408992757_thumb.j

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Looks good. May I suggest adding an in line fuse from the power supply to the bus bar. They are pretty cheap at any auto parts store.  Me personaly I would of went with a fuse block. Something like this.... http://www.amazon.com/Blue-Sea-Systems-Blade-Block/dp/B001P6FTHC/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1409035338&sr=8-2&keywords=bussman+fuse+block  Just my opinion, I use a fuse everything. It will save your power supplies as well as your self or a guest. Also exactly what flicker light are you using? 

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