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Enclosure Boxes


Charlie

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Don Krasley wrote:


Well, if anyone has questions about something electrical, you could ask the guy at Home Depot. Or you could ask an expert. There seems to be a few on here that are willing to help. So no question is a dumb one.

As for the enclosures, it's your call. I strongly suggest that you use something that has been designed to house electrical items.

Have a nice day!

Don


Hey Don

Very true about the "Home Depot" answers that people get. I have been there and Lowes a few times and have heard employees giving out information about electrical that they had no business talking about.

I haven't made too many friends by getting involved in some of those conversations, but I certainly can't let somebody get hurt by not speaking up. And actually I once had the manager at Lowes compliment me for correcting an employee, so it is not all bad (although the employee wasn't too happy :D ).

I know it isn't easy working in the "big box" stores for some of these folks and to there credit there are some employees that are very knowledgeable in areas.

But I always think that if you don't know the answer, don't guess! Just tell them that they need to get someone qualified to answer it.

As far as enclosures go, I am going to use NEMA 3 type boxes, but I want to make an inner cover for the boards with the fuses, amp meters, and power switches mounted on inside the enclosure so that when I (or anyone else) opens the box, they can't get to the power stuff. They can only turn it on or off or change a fuse.

Of course I'm pretty aware with electricity in general, so I will have a padlock on the boxes when they are outside anyway. :)
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I like the idea of having all the controllers in one safe, secured spot. No chance of sticky fingers walking away with one of these.

As soon as my "LOR vacation" is over. (I'm taking the month of January off from sequencing and building displays) I'm going to remove the 16D and install the other 2 PC LOR controllers so I'll have a 128 channel box.

I'm thinking of calling it the "Scott-O-Rama 128"

Now all I have to do is start building the next one for the controllers I get in the LOR sale.

Scott


Attached files 149367=8734-Light Controller.JPG

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I was thinking of adding more controllers on the inside of the door instead of adding another enclosure...Hmmmm...........maybe adding more to the door AND another enclosure!!!

Jeff- Where do you mount the outlets?

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Yeah, very nice setups indeed. I want mine to be more portable/divided, because I plan to have most of the channel hogging displays with their own local controller.

I bought 12 of these Scepter boxes from this guy on eBay for a decent price. I contacted him about shiping, and he worked with me.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=170130321688&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=007

So, I'm coming out at just over $14 a box! Much better than the $33 for ONE similar box at the local electrical supply, or Home Depot.

I'm building a moblie cart for my distribution, which will have a 125A outdoor breaker box, with 8 - 15A circuits, feeding 16 GFIC outlets (2 independent outlets per breaker). I will be using one of the scepter boxes to house 8 - 15A panel meters to keep an eye on the current on each circuit.

http://www.skycraftsurplus.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=1165

The breaker box will be feed from a CS6365 receptical and plug with a 30' 8AWG extension cord, on a 50A 240V circuit from the sub panel in the house. I also plan to have 4 of my 6-7 controllers located on the cart, with the other 2 or 3 out in the yard.

I only plan on building the initial 4 circuits this year, as that will give me 16 outlets, of which, I will only need 12-14 (96% of my display will be LED). This will help save cost on buying so many GFIC recepticals and breakers for this year...

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Jeff Millard wrote:

geogecko wrote:
I want mine to be more portable/divided,


I would love to be able to do that, but according to a recent census there are 1134+ people per square mile in my state. 7 in 100 of them are millionaires. Out of the other 93, a few of those have to be cleptomainiacs. Say 3. The current reported NJ population is 8,724,560. That comes out to 261,736 people with sticky fingers... There are only 7,417 square mile, that means about 35 per square mile... On December 24th, 2006 at 8:00pm my CCVT recorded a person stealing a simple plastic star off of a mini tree in the middle of my display. So at least one of them lives within a block or two of my home. And my priceless LOR controllers are safely tucked away in the house in big metal boxes. They can have the decorations and plastic trinkets... but leave the electronics alone kids.

Jeff


You know, I was thinking the same thing originally, and I guess that is why I still want most of them located in the garage. The only problem is, I'm having to buy around $500 of SPT2 cable, and would require like another 2,000 feet if I had to have all my boxes inside. So I guess it will be a little experiement. If I end up losing LOR boxes, then I'll spend the extra money on the cords, and keep them all tucked inside the house...but it's just too tempting to put the two boxes controlling the LLA's, right next to the LLA's, and not use 32 - 50' long cords to get to them...not to mention if I made 2 more of them the year afterwards.

I figure if I drive some metal stakes in the ground, and bolt the boxes to them, they will be fairly hard for the average joe walking down the street to steal, but who knows.

I guess I'll start with the LLA's only, so that's just two boxes outside, the rest can stay in the house...
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Jeff Millard wrote:

They can have the decorations and plastic trinkets... but leave the electronics alone kids.

If I read between the lines correctly, I would guess that you're worried about theft. :)

I guess I must live in a more honest location (Silicon Valley). According to the police blotter, the most common things stolen here are iPods, GPS units, and laptops. A guy I know who lives about 2 miles away (he's on these forums) has been doing computer-animated lights for 5 years or so, and, like me, has his controllers spread around the display and hasn't lost one yet. I would guess the average thief wouldn't really be interested in a non-descript gray box.
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I got my boxes today. A little dirty looking, but hey, some of them will be outside anyway, and for almost a 1/3 the price, you can't beat that.

I would also tend to think that to the casual thief, the gray box with a ton of plugs coming out of it, looks like a big power strip (if they haven't seen the display in action). We all know how cheap power strips are, so I guess unless they knew what they were looking for, they wouldn't know.

On another note, I'll have a lot of LED stings this year (probably 90% LED), so I think most of the cost will be in the "decorations and plastic trinkets," not the controllers...at least, this year...

Of course, it would stink to lose any part of your display during the season, and have to leave that part out for the rest of the season, because some moron thought it would be cool to steal it...

I'm just getting into this, and already I'm getting worked up, thinking how mad I'll be if someone does anything to the display... At least I don't have as much to worry about as Mr. Holdman does now, that his community gates will be closed at Christmas next year... =( I bet people complained about the traffic (that lived in the neighborhood), and that's why the decision was made.

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I see you guys are talking about sticky fingers out there, in my area sticky fingers get too sick to do any of that, a bad disease called lead posioning.

And just a note to GEOGECKO My little sister lives where you do and they have alot of problems in her neighborhood. She bought 2 blow up things from wal-mart last season and one got cut up and the other one they took.........

GOD have mercy on any one that messes with my LOR CHRISTMAS display.....

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I know this a continued of off-topic comments, but here is my $.02 on security.

It's very unfortunate that any of us should have to consider this issue at all.

This year, I used some of those steel landscaping (edging) stakes. They are about $.07 each from a local landscape supply place. They are easy to install (small engineers hammer) and remove with the correct tools (pliers), but for the casual passerby ... they really can't pull them up by hand when they are staked 6-7" into the hard colorado (clay) soil. I put them almost all the way into the ground, so you can't pull them out with fingers at all. In the dark, they would be extremely difficult to remove. I have used nylon lines to connect certain items together along the ground and staked them out using this method. It would make walking away with items very hard. Especially consider that fact the here (in CO), everything gets covered with snow and ice.

I think having security cameras (or fake ones) can't hurt. A four pack of fake cameras is only $20 or less on ebay.

I have one camera this year and should have at least two later this year. I think a real camera or two helps give you a chance for evidence, if someone tries to steal or destroy things. The panasonic network cameras really work well. Pricey, but they work out of the box.

I also like the idea of 'high voltage' signs and 'your on camera' signs ... just deterrents against vandelism.

I've even toyed with the idea of using a couple cheap X10 RF motion detectors to monitor for motion in the yard. I could then turn on coach lights in reaction to this ... and perhaps making sure my cameras have plenty of light to show any trespassers.

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  • 1 month later...

durring the spring sale I am going to get 64 - 128 channels which will be my first year but it is also my worry about sticky thingers just today our so called quiet town a pharmacy was robbed http://www.republicanherald.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19395992&BRD=2626&PAG=461&dept_id=622029&rfi=6 so I guess I need more security plans I have Planned to put them all over the yard but I guess saving money on Extension cords is a bad Idea I need some Ideas

I was thinking Barb wire and motion lights but I don't know what to do

These people give my generaton a bad name but If I catch do any one damageing property My God Have Mercy on their souls



I was also thing of getting a Suncast Horizontal Storage Shed And somehow cement it in to the ground and putting my units in there

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I guess they changed the site for the info for the robbery thankfully no one was not hurt but it makes you think also he did not steal any money only pain killers but any way I was thinking of using chains to hold the units down if some one wants to steal them they will be doing it in spot lights while making noise whith the chains . I really havent heard of things really gotten stolen well around lights hope fully they will not steal anything . Here is one thing I heard of making a trip wire alarm maby that might work

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  • 3 years later...

Don Krasley wrote:

Here is the way I do it!

I got a hoffman box on ebay, about $170 plus shipping, used 1 box for 5 controllers and will be adding to it this year. I'm all set for 6 in the box. Check it out on myspace in my pictures. I got a "double d" knock-out punch on ebay as well, for about $40. They sell for about $250 at the local supply company. I had a great time building it! I enjoy this kind of project. I may even list it on ebay and start over again. I'm thinking a bigger box for 8 controlers would be nice!

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=171427057 pictures of construction.

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=dkrasley my videos!

It was a lot of time to do it, but hey, we all have plenty of time right now to get it done for Christmas!

Good luck!

Don

Is that the most "cost" effective way to do it? It looks like in the long run, it would be MORe money to make something like that than a bunch of little enclosers from lor.
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ny_yankee_25 wrote:

Is that the most "cost" effective way to do it?

You want cheap? Look at the 15th post in this thread. It's a Rubbermaid box from the dollar store, 8 duplex outlets (at about 40 cents a piece), and some wire.
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Guest Don Gillespie

evan.a wrote:

I pretty much just went a little crazy when I started, never enough plugs.

Ok is that wallpaper or is it actually recepticles??
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evan.a wrote:

I pretty much just went a little crazy when I started, never enough plugs.


Awesome! No more looking behind furniture to find a plug.

MikeH
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