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MichRX7

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But they look greater smaller.  I'm just sayin'. They're a little fuzzy around the edges in the larger pic.

I can't go any bigger than 96" wide on my deck without spilling over to the neighbor's house. I do have a screen I can setup that's 144" wide, but it's free standing and a lot more trouble to set up. 

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Well, I finally got my letters all strung and ready to affix to the house and wire up. I haven't seen them all lit up yet, but with this weather, and this late, they are what they are for 2019!

Each panel is 3' long and in total it is 7 panels/21'. So, I'll find center on the fascia, measure 10.5' to each side and start nailing the corrugated plastic to it before wiring it to the box(es). I don't have room to put them all up in the house, so this is what the word Merry turned out like:

y4mr5Z9XPlm6z2AbawgOoh4-t_jtdhOReIXPhp5_

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I'm guessing you DID at least test to make sure none of the wiring broke around any of the bends? The tops of the "r"s look pretty tight. Looks like a great prop. Filing it away for next year. I have a big blank wall on the side of my house. I used to put up a big wreath and put a white spot on it.  Can't say I'm thrilled about getting up on a ladder anymore, but I have a perfectly good son that I might be able to convince.

Can't wait to see the rest of it!

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No, the wires are too short for now to hook to the box, and I'm short on test wire right now. If it doesn't work I have to order new strips regardless, so I'm just crossing my fingers at this point. The r's look tighter than they really are as the vinyl tubing really keeps the strip from bending too much. More worried about the lower-case m and a in Christmas than the r's. The a was the worst one to get together.

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Another day, another trip to Home freaking Depot. This time to buy some 1x4 boards. I've decided instead of lazily wrapping the red and white lights around my posts each year I'm going to try and finally make a candy cane stripe pattern so the white and red aren't just mixed together into a large mish-mash. I've tried to do this a few times with no luck, but I think I've finally solved how I'm going to do it (right...)

My last try was to cut down some boards into 1"x1"x5' strips, jam thumbtacks into the soft wood and then I'd zip-tie them to the posts like a wrap. Well, that was going great until I took my "spacer" boards out and the whole thing fell apart before I could wrap it onto the post. So now I'm going to use the same pattern with a solid board and just nail it to each post. Of course my pattern requires 4 more red and white 100 light strings and 4 50 lights string of each color to fill in the end "triangles", so I also need to visit good 'ole Walmart. Then I can remove the old "pattern" nails I put in the posts years ago before someone puts an eye out. Then next year (if all works out) I can just pull the boards out, slap them on the posts and be done.

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Just wanted to give a shout out in this thread to @jfuller8400 and his thread on building a RGB Tester (which I will be doing before next season). You can get the link to his youtube video in his thread here:

http://forums.lightorama.com/topic/50511-hand-held-dumb-rgb-tester/

And then I want to smack @tlogan for freaking me out that my "r's" looked like the bends were too tight. After having my neighbor craft some of his tools into a way I could test my strips with a 9-volt battery I am happy to say, yes they are tested, and yes Merry and all the individual letters of Christmas do light up. When I tried to do it myself with a 9-volt and some wires and the word merry (which is using a full strip) didn't come on, I about threw all my stuff in the garbage, lol... But reason won out and after my neighbor cobbled together some of his tester wires I did get all rgb channels on all of them to come on. Now I wait for my delivery of home depot wood so I can finish the front porch pole lighting.

Edited by MichRX7
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1 hour ago, MichRX7 said:

And then I want to smack @tlogan for freaking me out that my "r's" looked like the bends were too tight.

At least you have a reason. My wife just plain wants to smack me. 

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So the post covers are coming along nicely except I ran out of 6d finishing nails 10 nails short of finishing the last and final post. My posts are 5'5" all, I have snowflake lights hanging down across the front near them, so I decided to do around 5'. So, I bought four 1x8"x6' boards and trimmed them down to 5'2" (yes, with my Ryobi battery powered circular saw). Then I measured the boards one inch in so I'd have room to drive a nail at top and bottom to affix them to the current posts. From there I measured every 8.5" which is close to even. I marked each of those as they are my main starting points for starting each section of lights. From there I measure 2 1/8" which gave me pretty close to even measurements between the 8.5" section and mark those off all the way down the board doing all the marking on both sides. From there I start driving nails at each mark. After the nails are done I take 3 strings of bright white and 4 string of red (100 lights) and 1 white and 1 red (50 lights). I start at nail number one and slide the light string over the nail and move up to nail #5 (main 8.5" point) on the other board, then I wrap the lights up each side (5 nails each side), then wrap around the 4 prime nails, and continue wrapping to fill in as much as possible. Then I switch to the other color, start at nail #5 on my starting point (which already has my first set of lights around it) and repeat  until I put the 3 strands of white and 3 strands of red (100 lights) down the board. Then I take a 50 string of the next matching color and do the ends. On one side you only use one nail and 5 on the other to fill in the bottom and top small sections. Plug the whites in together and the reds in together and I have my two channels of lights ready to set to my post. Now to finish the other 3 (if I can find 10 more nails somewhere).

Here is what that first post looks like. At viewing distance they fill in quite nicely.

y4m7LwEJQ2AqR1fkrVaat6AlXJ7XMvr5exCRh-G5

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THAT looks great! That's ANOTHER one I have to think about for next year.

I ran out of 2.5" deck screws to attach the bases to my lampposts. I have 4 left to finish assembling. I DID get the candle covers I ordered on Friday so I WAS hoping to complete the assembly yesterday, but well, you know....football. And lack of screws.

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15 minutes ago, tlogan said:

THAT looks great! That's ANOTHER one I have to think about for next year.

I ran out of 2.5" deck screws to attach the bases to my lampposts. I have 4 left to finish assembling. I DID get the candle covers I ordered on Friday so I WAS hoping to complete the assembly yesterday, but well, you know....football. And lack of screws.

Thanks, I wanted to paint the wood to match the house, but I didn't want to wait for it to dry as I'm feeling the pressure to get things done and wired. Here's hoping your HD is close enough to get to today so you can finish those last lampposts. I missed the first half of yesterday's game, but, eh, its the Lions. I knew how it would go. This morning I finished replacing my final last set of incan lights that have been in my display. They were on the star in my home-brew mega tree. I got them all on and will hang the at lunch. It's a simple one, when I first did this I drove some nails into a tree to hold the star and right below it I screwed in a huge hook. I know, some day I'll have to replace them as every year I have to adjust the nails for the star from tree growth, which also mean I must be getting a more vertical tree than I did when I first started. But no change this year. That guides me on the three artificial trees I use and where to put the arches our front and then I'll be ready to wire and fire it up.

Good luck!

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I spent Saturday and half of Sunday cleaning up the yard...trimming bushes and trees and clearing back fence (not that I decorate back there, but, you know,  Happy wife,...). And, not to rub it in or anything, but my grass will need to be cut at least once more before I get all the stuff in the yard.

Yeah, I put the Deadskins on the radio while I was assembling. Sad thing is they are actually TRYING to win and are horrible. At least that's what Snider says. I could walk to HD if I didn't have to cross one pretty busy road and a BIG field and haul everything back by hand. On the plus side, running out of screws got me done in time to watch Eagles-Pats. I was happy for the first half.

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I had a good weekend.  Finished replacing bad pixels on the roof lights, so those 400 or so are 100% - yea!  Finished a cleanup of the power supply box for the pixel tree (four 350 watt power supplies in a 12 x12x6 PVC box), and added a thermostatically controlled fan.  Changed a bunch of the wiring to make setup and teardown easier.  Then set the tree up and other than one more trip up the ladder to straighten a couple strips at the top and then adjust the turnbuckles at the bottom, and it's fully done.  Biggest problem was I could not find the box of hardware for the bottom attachments of the strips.  Did not want to have to replace over $100 of unistrut hardware.  Finally found that and attached the bottom ends.  Got the FM transmitter operating and running music and announcements via Zara Radio on Friday.  Next weekend is build enclosures for the P5 and P10 panels do I can use them as planned.  Doing pretty good, I think.

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19 minutes ago, k6ccc said:

Biggest problem was I could not find the box of hardware for the bottom attachments of the strips.  Did not want to have to replace over $100 of unistrut hardware.  Finally found that and attached the bottom ends.

I hate when that happens. I waste a lot of time looking for things that I KNOW were just here second ago. I think I need to REALLY clean out my garage and shed.

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42 minutes ago, k6ccc said:

I had a good weekend.  Finished replacing bad pixels on the roof lights, so those 400 or so are 100% - yea!  Finished a cleanup of the power supply box for the pixel tree (four 350 watt power supplies in a 12 x12x6 PVC box), and added a thermostatically controlled fan.  Changed a bunch of the wiring to make setup and teardown easier.  Then set the tree up and other than one more trip up the ladder to straighten a couple strips at the top and then adjust the turnbuckles at the bottom, and it's fully done.  Biggest problem was I could not find the box of hardware for the bottom attachments of the strips.  Did not want to have to replace over $100 of unistrut hardware.  Finally found that and attached the bottom ends.  Got the FM transmitter operating and running music and announcements via Zara Radio on Friday.  Next weekend is build enclosures for the P5 and P10 panels do I can use them as planned.  Doing pretty good, I think.

Wow, now I feel like I didn't get as much done as I thought I did...

Interested in the Zara Radio, do you just stream info on it before your show starts using your laptop and FM transmitter? Do you shut that off when the show starts?

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Ok, one last thng. Not a Prop and not New to me this year, but this is what I use for hanging my controllers. And the best part is if you make two or more they can double as a ladder ball game in the summer if you have a drill, some old golf balls and some elastic bungee material or rope! Pretty straight forward, 1" PVC (yes, from Home Depot), 6 PVC T's and 2 elbows. I don't even glue it together, because I take it apart for storage. The one's I put on the porch are free standing, the one's I put in the yard I do stake down by running wire over the bottom rung. For summer fun, take the elastic bungee type material and measure to a length that will wrap around a rung at least twice, plus a little more for the distance of two golf balls and knots, cut 8 equal lengths. Get a drill bit the diameter of your bungee material and drill through 16 golf balls, thread the bungee material through and tie a few knots on each side of the golf ball hole so it won't slide back out or down. Tada, summer fun without spending another $30 at Walmart to buy their version of the game. We like the bungee material because it adds a bit more excitement and challenge to the game.

For hanging the controllers, if I have two (or more pairs) I run a bolt through the top and bottom of two controllers so they are back to back on a rung, then put a nut on and spin it "loosely" tight. If I have one I use a U and a bolt and let it hang below the rung. I also wrap hanging wires around the lower rungs so they are off the ground.

y4mepeznTaGCCluArBcm2y_uwt3-ym9UqVTLeWBU

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Um, not sure how much rum I had in me when I wrote that last post, but obviously the day-drinking must have been in effect. Obviously in the picture that is not 1" PVC, that is probably 2". But for sure it is thicker than 1". Ok,, now back to my regularly scheduled programming on Wiring Saturday.

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23 minutes ago, MichRX7 said:

Um, not sure how much rum I had in me when I wrote that last post, but obviously the day-drinking must have been in effect. Obviously in the picture that is not 1" PVC, that is probably 2". But for sure it is thicker than 1". Ok,, now back to my regularly scheduled programming on Wiring Saturday.

That sure looks like 1" to me.  (I've done a few irrigation systems with 1" as the main line). Look at the boards around the windows as reference.  1" is the ID for water pipe

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On 11/20/2019 at 7:24 PM, MichRX7 said:

Ok, one last thng. Not a Prop and not New to me this year, but this is what I use for hanging my controllers. And the best part is if you make two or more they can double as a ladder ball game in the summer if you have a drill, some old golf balls and some elastic bungee material or rope! Pretty straight forward, 1" PVC (yes, from Home Depot), 6 PVC T's and 2 elbows. I don't even glue it together, because I take it apart for storage. The one's I put on the porch are free standing, the one's I put in the yard I do stake down by running wire over the bottom rung. For summer fun, take the elastic bungee type material and measure to a length that will wrap around a rung at least twice, plus a little more for the distance of two golf balls and knots, cut 8 equal lengths. Get a drill bit the diameter of your bungee material and drill through 16 golf balls, thread the bungee material through and tie a few knots on each side of the golf ball hole so it won't slide back out or down. Tada, summer fun without spending another $30 at Walmart to buy their version of the game. We like the bungee material because it adds a bit more excitement and challenge to the game.

For hanging the controllers, if I have two (or more pairs) I run a bolt through the top and bottom of two controllers so they are back to back on a rung, then put a nut on and spin it "loosely" tight. If I have one I use a U and a bolt and let it hang below the rung. I also wrap hanging wires around the lower rungs so they are off the ground.

y4mepeznTaGCCluArBcm2y_uwt3-ym9UqVTLeWBU

Just an idea here to add to your frame. Instead of wire to secure to the ground you could drill a hole in each end and use the spikes from your fav hardware store to secure. I do not use a pvc frame but I use spikes to secure everything to the ground. Most of my controllers are mounted to the prop with a few exceptions. I used old realtor sign frames for my mini tree controllers and they are back to back similar to what you do.

Just though I would mention the spikes, a lot of people use the plastic stakes. Around here the plastic ones are useless with the hard ground.

JR

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Man, that is the last time I let my wife win an argument. She was determined it was 2" and I said it was 1", then I started questioning myself and thought I'd better update the thread before someone tried to make these with too thin of PVC. Please ignore everything said this morning (maybe I should be drinking) and go back to my 1" PVC from the original post.

The spikes would work. Basically the stakes I use on it are skinny spikes and metal. They are really long/thick tent stakes that I bought because they had little LED lights on the end that I tried to point at wires. That was a bust, but they are really good stakes, lol...

I'm also building a new one today that is going to be skinnier and less tall that will be going out in the yard. The tall ones go on the porch this year and one nailed to a tree.

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