Easy Year to Year Installation

[Moshack]

Hey everyone! Somewhat of a newbie here. Last year I had a traditional 16 channel light controller with box store lights. But this year is be upgraded to a Pixie16 controller and I’ve purchased square pixels for my roof line. However, I’m trying to figure out a way to install the pixels on my roofline (edges and gutters) where I can easily put them up and take them down year after year easily. 

I’ve heard others using J Channel and drilling holes to insert the bulbs into but I’m not sure how easy that would be to slide the pixels into the J Channel. Plus I don’t know the best way to “install” that onto the house/gutters. 
 

So what is your preferred method of installing the lights onto your roofline and gutters? Do you manually install them each year or do you have a way to easily put them up and down each year? If the latter, how do you do it? Pictures or videos would be super helpful!

Thanks in advanced!

Matt

[k6ccc]

For my eves, I have the pixels mounted to 1x2 wooden strips.  The strips have hooks that mate with hooks on the eves.  I can mount the 210 pixels in about 15 minutes.

 

[Moshack]

8 minutes ago, k6ccc said:

For my eves, I have the pixels mounted to 1x2 wooden strips.  The strips have hooks that mate with hooks on the eves.  I can mount the 210 pixels in about 15 minutes.

 

@k6ccc thanks for the suggestion! How do you mount the pixels to the wooden strips? Do you use staples, zip ties, hot glue, or something else?

[TheDucks]

I shattered a few using Staples. I use a dab of hot glue.

[k6ccc]

I am using GE Color Effects bulb which come with a plastic clip that fits into the base of the bulb.  Part of the clip is intended to go over a gutter, but I remove that part and screw the clip into the wooden strip.

[Daryl]

This is pretty long winded, but I'm all about making putting lights up the easiest way possible. All of my lights are attached to the house or lay on the roof. For my A/C LED lights, I made a jig from a 16ft 2x4 with one 4in long bolt on one end and a 4in long bolt at various distances down the length of the 2x4. I measured how long I needed a particular string of lights. and put a bolt in the 2x4 at that length. I secured the plug of the light string to the end bolt and wrapped the light string around the other bolt at the distance I needed and continued wrapping to the end of string which was normally about three times around and tucked the end plug in the wires of the string. BTW, I use red, white, blue, and green in my display. Then I took the next color light string and wrapped it right on top of the first one. No cutting of the individual light strings which destroys the string (A/C LEDs). I did this for all 4 colors. Then I took velcro one-wrap and wrapped all four colors of lights together in a bundle at the ends at the bolts and every 18-24 inches in between. All of my AC LED strings I use 50, 70, or 100 bulb strings. The length of string depends on the actual length I needed for a particular section. To hang the lights, I use different sizes of coffee cup hooks screwed into the wooden soffets along the roof lines and grab the bundle of lights that already has all four colors bundled together for that section and hook the light strings to the cup holders. Cup hooks stay up all year long. Run the extension (zip cord) cords to the light strings (for each color) which are also custom lengths from the controller to the light strings and bundled together using velcro and held up in place by, you guessed it, more cup hooks. All extension cords and light string bundles are labeled where they go and what they're plugged into. The hooks are even labeled so I know which extension cord bundle go to which cup hook Every year I pull out a bundle of light strings with all four colors, plug the lights into an extension cord make sure they work and go hang four strings of lights at one time. Makes it nice when your up on an extension ladder at the 2nd story roof line. If one string, needs replaced, I pull out the 2x4 board, undo the velcro, take out the bad string, rewrap the lights around the bolts, put the velcro back on and done. No cutting and replacing zip ties and the velcro allows for some movement among the light strings if needed. I've been using the same velcro pieces for nine years, with exception of one or two pieces lost. I use this same concept to hang lights in a tree. Instead of using cup hooks, I  use longer pieces of velcro when bundling that will go around a tree branch or trunk. Lay lights in position, wrap velcro around branch and done. Stays secured all season and easy removal with no damage to tree. I use the big Christmas tree storage bins from Walmart to store the lights and extension cords. I lay them in and use pieces of cardboard in between the layers of lights and extension cords. No untangling of lights or cords, and since everything is labeled I know exactly where a string or lights go and which bundle of cords to use, no guessing if an extension cord is long enough or too long. No guessing which cord to plug into which controller, everything is labeled. Diagrams and spreadsheets are a life saver for trouble shooting. If a light string isn't working, my spreadsheet will tell me what circuit it is, which extension cord it is suppose to be plugged into and which controller is controlling that string of lights. If a A/C light string doesn't work, check the fuses in the plug. I have found with heat/cold contractions that the fuses can move or get knocked out of position in the plug and lose contact.

This has worked for me and I like the look of lots of lights without physically having lots of lights and the lights don't have to be pointed a certain direction. Some may not like this look, but everyone has their likes and dislikes

Obviously this doesn't work so well with RGB lights. I am planning in using the plastic pixel light strips hooked to the cup hooks on my roof line when I start using RGB pixels but haven't got that far into the pixels yet to know how well it will work.

Bottom line, plan, plan ,plan and document, document, document. No one way is better than another. If it works for you, do it. You might use a hybrid of several ideas or find a better way after you designed or built something, keep an open mind.

 

Daryl

[prevue12]

I take a different approach than Daryl above, I don't label extension cords to specific props.  I use lots of super strings like he does, but have generic lengths of cords denoted by the color of tape wrapped on them.  Yes, it cost me some extra to have longer generic lengths of cord, but this approach also helps when I re-do my layout.  We just call out for the color/length needed and it appears.   I use about five generic lengths.