mounting LOR boxes... CTB16PC

[fxdwg]

HELP!! Im a first year LOR guy, and have read and searched and am a little cornfused. Ha.

I know to use a U bolt to mount LOR boxes and then stake them in the ground or whatever, but does anyone have any pics of doing this? And is it safe? I mean you would think you DONT want holes in your plastic LOR enclosures...

thanks for any and all help! its crunch time kids, lets go!!

-Troy

[shfr26]

Another noob here, This was discussed of here somewhere, but I can't find it right now. I will keep looking.

[Tim Fischer]

Instead of pipe, I use wood, and drywall screws to attach them. I doubt any significant water would come through the screw holes (filled with a screw) but just in case, I used rubber sink washers under the screw heads.

[michael.farney]

Tim Fischer wrote:

Instead of pipe, I use wood, and drywall screws to attach them. I doubt any significant water would come through the screw holes (filled with a screw) but just in case, I used rubber sink washers under the screw heads.

I have some boards that are similiar. The PC case is screwed into wood stakes. I don't like taking a hammer to the wood stakes while LOR is screwed to it, so I pound rebar into the ground and zip tie the wood stake to it. All this is hidden behind tombstones for Halloween. I don't use this method for Christmas because I can't hide it. But it might give you some ideas.

[Tim Fischer]

michael.farney wrote:

Tim Fischer wrote:

Instead of pipe, I use wood, and drywall screws to attach them. I doubt any significant water would come through the screw holes (filled with a screw) but just in case, I used rubber sink washers under the screw heads.

I have some boards that are similiar.  The PC case is screwed into wood stakes.  I don't like taking a hammer to the wood stakes while LOR is screwed to it, so I pound rebar into the ground and zip tie the wood stake to it.  All this is hidden behind tombstones for Halloween.  I don't use this method for Christmas because I can't hide it.  But it might give you some ideas.

Yeah, I hammer mine in, then screw on the controllers. I "hide" them behind mini trees and the like, so they're not all that hidden. But I don't think they detract from the display, YMMV...

[Steven]

I screw two of my controllers directly to the trees whose branches hold the lights connected to that controller. One is a city tree. The city has never complained.

[-klb-]

I don't have any photos of them ubolted to fence posts, but I had 13 of them mounted that way in 2007, and 30 of them in 2008. These were the stamped sheet metal posts, driven into the ground first, and a hole drilled in the post for one leg of the bolt, so there is no way to slide the ubolt up the post. Two holes were drilled through the metal strain relief bracket, and the plastic case, centered side to side. With these being the only added holes, any water that leaks in will be below the electronics. We usually used a short chunk of wood as a spacer between the post and the case, so that the ubolt could be tightened adequately. Going through the strain relief bracket greatly reinforces the strength of this solution.

I also have a fair number where the corner mounting hole positions on the case were drilled out, and screwed into brick walls using tapcon screws. The only issue so far with this method is that you need to make sure you do not get brick dust in the controller, and that if you do, you blow it out. The reason is that if moisture gets into the case, the brick dust will supply minerals to make that water conductive, and cause more problems than if the board was clean.

[fxdwg]

thanks for all of the responses, my plan was to ubolt my controllers to some pvc, then slide that over some rebar pounded into the ground, but was wanting to see some pics of ubolts being used in action.

thanks again for the info, many of my controllers will be inside of large 2x2x2 presents that we made from plywood, but for my arches and mega tree, wanted to mount to poles and such.

-Troy