Help!!! Wrapping PVC for an Arch

[Aproct]

Gotcha.....I thought I was missing out on something

[George Simmons]

jimswinder wrote:

PLUS 28 Channels per mega arch and 20 channels per mini arch

I don't mean to rain on your parade of creativity, but with a 28 channel arch (or even a 20 channel arch) beyond the obvious logistics of something that size, there is the issue of 20 or 28 channels to sequence. It's going to be a challenge to sequence that many channels if you're doing something beat-related. Never mind the theory - in reality there's just so fast that you can sequence a sweep of anything before some of the lights don't even light up as you sweep from end to end. When you need to slow down your sweeps to have them span three or four beats it gets difficult to convince the human brain that there's a rhythm to it, especially if you have other yard elements that are moving faster. I'm not sure if anyone has even done an arch with that many channels, but I had more than a few challenges with my 18 channel fence snake and timing the sweeps so they kept up with the music and still lit up properly. It's almost impossible to do. Just something for you to think about. Maybe you should try it out first by laying 28 sets of lights side by side in the yard before you go to all the work of winding your first arch.

[jimswinder]

George Simmons wrote:

I don't mean to rain on your parade of creativity,

lol...you're not.

If I can pull this off, I believe I will be the first ...as I have not seen another arch like it (not that I have seen EVERY arch out there)...and maybe for good reason!!!! LOL

[NWSanta]

Let me just chime in and warn yah that if you live in a colder climate that PVC Doesn't like to bend when it's cold. I built mine on 3/4 in PVC and this Month when I was taking it down one of them snapped. I guess there was too much bend taking it off the bracket and combined with the single digit (Celsius) weather it was just too much before it finally broke.

Now I have to unwrap it and wrap on to a new one. Yet another task for this year.... oh well...

-Evan

[Max-Paul]

Jim,
are you thinking of multi color?

Here is another reason for not winding tightly. I susspect that you could either pull a wire out of a socket or stretch a wire to the point of snapping. As the wire its colder is is going to shrink, right?

I had the same problem, and as someone already mentioned I just wound them on in a long spiral and then slide them down so they are loose and not in a straight line down the pipe. But then too, by the time Igot to the end with all of the wires (SPT) under the lights. The lights were getting good and random, unlike the first sets that were in a neat little spiral. I wish I had remembered the fold in half and give it a little offset.

[George Simmons]

Working with lights that have 4" spacing on 3/4" pvc, it doesn't matter if you fold in half for offset - you're still going to have the lights in a straight line, at least until you get farther down the arch/pole where the zip cord underneath from the first few sets starts to cause an increase in circumference. Folding in half is more to insure no dark spots than for any other reason in my mind.

Personally, I'm not very concerned with the light sets pulling themselves apart. I'm not saying it can't/won't happen. But it hasn't happened to me yet and I wrap them tight and have pretty cold weather to contend with. So almost everyone south of Minnesota shouldn't have that issue either.

[Max-Paul]

Never mind...