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Creating Arches

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deweycooter View Drop Down
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Joined: 14 Oct 2007
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  Quote deweycooter Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Creating Arches
    Posted: 08 Dec 2008 at 8:38am
Thanksgiving night, after several adult beverages, it seemed like a good idea to do some troubleshooting while the show was running, wire cutters in hand (I meant to only get the zip tie).  After the third good jolt, I decided it might be better just to see back down and socialize.
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Pony_God View Drop Down
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  Quote Pony_God Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08 Dec 2008 at 8:30am
Doesn't the slight electrical shocks just give the viewers a more interactive display???
"I love the display, makes me feel..... all tingly!" hahaha


Edited by Pony_God - 08 Dec 2008 at 8:31am
Fine. You're so smart you rig up the lights.
D-Light users Unite!
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deweycooter View Drop Down
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  Quote deweycooter Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08 Dec 2008 at 7:04am
I pretty much mail it in for the night if it's raining - too much trouble and not terribly safe.
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  Quote bdkeen Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 Dec 2008 at 5:53am
Originally posted by LightChristmas

The biggest hassle everyone will have at one time or another is having GFIs trip in wet weather. 
 
That was glitch #3 for me...  Just 1 GFI was pop'n and only when 1 channel got beyond ~30%... There I was getting soaked hunting around with a flashlight to see if I could find the culprit. Drove me nutz.
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  Quote LightChristmas Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06 Dec 2008 at 10:54pm
The biggest hassle everyone will have at one time or another is having GFIs trip in wet weather. 

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  Quote bdkeen Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06 Dec 2008 at 9:39pm
Originally posted by Pony_God

then use a 9' indoor cord (~$1)
 
Pretty much the same here for our 2 15 ft (8 channel) arches - some brown 9 ft  & 15 ft $1 extension cords zip tied on the back side of the arch. No cutting - no soldering - just plugged them in and ran then on the back side of the arch. Sure they're a bit visable primarily on the back side of the arch in the daylight but disappear pretty good in the darkness.  So far they've survived close to 60 mph winds, rain, and light snow.. 
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  Quote Pony_God Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06 Dec 2008 at 8:33pm
We zip the female of the lights to the pipe, then wrap 2 feet of minis on the pipe, then use a 9' indoor cord (~$1)  zip-tie that all tight then zip the male of the ext. cord at the other end of the pipe. $5 to get all the outlets of a single section to the end. No cutting, nothing.
 
But... our arch is 30' long, so I run an extra 5 15' cords first, THEN start with the minis. This way the top/middle section has a place to plug into. Those cords, I did cut, colder, and tape up so there's no extra slack. On the other side, they go down to the ground, and I just run power across the drive.
 
Water? Rain? Shorts? HA! That's the better of the stuff that's plugged in. The just had a huge storm than shattered the leg of the arch, but he kept running dripping wet.
I'm more worried about the home made ext. cords that don't extactly use standard male and female plugs at the ends.
 
I should note that we don't have anything in the display (currently) that requires a ground. Even with that, each controller is fully grounded and has grounded outputs with well grounded plugs and ext. cords to the house. Some even use 30A twist-lock outlets.


Edited by Pony_God - 06 Dec 2008 at 8:35pm
Fine. You're so smart you rig up the lights.
D-Light users Unite!
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rmonty View Drop Down
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  Quote rmonty Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06 Dec 2008 at 3:22pm
Thanks for all the responses.  So I assume most of you just use two-conductor wire to go to all your channels?  Have you had any issues with shorts (i.e. rain, snow, etc.)  even though we don't get any snow where I live.
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  Quote LightChristmas Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06 Dec 2008 at 3:17pm
Jonathan's way makes me look like Scrooge!

While I wrap mine in the traditional way (cordless drill powering a rube-goldberg "lathe"), I'll take SPT1 wire and extend both ends by soldering and heatshrinking the connections of the string so they hang off either end. This way I can "gang" more than one arch and use fewer channels.

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Jonathan View Drop Down
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  Quote Jonathan Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06 Dec 2008 at 1:44pm
My arches were very simple this year, but they are extremely effective and a definite crowd pleaser.  I didn't want to have to wind lights around the PVC pipe and I didn't have the controllers to run them, so I simply used my fireflies (available here).  The pipe was a little short as the strands are a bit over 10 feet, so I added a bit more to the pipe (about a foot or so) so that the first and last pixels were just off the ground, then I used zip ties to secure the lights to the pipe.  I then pounded in a small bit of rebar into the ground and slid the PVC pipe into that.  For extra support, I placed a wooden stake at the base and zip tied the pipe to that.  While not every square inch of pipe is covered with lights, the fireflies themselves provide such great effects that you won't need it.  There's a video on D-Light's site that shows my test setup in action (only difference being I used stakes instead of rebar for the test). 

Extension cords.  Either pay a lot, or make your own.  Personally, I went to Lowe's and bought 50 6 foot extension cords that they had for $1 each, and then bought two spools of matching wire (sorry, I can't remember the price of that offhand).  I simply cut the 6 foot strand about 8 inches from the male end, and spliced it to the wire, which was then spliced to the female end.  Make sure to buy extra electrician's tape and the blue splice caps.  I went through a lot more of them than I expected.  Others have used lamp wire with success instead of extension cord wire, but I wanted my cords to match. 
~Jonathan
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