Creating Arches

Doesn't the slight electrical shocks just give the viewers a more interactive display???

Edited by Pony_God - 08 Dec 2008 at 8:31am

Originally posted by LightChristmas The biggest hassle everyone will have at one time or another is having GFIs trip in wet weather.

Originally posted by Pony_God then use a 9' indoor cord (~$1)

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.

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.