Outdoor Christmas Lights....recommendations please

Posted on
Wed Nov 06, 2019 5:20 pm
siclark offline
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Re: Outdoor Christmas Lights....recommendations please

Ouch. PSU not cheap. No wonder you only want one!


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Posted on
Wed Nov 06, 2019 5:35 pm
siclark offline
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Joined: Jun 13, 2017
Location: UK

Re: Outdoor Christmas Lights....recommendations please

And good work with testing in the rain. I was outside in it too but doing some plumbing.


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Posted on
Wed Nov 06, 2019 9:50 pm
mundmc offline
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Re: Outdoor Christmas Lights....recommendations please

(Might have made a sizable Amazon impulse buy today...)

Posted on
Wed Nov 06, 2019 11:01 pm
noel1983 offline
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Joined: Oct 17, 2014

Re: Outdoor Christmas Lights....recommendations please

siclark wrote:
Given how cheap the controllers are isn't it better to have local ones and short cable runs?

Local PSU and controller to keep it simple?


If I do local psu’s then I wouldn’t need 20A so would be cheaper, it’s the hassle of having the psu inside the house and having to run a wire through the window to the strip. Sash windows means it’s kinda doable but will mean the window isn’t fully closed so more draught.

I guess I could actually just run 240V from the porch cupboard to each location then have a project box in each location with a psu and controller. Just means more expensive project boxes to ensure it’s properly waterproof and more expensive cable Altho thinking about it one 240v run could do two windows as they’re directly above one another. One box too per two windows which starts getting more reasonable


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Posted on
Wed Nov 06, 2019 11:02 pm
noel1983 offline
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Re: Outdoor Christmas Lights....recommendations please

mundmc wrote:
(Might have made a sizable Amazon impulse buy today...)


What did you go for?!


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Posted on
Wed Nov 06, 2019 11:09 pm
virgahyatt offline
Posts: 132
Joined: Jan 11, 2014

Re: Outdoor Christmas Lights....recommendations please

noel1983 wrote:
siclark wrote:
Given how cheap the controllers are isn't it better to have local ones and short cable runs?

Local PSU and controller to keep it simple?


If I do local psu’s then I wouldn’t need 20A so would be cheaper, it’s the hassle of having the psu inside the house and having to run a wire through the window to the strip. Sash windows means it’s kinda doable but will mean the window isn’t fully closed so more draught.

I guess I could actually just run 240V from the porch cupboard to each location then have a project box in each location with a psu and controller. Just means more expensive project boxes to ensure it’s properly waterproof and more expensive cable Altho thinking about it one 240v run could do two windows as they’re directly above one another. One box too per two windows which starts getting more reasonable


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FYI you need to worry about voltage drop once the strips get long enough. Especially with individually addressable leds like ws2812 s and ws2811s.

Edit:
Just noticed that you were already concerned about this. I have t had a lot of time to play with these yet. But so far it seems best to inject more power after each strip. About 15ft or so. Or increase the power significantly

Posted on
Wed Nov 06, 2019 11:21 pm
noel1983 offline
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Joined: Oct 17, 2014

Re: Outdoor Christmas Lights....recommendations please

virgahyatt wrote:
noel1983 wrote:
siclark wrote:
Given how cheap the controllers are isn't it better to have local ones and short cable runs?

Local PSU and controller to keep it simple?


If I do local psu’s then I wouldn’t need 20A so would be cheaper, it’s the hassle of having the psu inside the house and having to run a wire through the window to the strip. Sash windows means it’s kinda doable but will mean the window isn’t fully closed so more draught.

I guess I could actually just run 240V from the porch cupboard to each location then have a project box in each location with a psu and controller. Just means more expensive project boxes to ensure it’s properly waterproof and more expensive cable Altho thinking about it one 240v run could do two windows as they’re directly above one another. One box too per two windows which starts getting more reasonable


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FYI you need to worry about voltage drop once the strips get long enough. Especially with individually addressable leds like ws2812 s and ws2811s.


Yep that’s what the video highlighted too, looking at the psu prices a 10A is £15 and a 20 £19 so I may as well stick with the 20A ones and get a box like this which it will fit in with the extension lead


Masterplug Weatherproof Electric Box for Outdoors with Four Socket 10 Metre Extension Lead, 351 x 220 x 126.5 mm, Black https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0062GTL42/ ... WDb4W64KR2


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Posted on
Thu Nov 07, 2019 12:27 am
noel1983 offline
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Re: Outdoor Christmas Lights....recommendations please

Right so another chunky Amazon purchase done and my plan is:

Run 240v garden extension leads from the porch to watertight boxes under each ground floor window (one either side of the porch approx 10m cable run from porch by the time I’ve worked it around the porch etc)

These lead to a 4 gang socket within the box.

Mount a PSU within the box along with the node mini for the downstairs window

Connect downstairs window led strip to node mini and psu (in reality I may need to use 22awg cable to extend as I don’t want leds lighting the few feet from the box to the window) ie I want the strip to start perfectly in the lower corner of the window

Use 22awg cable to take power from psu under downstairs window to a small waterproof project box by upstairs window

This project box will contain the node mini for the upstairs window led strip and the connection for the power from the 22awg cable to the strip

Then I’ll duplicate this for the other side of the house.

All Attached using the 3M exterior sticky hooks I linked to earlier along with a bunch of cable ties :)

Just need to make sure the jumper pins/connections are secure enough so they don’t come loose!

Hope this helps for anyone else thinking of similar.




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Posted on
Thu Nov 07, 2019 5:08 am
Seeker offline
Posts: 440
Joined: Aug 05, 2013

Re: Outdoor Christmas Lights....recommendations please

I was recently looking at DrZZ's videos, planning a new Christmas light setup, and now some parts are on the way. I immediately thought of how to integrate with Indigo for scheduling. Am I reading right that there's a plugin in the works for WLED?

Posted on
Thu Nov 07, 2019 5:20 am
colinpartridge offline
Posts: 373
Joined: Jan 13, 2014
Location: London, UK

Re: Outdoor Christmas Lights....recommendations please

Seeker wrote:
I was recently looking at DrZZ's videos, planning a new Christmas light setup, and now some parts are on the way. I immediately thought of how to integrate with Indigo for scheduling. Am I reading right that there's a plugin in the works for WLED?

Although a plugin would be handy you can already control many aspects using the Wled HTTP request API and also use GhostXML to poll the device to create custom states.

Colin

Posted on
Thu Nov 07, 2019 5:36 am
neilk offline
Posts: 714
Joined: Jul 13, 2015
Location: Reading, UK

Re: Outdoor Christmas Lights....recommendations please

Very rough WLED plugin is built and working, I hope to get something published at the weekend that already does :-

- Ability to create WLED devices, with a single device property of IP address
- Power Strip On/Power Strip off
-Dimmer device for the master strip brightness (using the Indigo base dimmer device)

An with a reasonable degree of confidence

- Primary RGB colour setting
- Effect Selection (including the speed and intensity values)
- Call Presets


and in reality once I crack the JSON parsing of the segment array then I should be able to add control for every state. I was over confident in my understanding, but think I am just missing something simple as the other values are reporting and updating as I expect. A few more evenings and I am I can sort it, I may even swap over to the HTTP/xml API that will also work.

This is my first plugin, so early adopters will need to bear with me, and I may will miss some of the states, actions as this evolves. Having said that even what I have so far has some basic value. Once it is done then I will happily throw it open for others to improve.

Posted on
Thu Nov 07, 2019 6:45 am
mundmc offline
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Re: Outdoor Christmas Lights....recommendations please

^This is very exciting!

Posted on
Thu Nov 07, 2019 4:51 pm
Ksullivan offline
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Joined: Feb 22, 2014

Re: Outdoor Christmas Lights....recommendations please

+1 for this


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Posted on
Fri Nov 08, 2019 10:50 am
noel1983 offline
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Joined: Oct 17, 2014

Re: Outdoor Christmas Lights....recommendations please

I have an inbox full of amazon delivery confirmations, got a train two hours earlier than expected and my wife’s out tonight. Now if that’s not a sign that I’m meant to be outside installing led strip tonight then I don’t know what is!

Quick trip past B and Q to get the sticky hooks and I’m away!

Doing this kind of stuff in the dark is way more fun, there’s just no challenge in being on step ladders wiring stuff up in the daytime!!

Aim is ground floor windows tonight then upstairs tomorrow :)


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Posted on
Fri Nov 08, 2019 11:52 am
siclark offline
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Joined: Jun 13, 2017
Location: UK

Re: Outdoor Christmas Lights....recommendations please

noel1983 wrote:

Doing this kind of stuff in the dark is way more fun, there’s just no challenge in being on step ladders wiring stuff up in the daytime!!

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Haha. Love a challenge. I'm wiring in internal led strips tonight. Into the lighting ring main, so need to turn off the lights, so properly doing it in the dark up a ladder with no street lights to help!

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