re: Permanently installed LED "Christmas" lights.

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This wont really help connecting strip to strip, but for wire runs, these look to be really useful.

Soldery Melty Connectors

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I've used these before. Need to be careful though. Some of the cheap ones the plastic melts before the solder or very close to solder melt temp.

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Just wanted to show how they look in LSU mode.

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I had to chuckle. Glad you were able to put them to good use.

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RC

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Wanna install some on my home?

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What do your corners look like, just a transition cable?

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They make corner connectors for the aluminum channel, so during the day it's pretty seamless in appearance. I had to run wires to make the turn so at night you can see a small gap in the lights at each corner if you look close, but it really doesn't look bad.

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Did you seal around it where it exits/enters the channels?

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There is a cap that fits on the end of each channel, and they also have ones that have a hole for the wires. I had to drill the hole a little bigger to fit 18 ga wire, but it does a decent job of sealing. I wasn't too worried about getting a great seal because it's relatively protected under the soffit and I used the IP65 led strip so it's somewhat weather resistant.

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How do y’all’s connections look where you’re injecting power? I’m curious how it all fits in the channel.

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I used 12 volt ws2815 strips so I didn't have to inject in the middle of any run. I just did power injection at the ends where I transitioned between strips. I ran my wires out the end of the channel then into my soffit and did the connections in the attic.

My only issue was getting power to the beginning of the strip at the far right tower section. I don't have a way to access the attic part there, so I had to run the power and data wire along with the strip in the channel. It was a tight fit, but I used 3 separate 18 ga wires instead of a single 3 strand wire and was able to fit everything in the channel.

And to add insult to injury...

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Thank you so much for purchasing from us.

From 31st Jan to 20th Feb. we will have 21 days off for the Chinese New Year Holiday, during this period, we can not ship your orders out and also cannot reply to the msgs promptly, therefore, please note that your orders will be delayed. But you can rest assured that your order will be shipped in priority once we come to work again 20th Feb.

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Well, I finally got my replacement strips from China/Ebay. Even through I used the "purchase again" option from my original order, they weren't exactly the same strips. They seemed to need ALOT more power and the colors weren't exactly the same as what I already had installed. They turn pinkish when all pixels are on and I crank them up to 100% on pure white. (my other pixels turn orangish instead of pink). The solution is turn them down to about 50% (which is pretty bright enough). I also only run every other pixel so that helps as well. I also had to inject power about every 3.5 M (which was a total pain). At least I was able to test everything at ground level before I installed.

I got them up again yesterday PM after working on them for a few days. I probably didn't have to, but I rented the boom lift again. My roof peak is pretty high and I really didn't feel comfortable working up that high. I had already done most of the work on the ground, so it only took about 1-1.5 hours to get them reinstalled.

I'll fire them up again for St Patty's day...

What effect(s) are you going for KS?

Gotcha.

FWIW, you can put IP65 strips in thin walled PV tubing It's fairly flexible so you can bend it slightly if need be.

Love that this thread gets bumped every year.

And yeah, especially with the way supply chains are you never know which part might hold up your project, so best get started ordering now.

Update to last year's idea, I ended up doing a cheap stop-gap solution for a little bit of lighting, but it's shite (solar lights).

I'm going to put down some direct burial landscape wire and do it right this time. Then I'll have to figure out how to mod some lights to control them individually since I can't seem to find anything that does what I want.

For those that DIYed it, what do you think was the total cost including your time?

I used a company to do mine. For the front and sides, it came to ~$4500 I think.