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There's definitely some variation in what you get based on the lights you buy. I like these on amazon. A little bit pricier but they seem like they will last a long time and are a pretty close match.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00F9AHK5O/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_AbkxybHB4GWTP
You could look for "pure white" led and not get that blueish tint to them. But I'm with you on wanting the traditional look with the benefits of led lights.
This is the right answer. 2.5v is pretty standard, but this set likely needs more like 11-12v. Those may be hard to find in stores. Here's an Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/CELEBRATIONS-Mini-Replacement-bulbs-CLEAR/dp/B002SZAAY6/
Also, if the stickers are still attached to the end of the wire (near the plug), it should tell you what voltage bulb is required.
The mesh or net on the fence would look awesome. That was the first thing I was drawn to, but I bet that's gonna be expensive!
As far as the peak lights go, there are shingle slips you can get on Amazon (and among other places I'm sure).
link to clips
These were warm, and inexpensive. Not sure about longevity though, and the bulbs aren’t replaceable (easily, anyway - I suppose you could splice a new one in, if you could find a way to find the bad bulb). $24 for a 33 foot string of 50 C7 bulbs. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07CXNLJFK
You’re probably thinking of blackout caps. I’ve never had as many lights that need to be capped tho, not sure how long your strings are but consider extension cords instead of using lights as cords. You can buy white, black, green, brown zip cord and vampire plugs and make your own extension cords exact to the side you need.
I use these. I clean the area. I’m going to put them with some rubbing alcohol first and they are pretty solid. If you do want to take them down, you can just use pliers and give them a little bit of a twist.
Yes.Ym150 Pieces Mini Outdoor... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08HRH92VM?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share
Yep, I have these and they're great but the best part of the wagos is that you can quickly remove them as needed. I'm actually planning on replacing the wagos with the heat-gun-soldered ones in that link.
My 1-armed status is what makes less-direction solutions a chore. Helping hands are great, but not for precise connections, stubborn wires, or confined spaces.
Funny enough, it's easy for me to race motorcycles than fine soldering, haha
I bought them for testing options for running ghost wire to the surround speakers in my living room. Needed to be able to quickly attach/detach until I got it right... now im planning to use these little bad boys as well as these on all my wiring jobs instead of those stupid twist nuts
To clarify, I have use of only 1-arm and have given up on trying to solder small electronics - it's just too frustrating. These little bad boys are, by far, the easiest way to splice/link/repair 12-20awg wire (low or high voltage) that I've found.
Link for those interested. They're rated for 25a and 400v. The current rating on the item is higher, but the US spec, per NEM, is lower than the 32a on the box/nuts.
Nice job. There are also clips that have magnets on the bottom that you can clip to the lights.
I've got a house with two windows like that on the second floor and a roof line just like that above it. I bought one of those "No Ladder" extendable poles that come with clips to clip on your lights. I'm able to open my windows and lean out of them and use the pole to clip lights up there. I run an extension cord from the last light strand, down the roof below the windows (to the side where it's not easily seen) and then plugged in to an outlet by my front porch. Icicle lights on that style of roof look pretty neat IMO! Good luck and happy decorating!
3M Command hooks there are many just type 3M command into your favorite store. I use these on the house where the gutter splash guards are and I can’t use a normal gutter hook. They’d work fine for the RV.
WowWindow posters they have all different kinds of things.
I used shingle light clips every few feet. Slide the flat part under the shingle and you have a good anchor point for the lights. Kind of like this - I can't find a good image because most of them just put the clips on the edge of the roof. But you can use them smack dab in the middle. Just poke a bit until you find a loose spot to slip the clip in.
Also the strings of lights are spaced apart about two or three feet - the angle of the roof helps the eye to fill in the space so you don't have to do a super-thick layer of lights (like the front wall).
Look into the SockitBox and maybe use a surge strip inside of it instead of that stack of three-way adapters.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B018HHMBW2/
For what it's worth, I use one of these for the controller on my BBQ smoker. It's kept things nice and dry in torrential downpours.
Excuse the long link but have a look at something like this
Nope, you might have some snow buildup but it should be fine. I'll have to grab some pictures to show you mine. I do have a metal roof.
Depending what type of metal you have. You can try magnet clips. Light clips These are made for C9 bulbs but work for really any type. I do rgb controlled lights so I bought the strawberry C9 bulbs from holidaycoro. Worked nicely. The bulbs are hanging off my eaves and I did not take them down. Still hanging up because I do not want to go back up on the roof lol. You can get away with spacing but For the 100 bulbs I did one clip per for extra strength.
As for my horizontal surfaces. I bought Chroma Trim for perfect pixel spacing. I then used regular Christmas light gutter clips and clips the trim to the gutter. Again I did not remove these either. The snow load didn't really do much.
Order one of these and try it out, you can always return. I do something similar to what you have
There’s also similar, search words are Fairy Lights
Use pixel strings not ribbon. This is a complete setup from Amazon that work pretty well. You just need to put controller and power supply in a little container to waterproof it. They are Bluetooth controlled and will power up to last setting if you put them on a timer.
Look for fiber optic stuff.
For the strips, I'm referring to the pre-made tape strips. I have some and have to inject power every 32 feet. I don't have any power injection needed on the pixels, but I would need to after 800 pixels per port.
You can totally build a mega tree for way cheaper than a pre-built one. This is especially true if you have access to a 3d printer. I printed my top to fit a 10ft chain link steel post, then picked up a roll of pixel tape, some small bungee cables, and ground stakes. I use one of these to hold the pole. The pixel tape is put on the topper, then the bungee and ground stakes hold each strand where they should be. I think my mega tree was around 100$, pixels not included.
If you don't have access to a 3d printer, most libraries have one that is open to the public.
Also, if you run mixed voltage on your pixels, you will need separate power supplies that are the same voltage as the pixels. I tried to mix some 5v in with the 12v last year. I managed to blow them up even with separate power supplies. Now I just stick to everything 12v.
You can hot glue all of that but it's going to be a pain. It helps to have someone else holding the part of the strand that isn't glued up yet. Another option would be to install screws (I'm thinking mainly for the garage, I've done brick recently and it's a days worth of work.) If you screwed into the trim of the garage, on the part facing inward, you could use magnetic clips and you could have all the bulbs facing out. One screw every 12" (you can get white exterior screws about an inch long.) These are the magnetic clips I use. If my description doesn't make sense I can try and illustrate it. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07HBC552H/
For the shutters you could try this style of clip:
https://www.amazon.com/SEWANTA-Holiday-Christmas-Light-Clips/dp/B07Y3T1FWM/
2" Binder clips would also probably work.
Hahaha I don't blame you. I enjoyed it but it is a lot of work measuring out the lines. These shingle clips made the roof outline installation easy and I used Command Clips for the garage and front door outlines which also worked well.
Hoping next year goes quicker since now all of these runs don't have to be measured out again. I just need to label them well as I take them down.
Here is thisno music unfortunately
Thanks! Did you just run standard power cords (something like this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09FXK2TR3/) or did you find extensions for the 2 pin 24v cables they use? I can not find the name of the two-pin interface to save my life.
Since you're renting, I'd be as non destructive as possible.
I would use something like these. They're clips that have a gummy, wax like adhesive on them that you stick to the walls. Alternatively, maybe something like 3M command hooks, but they don't always remove 100%.
https://www.amazon.com/Advantus-StikkiCLIPS-Adhesive-Clips-01220/dp/B0013C9YQ0/
I quite like the garland and wreath ideas. Maybe a giant bow / wrapping paper motif made of lights. Or red fabric with lights surrounding. Got my brain a thinking - could be the rum, but I’ll give you the credit.
For hanging stuff I was going to go with something like these Hooks
I have seen similar plugs on my inflatables and meteor shower lights after the AC-DC transformer rectifier. Instead of the old string to string lights that run on AC power and can allow lights of any brand to be connected to the end socket, these sockets are very different. They are typically proprietary DC plugs, and the offset is a key so that the positive and negative leads can’t be accidentally swapped. They are designed to allow multiple sets of the same brand and model can be chained together up to the limit of the power output of the transformer. Unless the original manufacturers made an extension, you will not likely find one. You will also not be a able to connect regular AC sets to the end. If you aren’t comfortable modifying electronics, then I recommend using an extension cord to move the plug close enough to reach where you want the lights. If you are comfortable, you could cut the line and build your own extension. There are similar sockets on Amazon but the keys are different, and probably wouldn’t plug directly in.
There are c9 holders that hold each bulb up or down. I tuck mine under the shingles. It's super satisfying. I don't know what adhesive options there are. These are the ones I use: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07TS9KH36/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_glt_fabc_VQ46QWA7DB3N77NVEHZE?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
Those are meteor shower lights by twinkle star. I can’t say I’d purchase that brand again I’d give the choice. They seem of decent quality, but the spacing between tubes is far too short for my tastes.
The tree is a medium Japanese maple, there are two sets hung if you were wondering.
That sounds like a truly spectacular event! Wow, my back hurts just reading about it all. Do you have any photos, would love to see if you wouldn’t mind sharing, no pressure tho.
I will keep my fingers crossed that 3000 leds won’t generate as quite a crowd as your 25k led extravaganza. But I sincerely appreciate the heads up, I honestly hadn’t considered that possibility. I’m not a very popular person, not for lack of trying, I just live a fairly solitary life; I never would have thought anything I do would bring crowds.
On the nasty neighbors, maybe put one of these out with a small sign that says “Complaints Accepted Here”. Mine arrives today, I was planning on mounting it on the roof as a bit of cheeky fun.
Yep
Got this one off of amazon
I was thinking about getting some extension cable line wire so that the power supply and controller stays inside - wondering of that would impact brightness of the leds overall
I've use command strips with varying success. If the surface is clean and doesn't have powdery paint residue, the hold quite well. They're removable but they're hardly noticeable when they don't have anything on them.
I've used the clips when running C7 bulbs along my chain link fence but they are small and hard to find a good use for.
Thinking of maybe attaching my NodeMCU to a Protype Board with some Terminal Screws to make removing my controller easier to flash and troubleshoot and the terminal screws to be able to disconnect wires if needed.
I still control some AC things with my original arduino setup that I made myself. I run a USB cable from my Raspberry Pi running FPP (I also used to run it using Vixen on a PC) to the arduino, connect some pins to 8-port relay boards, and have some code on the arduino to read it. I used an Arduino Uno when I had 16 or fewer relays, and a Mega when I upgraded to 3 boards.
If you're interested, I'd be happy to share my code and the settings to add it as a serial controller. If you're comfortable splicing 110 volt wires, it's a pretty simple setup.
I thought about finding some extension cord that is so thin that it could be smashed in a sliding door.
But I decided to go with some lights for $15 that got great reviews. I thought they would require something more heavy duty than 3 AA batteries, but I guess not. I mean it gets really cold where I am. Maybe I'll Google that, alkaline batteries in cold temperatures. But if I can get a week out of each set of batteries I'll be satisfied. That's like 60-80 hours of run time.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N2BBI23/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_wLd.DbAZXH35F
Are you talking about the sockets that have little metal "wings" on them to hold the light in place? If so, you can use the cords that are designed for ceramic "village" houses, like Lemax or Department 56. Single-bulb cords are sold at Michaels, Hobby Lobby, and other stores like that, as well as at Home Depot. Online, there are quite a few places that sell them, and of course, including Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Creative-Hobbies-708N1-Replacement-Christmas/dp/B01LVXU2IV?ref_=fsclp_pl_dp_4
Good luck!
I found them! https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B018A4E058/
Celebrations V8224212 Twinkling Lights Bulbs,20-Feet, Multi-Colored
Random twinkling, Red, Green, Yellow-orange, Blue, and Magenta (the picture and description does not mention magenta, but I ordered 4 strings of these and to my pleasant surprise they had magenta, too). On the 100 bulb strand, 10 bulbs twinkle randomly. In short, these are exactly as I remember from the late 70's/early 80's.