MarcD
Full time elf
This year, we decided we weren't doing lights. Our neighbours and regular visitors had other plans. It seems our neighbour across the road has developed CLAP. Our next door neighbour usually goes to Vietnam at Christmas to visit relatives. This year, they're coming to him, so he's decided to go all out. One of our other neighbours has never done lights, but they're moving out next year and decided to go out with a bang. So, it appears we are doing lights this year.
But, there's a problem. The front corner of our yard is slipping away. It's become very steep and potentially dangerous. We're now scrambling to find someone to build a retaining wall and front fence. If we can't make that happen, we probably won't be able to do lights. Assuming we can get the wall and fence built, we will have a whole new canvas to work with. I've come up with an ambitious plan and thought I'd share it and get people opinions.
The attached photo will give you a rough idea. Essentially, the idea is to run 10 light strings from the fascia under the guttering of our portico, out to wire suspended between two poles attached to the front fence. Each string will be made of of standard Big W type LED lights attached to a string of icicle lights. All wired back to a DC48 controller. That will give us 40 channels on that setup. Red/Green and Blue/Yellow on each of the string and icicle sets. The fascia is about four metres wide, so that should give us spacing between strings of about 440mm. At the fence end, the spacing will be 670mm. So it will go from four metres fanning out to just over six metres.
At the house end, I plan on mounting a four metre length of 50 x 50 mm channel to the fascia. Inside it, I will add a 19mm square length of timber with small hooks mounted through the plastic into the timber. These hooks will be used to hold the lights in place at the house end. The channel will have 10 notches cut in so the wires (and excess lights) can be hidden away.
Now for some questions.
I don't really want to wait for lights to come into Big W, so I'm considering buying some of these and these in bulk. Does anyone have any suggestions for alternative/local suppliers?
I already have a DC48 controller I purchased from David. I also bought my power supply and mounting box from him, but his website no longer seems to have them listed. Where is the best place to buy these items?
Although I can't do anything to start this yet and don't know the exact distance from the house to the front fence, I may need help from any mathematical genuises out there to help work out the formula to determine the length of each of the five strings (the other five will be an exact mirror). Any takers?
Anything else anyone would like to add?
Marc
But, there's a problem. The front corner of our yard is slipping away. It's become very steep and potentially dangerous. We're now scrambling to find someone to build a retaining wall and front fence. If we can't make that happen, we probably won't be able to do lights. Assuming we can get the wall and fence built, we will have a whole new canvas to work with. I've come up with an ambitious plan and thought I'd share it and get people opinions.
The attached photo will give you a rough idea. Essentially, the idea is to run 10 light strings from the fascia under the guttering of our portico, out to wire suspended between two poles attached to the front fence. Each string will be made of of standard Big W type LED lights attached to a string of icicle lights. All wired back to a DC48 controller. That will give us 40 channels on that setup. Red/Green and Blue/Yellow on each of the string and icicle sets. The fascia is about four metres wide, so that should give us spacing between strings of about 440mm. At the fence end, the spacing will be 670mm. So it will go from four metres fanning out to just over six metres.
At the house end, I plan on mounting a four metre length of 50 x 50 mm channel to the fascia. Inside it, I will add a 19mm square length of timber with small hooks mounted through the plastic into the timber. These hooks will be used to hold the lights in place at the house end. The channel will have 10 notches cut in so the wires (and excess lights) can be hidden away.
Now for some questions.
I don't really want to wait for lights to come into Big W, so I'm considering buying some of these and these in bulk. Does anyone have any suggestions for alternative/local suppliers?
I already have a DC48 controller I purchased from David. I also bought my power supply and mounting box from him, but his website no longer seems to have them listed. Where is the best place to buy these items?
Although I can't do anything to start this yet and don't know the exact distance from the house to the front fence, I may need help from any mathematical genuises out there to help work out the formula to determine the length of each of the five strings (the other five will be an exact mirror). Any takers?
Anything else anyone would like to add?
Marc
