Anyone else not gonna make it?

djgra79 said:
I hate over promising and under delivering.
Click to expand...


Yep I reckon that is the worst part. Not that I have talked it up or anything, but after last year there is an expectation from family and neighbours. It sucks.
 
I just got power out to about half my elements and powered them on test last night. I went to bed at 4:00 am after making extension cords a plenty. This weekend is GO time! Finishing the mounting of strings and running more cords, making a rain enclosure for the speakers, and adding the inflatable snowmen that will illuminate during singing portions of songs. Then after that is all completed I will have one song programmed with a static on of 2 minutes. Enough to display for a start. Additional songs will get added as the month goes on :)

It was sure nice to see some light in the yard last night. This may be the latest I have ever turned them on! Not to worry though, the learning curve has been enjoyable with lots of great help.

Now to hop across the boarder and pick up some packages that have been waiting for me so I can Finnish building some items... Yeah I got a little behind :)


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The rain (or indecision of) in my area has been killing me. I needed to get up on the roof and silicone down some cable tie mounts, but every afternoon after work it was looking like it was going to rain, and then when it actually did it would be the slightest drizzle for less than 5 minutes. Not enough to wet the ground but enough to make the roof slippery.


Yesterday I said stuff it, started up on the roof and it a few drops started falling, I persisted for a little while and I'm glad I did, cause those few drops were all we had :/


Still hoping it doesn't rain this afternoon so I can get up and actually put up the lights today.


Serves me right for procrastinating! 8)
 
I missed. Well. mostly. Sorta. But not completely.

I had planned to press the "go" button on Sunday evening. I did, but not the go button on what I wanted to press it on :(

Saturday I worked on assembling the megatree in its entirity for the first time on Saturday. I had tested and assembled parts and sections but never as a whole. Every strand was tested. Every fitting fitted. Just not all at the same time. Finally got everything completed. Everything seemed to be going so well. Thanks to the ASAP and the custom top from boscoyo the tree went up reasonably well with few hiccups. I will need to tinker with the bottom hoop design but thats a project for next summer. Its up, and looks decent. Had to fidgit with position so I could get rebar stakes on each side of the walkway but got it done.

Saturday evening I got 3 PSUs all mounted nice in CG1500s. Tested them and ran them overnight with a couple strings attached. I also made up a quick voltage tester out of a banggood volt meter that I hot glued to a delphi connector so I could quickly test voltages inline without severing or poking cables. I figured it would be a handy tool to have on sunday for the tree wiring. Frankly I had no clue how much I was about to use that little tool. No clue at all.

So, Sunday came. I made up the power injection Ys over coffee. Thats when trouble started. I hear this crinkling sound on the basement window. I peek out. Snow! Crud. Last I heard it wasn't supposed to snow until Sunday night. I am on my first pot of coffee and its already snowing :( I finish up by making an umbilical for the power boxes. Simply cat5 with 4 pigtails on one end and run it into the CG with only one PSU. Break it out to 3 pigtails for the tree. Cap the 4th. Tie the grounds together and bridge them over to the PSU (which has its ground tied to the other 2 so all common). All looks good, voltages all good. So I pack it up ready to go outside.

I drag it outside and get it situated behind the tree. I make last minute measurements for injection cables and data cables. So run back in and crank out 6 power cables and 3 data cables to go from the box to the tree. Get it all plugged in. Fire up power and I go around testing each PI point with the test meter. All good, 12.1v as I had set them to. Looks good so I run the umbilical over and screw it into the pigtails of the Falcon box.

I step back, whip out my phone and poke test mode on the F16 status page. And. WTF? Nothing on the tree lights up. Knew things were going too well. So I run around checking voltages. All good, everything reasonably close to expected. What the frick. I check the connections. Reseat all the plugs. I had gooped them all with silicone grease so I knew they didn't have water in them already. I tried manual test on the falcon. No change. Checked the string assignments. All looks ok.

I run in and grab a 5 pixel section of a string, throw a connector on it and a pigtail to that. A quick test on the bench Falcon and I know this string is good. I run back out and plug it into the first string on the tree. Nothing. Frick. So I throw on the pigtail and plug it direct into the PSU box. Nothing. Oh, crud! Thats right, no power on the pigtails, only data. Back in the basement for a quick connector on the opposite end of the test string so it can plug into the power connectors. Back out, jack in both ends, and ... bupkus. Sigh. Yep, I am gonna pay Sunday for an entirely too easy Saturday.

I cast off all the connections from the power box and haul it back inside wiping the snow off in the process. Its really coming down now. So, I pull the PSUs and put them on the bench meter. They read 12.1v. Right what the cheap meter said. I have a few 12v white floods, so I throw them on the PSUs to see if they are load scramming. Nope. Floods all bright. So I put the PSUs back in. Test the plugs. I go out and bring in a couple of the injection wires and closely examine them to make sure I wired them correctly. They look good. So I make up a 100px string and a no V+ pigtail for the bench Falcon. I feed them from a PSU and they happily run color wash. What the flipping heck. Nothing is wrong?

Well, it wasn't until I tested the only thing I thought couldn't possibly be the cause. The umbilical. Its simply a cat5 with each pair connected to a pigtail. What could go wrong? I have a couple like it already in the display and they are far longer than this one (whcih was only 10'). So, I plug one of the pigtails into the bench falcon and the test string on the other end. Nothing. Huh? Maybe bad wire. Try pigtail 2. Nothing. Pigtail 3? Nothing. 4? Nothing. That can't be so. There is no way 4 connections are wrong. I may screw up once in a while. 4 times on ONE cable. No. I grab the ohm meter. 0 ohms. 0 ohms. .... Huh? Everything is connected end to end. All the grounds are 0 ohms to other grounds. Data pin goes to data pin, isn't shorted to ground. According to the ohm meter this cable will work. According to the pixels, it doesn't. But it should. Its supposed to. Others just like it work. Same box of cat5 the others came from, same pigtails. So I had HoHoHoed away all my daylight chasing the wrong problem. Power. Wasn't power. It was the simplest thing that couldn't fail But simply did. And had no explanation as to why.

Screw it. I made up a cable that would run from the Falcon out to the tree. Threw a pigtail on one end and a delphi on the other. Plugged it into the bench Falcon, it works. Made 2 more. Tested them too. I unceremoniously ripped the umbilical out of the PSU box and threw it on the floor in a puddle of melted snow and contempt.

I scooped everything back up and hauled it back outside. Again. Got the power box set up again. Tested the PI points and all read 12.1v. Ok, meter isn't lying, I am sure now. So, I run the 3 data cables back to the falcon, and plug into the tree. I stand back and poke test mode again...and... what the heck? First third of the tree is dark. Second section has a couple strands on. Third section is the only one thats happy. One out of 3. This is going to be a long night alright. At this point I am 100% the power isn't the problem.

So, lets start from the beginning. I grab the 5px test string and back out to the falcon. I plug it into port 1, the tree's first group. They are all spasmic. What the heck? So back inside to grab a new pigtail and I throw a greenie on the end. Back out and plug into the port thinking I got a bad pigtail. Nope. Still freaking out. So I switch the greenie to a different port. Ok, they are all warm and fuzzy now with a color wash just like they should. Back to port 1. Spasmic. Must be a bad port. Will deal with it in spring. For now, I will just copy the port settings over to an unused port and get on with the show.

I plug the section 1 cable into its new remapped port. Ahhh.. The first 1/3 now is color washing. Middle looks stupid. Last 1/3 works too. Ok, 2 down, 1 to go. I plug the test string into port 2. Its happy. Hmph. I plug the test string into the data feeder and its happy. So I move the middle data line to the first section of the tree to see if the problem moves. Nope, first section lights up fine. Plug the cable from the first section into the middle section, still screwed up. Fluf. (not what I said but what I can post). My toes are starting to get really cold now sticking out of the sandals. My jacket zipper is busted so I can't zip it up. Its +2" of snow on the ground and still coming. And its dark now. This is NOT going as planned.

I start to think maybe its power again. I start working my way around plugging the meter in and checking voltage. Thats when I notice the loose wire. Its not in the connector. Looks like it must have snagged on somethin because its got a sharp bend in it. Back inside to grab a new pin, the extraction tool and the crimpers. I quickly pop the old pin out and crimp on a new one. It was the ground wire so that explains dark. Pop it in the connector. Plug it in and !!!! This is really going to suck. That strand now lights. Nothing after it. Unfortunately it goes up, next one thats dark, comes back down. So, either there is a wire loose at the top, or the moron who raised the tree forgot to plug in the next strand. I am betting on the latter.

Its below 30. Close to 3" of wet slushy cold snow on the ground. Shirt wet from snow and back of neck half frozen from dripping icewater off the tree. Sigh. I was done. Its dark. My toes hurt. By back hurts. My hand hurts from carpel tunnel and can't hardly hold anything anymore. My legs are jello from running up and down basement stairs. I was done.

I came in and dump my pockets of tools and gadgets on the kitchen table, generally a no-no on sunday. Maryann starts an objection but can clearly see the frustration in my glare, she nips it in mid breath and goes back to making Christmas cards. I run upstairs. Hit xLights. Throw a red/green bars on the eve pixels and arches. Throw a marquis on the two window frames and drop meteors on the roof and house floods. Looks ok. Ship it to the Pi. Set up "Generic Christmas" playlist, throw it in the schedule. Click play now. Done. Some lights are better than none.

I throw my weary aching body on the couch with some hot cider and chocolate munchies. I began to feel warm and fuzzy from the cider and chocolate. Maybe it was the rum. And I decide on a nap. Yea. That will fix everything. I throw on a star trek and schooch into the pillow. And.....thats when I hear the giggling and stomping of feet. Its the granddaughters. So much for a quiet nap. Sigh. They are staring out the window. GD10 asks "Why isn't the tree lit?" I need something stronger than rummed cider. I think for a moment biting my lip, its not her fault I think to myself. "It got dark and I didn't finish wiring it yet." was my answer. Both true. Maybe not the reason. But true. She was satisfied with that began searching the house for the hidden beanies (long story, we have a duck, frog and pig beanies that we play a game at christmas time hiding around the house).

I guess, my next step is to unplug the dark strands at the bottom and throw an ohmmeter on them to see if I got continuity on V+ or ground. If both are open, that tells me I probably forgot the connector at the top. No way to test data. If one is open, maybe I can fudge in a Y in the power injection and come in on this strand too. Maybe get it going without lowering it. I am fully aware that both will be open and no amount of fidgeting at the bottom of the tree will fix it. That would be too easy. And not the way it works in the real world. But I can hope.

Lowering it will not be fun. I have no doubts that when I lower it all the bungies will come loose. So I need to put wireties around the bottom hoop to mark the strand positions (faster than re-measuring them all). I have a 6' step ladder. The closest to the ground the top gets is 10'. Well, 11 by the time you figure in the concrete base and the header plate. Not thrilled standing on the top of the ladder. And doing it in the dark after work is not very exciting either. Its Wisconsin. Its winter. The longer I wait, the colder its going to get. On the bright side, at least on the ladder I won't have to worry about getting snow between my toes :) May have to see about buying an 8' step ladder. Hate to do that because I know its not going to be cheap. And I don't think I need it. Will have to see how it goes with the short ladder. Then plan B.

So, there you have it. The lighting that almost made it but not quite.

To be continued .... ( am pretty sure it will, not over until Dec 26th ).
 
The night I was supposed to turn it up. I found 3 controller boxes not responding to pings... WTF ::)
Out of desperation I ran a test cat 5 cable out to the 1st box. BAM! it worked. I could swear all these damn cat 5 cables were good. Luckily I had a spare, so I replaced it.


Went to the second box. WTF, cable is good...that is when I realized I forgot to plug it into the switch... :-\


OK time for the 3rd box...Man I just did not want to re-run this one... its long... and punches through the wall on the house. So, I went and bought a tester. Should have had one of these long ago. Plugged in the tester, everything was good except the 3rd wire... instead of a Beep... it was a blip.... Damn... need a new cable.
Ran a new cable from inside garage switch instead of from side of house switch.... this was much less work.
Finally, had it up and connected.


Started the show...(just in time)... saw a few cars... then suddenly half the tree goes dark...
(bluzervic swears at this point)


stopped the show, ran outside..opened the box...WTF ! The PSU power cable some how came loose.
I think Gremlins live in that box :eek:


Got the show back up and running. Sure enough Gremlin #2 showed up on the top right Matrix...need to swap that strip out...just too lazy to do it... its only 3 pixels...gonna do it today I guess.


Fixed other cosmetic issues I had last night before the show...minor fixes in XL.


Will test the PI tonight...found out the channels did not copy correctly from XL, only half the pixels were working.


Next year I may take on the old CCR Matrix...but not now...


-Blu
 
If this hobby was easy and everything went as planned then it wouldn't be as rewarding as it is when we do get success.
Issues will always arise but its about how you manage the issues that counts
In the end most people looking at our displays have no clue as we are our own harshest critics

In the end it looks like ill miss out again due to too much work load and not enough energy.
 
Well. Better late than never :)

Nice sunny day mildly warm so it melted most of the snow from last night.


(I know, photo sux. It was cold and my hands were shaking)

Ended up being not at the top but farther to the right. Another ripped wire, this time V+ from the strand where the power injection plugs into. It actually ripped the wire this time so I had to solder on a 2" piece of hookup wire onto the the bottom pixel. I used no-crimp solder buttsplice which I had to cut down as wasn't much left coming out of the pixel. I obviously need to find whats grabbing the darn things.

All these were tested in the basement. I plugged the next strand into the end of the previous one cooking on the falcon. Then bagged the tested one and plugged in the one I just made for cooking while I put connectors on the next.

Then, after installing nodes into strips, again a test was done on the bench falcon. Every strand was tested twice before going outside. So it had to happen after that. Either transporting the strips outside, attaching to the top, or during raising. I gotta find out where and how so I don't do this next year.
 
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