My Controller box Build

[warsome]

It turns out my distance to first pixel was way to long. I ended up using pixel extenders which I'm not to fond of either. Please post up how this worked for you. Thanks Chris

HI,
I worked out I would have this problem during my dry tests in the garage, So I ended up talking to ED and got my hands of the very first P12D http://auschristmaslighting.com/forums/index.php/topic,4965.0.html I may have been the only if not one of the very few to use it in a show this year.

Ran a dream... not a problem after I got over the initial cable connection problems I had with the connectors.
I ended up running many of my lights within 3M of the box (my 12 string tree) and the other lights I had cable runs of upto 30M of Cat5e ... I did not need to Power Inject at all, just had the P12D then 30M of Ethernet then into a PPR-A, from there one of my standard 2.5M patch leads into the light strings. I only had one string per run so I could avoid having to inject power.

Next year in my new house my controller boxes will be mounted next to my power meter, and I have (while the house was being built) pre-run 30 cat6 runs around the front of the house to where I pre-planned to put parts of my display, I have also placed underground conduit to different points in my front yard with pull though cables so I can have stuff there

 

[warsome]

Noticed you've got a WiFi router and a FM transmitter inside the cabinet, are you planning on mounting external antenna's or leaving the door off. Not sure what other problems you may have with your controllers as the RF is very close to them.

You may want to increase the size of the incoming air vent (I assume its the hole near the hinge)

Steve

I had an external antenna, didn't have any RF problems. I used shielded pigtails for the external antenna to limit RF in the box. helps to be in the industry

I didn't have any issues with heat, the box got very hot one day as it was in direct sun on that 40 degree day we had but I just opened the doors for a while, with the exhaust fan it worked quite well, and the internal metal plate acts like one giant heat Sync.