Why solder wires?

Update - I used orange and little blue wire nuts for all of my connections for the show. It worked out beautifully, but it is not a permanent solution. I only had 6 weeks from conception to the event, so time was of the essence, and I had a lot of learning to do along the way, going with something quick and easy was key. It was also an indoor display, so waterproofing was not an issue.


After dismantling the trees, I realize how much work is going to have to go into re connecting the lights in the future. On top of that, if the wire needs to be re-stripped, there isn't much wire coming out of a pixel, so it would eventually need to be tossed.


For these reasons, I am going to be attaching water proof screw together connections for every string, that way it will be much easier to set up and/or reconfigure the lights. I am even going to put connections on the top of the zig-zags, that way each pipe (I used 3/4 EMT) can be dismantled and stored without worrying about the two strings tugging in transit.


I am setting up the three 180 degree trees into one large 360 tree in front of my house for the rest of the holiday season, and I am going to hack together the wire nuts, and tape the splices since it will be outdoors. This is because it's almost too late to have any lights out there at all, I trust my splices and tape for one season, and I have the entire next year to work on making the lights a more permanent fix.


Thanks for all the feedback guys
 
Binkles said:
heathwithnoteeth said:
wolfie, i use the same heat tool. i hate traditional shaped ones. Only downside it looks like a pleasure device... ;)
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You would not want to get those confused.....
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Um...no. You would most definitely not want to get them confused. It would give an entirely different meaning to "She's hot tonight" wouldn't it O_O



My oldest granddaughter (18) comes over every now and then for a shower when her mom's bathroom is all busy with mom or sisters. I caught her using the heat tool to curl her hair couple weeks ago. Sigh.
 
Um...no. You would most definitely not want to get them confused. It would give an entirely different meaning to "She's hot tonight" wouldn't it O_O
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LOL


I use solder and heat shrink as its the only way to connect the cables to the led strip lights - try doing that with a
wire-nut....I don't think so.
I too make up extension leads with pigtails - solder and resin heat shrink was the only way I knew how to connect the pigtail to the cable.
I might give the heat shrink butt connectors a go - just to see how quickly I get the job done. - Nothing worse than soldering the joints and then realising you forgot to slip on the heat shrink !


On another note, my Dumb RGB extension leads are made from .5mm x 5 core irrigation electric cable.
The cores are generally White, Black, Red, Green and Yellow. I pair up the White and Black for the +ve and then the Red to Red LED, Green to Green LED and Yellow for Blue LED.
This give me excellent voltage over the distance of the leads. The only minus is the red case and the wire is fairly stiff.
 
I solder and heatshrink all connections, even those in boxes. Some of my connections are 7+ years old and I have not had a bad connection yet out of all the ones I have done
 
This thread is very old. An answer might not be needed anymore.
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