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Finally finished the bath. Still waiting on back and side splashes for the vanity and an LED mirror but hard stuff is done. I’d like to do glass but wife wants a curtain so..
I'm kinda with her on that. Anytime I hear about glass doors on a tub I think of this:
I know that's not what you'd do but that's the first thing that comes to mind.
And that’s the issue. We can’t do frameless doors due to the toilet and shower valve location (I wanted to move it but it was going to be a ton of work) so we’d have to do sliding and that does come to mind but there are options.
When you said you couldn't do frameless then I was about to say I agreed with the wife then. That door you just posted though looks fantastic and I think would fit the rest of the shower great.
When you said you couldn't do frameless then I was about to say I agreed with the wife then. That door you just posted though looks fantastic and I think would fit the rest of the shower great.
Threw up some permanent holiday lights and spruced up the side yard with these beds. I did the purple bougainvillea in April and they were super small plants so I’m hoping the white will fill in the same. Used metal edging, weed barrier, and rubber mulch in all of the beds expect the front (local store was out of rubber) so hopefully, maintenance will be low.
Added around 1,200 12 volt LED pixels for some permanent holiday lights, which required a lot more research than I thought. I have a few power supplies and everything is controlled via WLED with the lights mounted in vinyl J track under the eves. I plan to add on and perhaps change the channels to aluminum but so far, really liking them.
I struggled to take pics but each light is individually addressable so I can turn them on for numerous holidays and they are super bright.
My neighbors have a similar setup, but with larger spacing between bulbs.
Would love to do that & avoid having to break out the 28' ladder after Thanksgiving & New Years.
Don't mind being on the ladder, it's the tedium of only being able to do 3-4 ft at a time, then having to move the ladder while extended, usually solo.
How was the install & where did you source it all?
The process isn't bad in theory but there are so many little pieces to think about such as power injection and making sure your data runs are as short as possible to make sure they all work correctly. I did my lights 2 inches apart, used 12V to minimize power injection points, and a two dig quads for controllers. With that, I found the data runs still were too long so I used little 8266 controllers as well (3 for $12 on Amazon) and synced them all together. The video below is a great starting point and I'd suggest joining his FB group, lots of good info and pretty much where I learned everything.
As for sourcing, lots of people use AliExpress so I started there but bought 12V and got 5V and argued and argued about it and was eventually refunded half but the lights are useless to me. After that, I stuck with Amazon because while I paid more, I can return anything so lots of value there. I was hoping to spend $400 or so but I'm probably double that.
Edit - In short you need:
- pixels or strips
- 5V or 12V
- Cable (lots of questions on gauge and such, I used 14 AWG landscape wire)
- Controller - inexpensive and talk to lights and your wifi. Digquad and DigUno are awesome for a few channels, data boost, and fuses built in)
- Mounting tracks or channels
- Lots of connectors, I used heat shrink self solder
- Power Supplies
- Mounting boxes for PSU and controllers
<$1k DIY doesn't seem bad. I think my neighbors were well over that, installed.
Bonus that my patch panel is near an exterior wall, too. Not sure if it could be hardwired vs WIFI?
Pretty much. I’m on a call so I can’t take a pic of mine but here is one I pulled from Google, my pixels point down though. Obviously, when off, they’re clear so you def can’t see them from the road.
<$1k DIY doesn't seem bad. I think my neighbors were well over that, installed.
Bonus that my patch panel is near an exterior wall, too. Not sure if it could be hardwired vs WIFI?
Hardwired is way better for syncing to music and such but either can work.
The above pic looks a lot like my neighbor's setup, but with tighter spacing. Take out every other bulb & that's about what my neighbors have.
A lot of people do 3 inches, which is typically the max with pixels. Here’s a pic of when I was putting them up to help show the distance, I would not want to go further for sure.
Looks great!
Will have to do some research. The main run shouldn't be too bad to hang, just 1 tough spoty where it's not easy to get a ladder. Then it's tying in the mini-runs for things like the front/back porch.
How easy/hard is this to do if I don't care to do any of the light show stuff and just want on/off and maybe change some colors (uniformly)? I don't put up lights in the winter because it's cold as fuck here and I don't want to be up there doing it but if I can put them up in the summer and leave them there year round I would absolutely do that.
How easy/hard is this to do if I don't care to do any of the light show stuff and just want on/off and maybe change some colors (uniformly)? I don't put up lights in the winter because it's cold as fuck here and I don't want to be up there doing it but if I can put them up in the summer and leave them there year round I would absolutely do that.
Agreed, on/off & color choose is about all I'd care about/want.
Neighbors can do a few patterns with theirs, less important to me.
Also, can you do zones? Or is it all on or all off?
inb4 you answer your own question and say you already knew AFTER he takes the time to explain it
I don't know shit about electronics and/or how to program them so hence the question. The most I can do/know when it comes to electronics is how to plug it into the wall.
How easy/hard is this to do if I don't care to do any of the light show stuff and just want on/off and maybe change some colors (uniformly)? I don't put up lights in the winter because it's cold as fuck here and I don't want to be up there doing it but if I can put them up in the summer and leave them there year round I would absolutely do that.
Simple answer, it isn't hard but time consuming and lots of research. I highly recommend the video above because the guy knows his stuff but he tends to do things like inexpensive soap dishes to enclose electronics, which I don't agree with but awesome video.
Measure: How many feet do you need for your house? Are you doing trees or shrubs? Mount Options: I used vinyl J track from Lowes and drilled a hole for each pixel using a 3D printed jig from Etsy. If I had to do it again (I probably will redo), I'd go with permatrack from Dr.Zz's site. If I did strips, I would have use aluminum track with a diffuser. Strings or Strips: I like the pixel look but strips are lower profile and can be brighter because they are closer together (they come in various spacing) but they require more power. 5v or 12v: Power injection vs cost Lay Out: Are you doing segments or connecting all strings together? Some put a controller at the start of each run, some do a centralized spot. Power will drop along wire runs and the data wire is sensitive to this. You can use a voltage booster or use a board with one built in but you want to minimize the runs from the controller to the first led. Same goes for Power Supply runs, you want to minimize the length of these runs due to voltage drop. Wiring: How many feet do you need from PSU and Controller? Based on how long these runs are and how many LEDs you're powering, you will have to figure out your wire gauge. You also have to inject power to be sure you get accurate colors so if you go 5v, you will have to inject more often then 12v but 12v costs more. Controller: Do you want to run multiple channels off one controller, look at the dig quad (4 channels) or DigUno (2 channels). If you want cheap individual controllers, look at the ESP8266 for one channel. Do you want to control with WLED, NodeRed, etc? What are your end goals, simple like you mentioned or advanced displays? Power Supply: how many LEDs do you have, what voltage, one power supply or more, figure out what size and how many you need. Enclosure: are you power supplies and controllers inside or out? Do you need to protect them from weather? Connections: How are you connecting them all together? They come with little quick connects but water can get in. A lot of guys say they work fine and since I am going to redo mine, I used the clips in some spots but used those heat shrink solder connections for most. For things like my wreath, I wired up water proof plugs so I can tuck the connector up in the eve and then next year, just plug my wreath in.
Again, super simple to wire it up and hang them but planning is key. I hid my LED's behind my fascia board, thinking they would shine down and reflect while being completely hidden but they looked dull so I dropped them down a bit (you can tell in the full house pic that I still had not dropped down the LED's over the garage).
10-03-2021, 08:07 PM
Glass > curtain
