Christmas 2013 - NEW! Super Snowflakes and Power Wreath! All on REN24SS
- Thread starter jukingeo
- Start date
JEEPGUY
New member
I rewired one of my snowflakes tonight. On the pod that the dial and circuit board sits in there are five small screws that, after you dig out the silicone they sealed it with you can unscrew then pry the box open. You can then see which wire is common and the three channels, along with the power going to the board. I took the common and soldered three pigtails for the three channels. I had three cut off plugs that I used for each channel. I wired each identically as the the common is tied together. I plugged them in and two worked and one blew a fuse. I realized I plugged one in opposite from the other two. Bad move. I suggest using polarized plugs to prevent accidental plug in the wrong way. After putting a new fuse in all are working great. 1 snowflake down, 3 to go. Hopefully I can find 1 or 2 more snowflakes at another store.
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jlowe
New member
Since these are all LEDs, is it possible to run these directly via DC? Thinking a ren48lsd board because I got a bunch of these snowflakes.
I imagine they would, but I'm an electronics newbie...guessing I would need to know voltage of LEDs and current draw, then calculate resistors..?
I imagine they would, but I'm an electronics newbie...guessing I would need to know voltage of LEDs and current draw, then calculate resistors..?
Wow! Another warm and fuzzy comment
. Thanx! I didn't know I would be starting a trend here, but it is a good feeling that as small as my show is, that it does get recognition. However, credit for discovering that the snowflakes can be wired on a light control system does go to that fellow in the video I posted. I just took his findings a step further in coming up with a nice harness connection to hook it all up to a Renard controller.Glad that things worked out for you in the end. I understand wanting to use fused plugs as I totally forgone this step. I would like to eventually put a small inline fuse with the neutral line. Since the currents are so low, the fuse could be probably a 1 amp fuse or less. The main this that I would like to have protection from a failure if any of the other hots would short out someplace. In your situation with using dedicated plugs YOU MUST use polarized plugs due to the common neutral, otherwise you will get what you experienced. This is also another reason why I chose to go with a Molex system as I can make/break all the connections at once. Mainly I did the Molex connections so there is no way I could mix the channels up. I sat down long and thought about what I wanted and I figured out that for any given multi-channel ornament that I would use, it will have one of these Molex plugs on it. This also opened up the door for me to create future REN controllers in a lower channel format for smaller ornaments. For something larger such as a Mega Tree I could build a dedicated REN16(24)SS that has no or very few Edison plugs but has mostly multiconductor cable on Molex connectors. This year was kind of a trial run experiment of this system having a REN24SS in which my outputs are split. I have 12 clipped extension cord wires for the first 12 channels, the next 2 sets of 3 channels I have on a 4 Pin Molex and the last 6 channels are on a 9 Pin (of which 8 pins are used) Molex.
Anyway, I hope that information is helpful, but I think whatever system you end up using, as long as you cannot make the mistake of crossing neutrals, then you should be good.
Yeeessss and No. 'Yes' in that LEDs conduct current one way and as long as you find the forward bias you could run the LEDs off DC. The nice thing is that if you are using a well filtered DC supply, you can eliminate the flicker associated with using LEDs on an AC circuit. 'No' in that the LEDs are usually wired in a circuit that requires 120volts. This is a voltage that the REN48LSD cannot handle. In the case of the snowflakes, you would have to get the voltage down to what the transistors/pcb components can handle, then once having found that voltage, you would have to rewire the entire snowflake to accomodate that. More then likely you would need current limiting resistors. The plus of doing this is that you would have a safer lower voltage system with low to no flickering...the downside is that it is quite a bit of work to do. IMHO you are much better off sticking with the AC 120v on a standard REN controller.
Now, IF you are prepared for a massive undertaking, then you might want to pay attention to this:
The only way I could see going DC / lower voltage on these snowflakes is if you want to break them down into even further channels. Theoretically you could go 18 channels with 5 bulbs on each channel, per snowflake using a 20 volt system. This is a massive undertaking but if you are up for it AND are good with electrical wiring, then drop me a PM and we could discuss it further there.
Geo
You're welcome. I am happy that many are benefitting from something seen in my display. But unlike myself, you guys are getting really good deal on those snowflakes as I paid twice as much. BUT for me it was really an experiment. I wasn't sure how well it would work out until I got knee deep into the programming and discovered that the 3 channels per snowflake WAS enough to do some really nice chase routines.
BTW, what's a 'SCH-I545 using Tapatalk'?
Yes, it is involved, but it would conform to what you want and furthermore you probably could do WAY more with 18 channels on a snowflake than my 3. It really all depends on how far you want to go.
Nope! I tried that. Unless you have a special AC meter most digital meters will get confused with trying to ride the AC riding on DC. That was one thing that threw me off on creating the snowflakes. I got some weird readings off of the snowflake's original controller and it wasn't until I tried a nightlight bulb on each channel that revealed the outputs of each channel on that controller is 120 volts.
Now if 18 channels is too much what you could do is knock this down to 12 or even 6 if you parallel a the 5 bulb sections together on each snowflake element. This would give you 6 channels, 1 channel per element. You could only parallel the white bulbs and put the blue bulbs on separate channels for a total of 12 channels and now you have the ability to turn the blue LEDs separately from the white. All the while you would still be able to use the 20 volt power source.
Each one?!? Meaning each LED? Now THAT would be REALLY a massive undertaking! Unless you were using pixels, I wouldn't think it would be worth it to gut the whole snowflake for individual control of the LEDs. In my explanation to JLowe above you would be able to use nearly all of the existing wiring and would only have to run a new wire to each 5 LED section. I would think that 18 channels a snowflake would be a bit much, but going all pixels would be a bit extreme, but, it might yield some pretty interesting results. It just depends on how much work you want to put into it. As it is I am just learning about pixels myself as I want to build a new 'Tune To' sign using pixels. Going with my original idea of 5 LEDs x 18 groups, but using pixels WOULD be a nice balance of control without having to to crazy to be able to control each LED individually. But you still would have to completely rewire the snowflake. In the end it is DIY and up to you how you want to go. I am curious to see what you end up doing.
Have a good day!
Geo
First my sig refers to my Samsung Galaxy S4. The dirk cheap ssr's are small low power a/c 4 channel ssr. After seeing polarity issues, I thought I'd use the 3 channels of the snowflake and leave one channel unused. Then I only need one power cord to it and a cat5. No changes to the snowflake other than cut the controller off and hook up the ssr.
Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk
Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk
Ahhh, yeah, I see that now. So you want to use 3 channels on a 4 channel ssr block? Ok, I gotcha now. Yeah, that could be done. Put your SSR in a waterproof enclosure, wire it up to the 3 channels on the snowflake, plug the snowflake in and run a CAT5 to your main controller.
Geo
Yeah, if you can seal it up good and use a weatherproof RJ-45 jack for the cable connection and AC entry, you should be good.
4586shaggy
New member
Just bought out my local big lots on the snowflakes, grabbed the last 4 they had
Sent from my Droid DNA using tapatalk
Sent from my Droid DNA using tapatalk
Wow! I am surprised many of you still were able to find some. The two stores by me sold out very fast. There is a third store, but it is a bit of a drive away...I don't know what they have left. As it stands I only intend on having the two in my show, but it would be a good idea to have a backup one for parts.
12:20 AM Christmas Morning.
Good morning and Merry Christmas to all! Been tracking Santa on Norad most of the night with my twin sons. They went to bed at 11:30 pm, I was still up. No presents at 12:10, went to check on Norad and checked again at 12:15...presents delivered. The boys will be excited when they wake up later this morning.
Hope everyone here gets what they want and no lumps of coal!
Geo
Good morning and Merry Christmas to all! Been tracking Santa on Norad most of the night with my twin sons. They went to bed at 11:30 pm, I was still up. No presents at 12:10, went to check on Norad and checked again at 12:15...presents delivered. The boys will be excited when they wake up later this morning.
Hope everyone here gets what they want and no lumps of coal!
Geo
Hello guys!
Well, the time has come! This morning I decided to go dark on my show and began dismantling the display. As promised, I took video of the inside of the REN24SS controller, my wreath and the Big Lots snowflake. I posted them below. I also posted some pictures of the show below that. I started with the most recent pictures which detailed the snow storm we got a couple of days ago. Because I knew the storm was coming and it was already after New Years, I already started to pull some of my lights in. So the first pictures show the lights removed from the bushes and a big pile of snow on the ground. The last couple pictures shows the full show.
In the videos I mainly detail the wiring connections for those that would like to copy the wiring scheme for their Christmas decoration projects. Here are the videos:
Renard 24 channel controller (REN24SS):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nuGwHLLooo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PA5mTBMVUzA
6 Channel 'Power Wreath'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Cp6US2skFs
And what you been waiting for (drum roll please).
The Super Snowflakes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqLBkHyQ1gc
So to make the connections from the snowflake (or wreath) to the Renard controller just watch the video for the Renard connections and terminate that in a female Molex and as the video for the snowflake ends off showing the 4 wires terminating in a male Molex connector. So both videos will illustrate the full wiring from controller to the snowflake (or wreath). When done just connect the Molex connectors, connect your controller to the computer, plug it all in and start up Vixen and go!
There you go! Enjoy! Hopefully I will see some of you using the snowflakes in next years show.
So I am hoping that everyone had a good holiday season. Things went well with my show this year with only one blue LED being a casualty, surprisingly that LED was on one of the new snowflakes. Luckily I do have spares. Being that I only had three exposed plugs this year, I did operate in the snow and rain. It never rained heavy enough for me to warrent a cancelled night. So this year was a perfect record of running the show every night. Sometimes I was out and turned the show on later than normal, but I had it on every night from start to finish! Hopefully everyone else had good luck with their shows this year as well.
For next year: Since I am doing a VERY large update on my Halloween show, next year the only thing I have planned for Christmas is a new pixel based "Tune To" sign. My sign is starting to fall apart and I am in despirate need for a new one. I want to go with pixels as I would like to do away with the 55 watt bulb I had shining on my sign every night for the holiday season. More and more I want to make my show LED's. The power savings is tremendous and I can run my entire show from a single 15 amp outlet.
So that is all. For the most part, outside of answering questions regarding this post, I am signing off of the forum for the season and will see you all again next year after Halloween. Have a happy and properous 2014!
Geo
Well, the time has come! This morning I decided to go dark on my show and began dismantling the display. As promised, I took video of the inside of the REN24SS controller, my wreath and the Big Lots snowflake. I posted them below. I also posted some pictures of the show below that. I started with the most recent pictures which detailed the snow storm we got a couple of days ago. Because I knew the storm was coming and it was already after New Years, I already started to pull some of my lights in. So the first pictures show the lights removed from the bushes and a big pile of snow on the ground. The last couple pictures shows the full show.
In the videos I mainly detail the wiring connections for those that would like to copy the wiring scheme for their Christmas decoration projects. Here are the videos:
Renard 24 channel controller (REN24SS):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nuGwHLLooo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PA5mTBMVUzA
6 Channel 'Power Wreath'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Cp6US2skFs
And what you been waiting for (drum roll please).
The Super Snowflakes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqLBkHyQ1gc
So to make the connections from the snowflake (or wreath) to the Renard controller just watch the video for the Renard connections and terminate that in a female Molex and as the video for the snowflake ends off showing the 4 wires terminating in a male Molex connector. So both videos will illustrate the full wiring from controller to the snowflake (or wreath). When done just connect the Molex connectors, connect your controller to the computer, plug it all in and start up Vixen and go!
There you go! Enjoy! Hopefully I will see some of you using the snowflakes in next years show.
So I am hoping that everyone had a good holiday season. Things went well with my show this year with only one blue LED being a casualty, surprisingly that LED was on one of the new snowflakes. Luckily I do have spares. Being that I only had three exposed plugs this year, I did operate in the snow and rain. It never rained heavy enough for me to warrent a cancelled night. So this year was a perfect record of running the show every night. Sometimes I was out and turned the show on later than normal, but I had it on every night from start to finish! Hopefully everyone else had good luck with their shows this year as well.
For next year: Since I am doing a VERY large update on my Halloween show, next year the only thing I have planned for Christmas is a new pixel based "Tune To" sign. My sign is starting to fall apart and I am in despirate need for a new one. I want to go with pixels as I would like to do away with the 55 watt bulb I had shining on my sign every night for the holiday season. More and more I want to make my show LED's. The power savings is tremendous and I can run my entire show from a single 15 amp outlet.
So that is all. For the most part, outside of answering questions regarding this post, I am signing off of the forum for the season and will see you all again next year after Halloween. Have a happy and properous 2014!
Geo
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Okay!! I'm old school and I still use Renard controllers along with string LED's and an occasional incandescent light string! Now, that that's out of the way. My question is this after, watching the videos and seeing how he uses Molex connectors and a 4-wire cable to connect everything to his controllers, I was wondering if a Trailer-Side 5-Pin Flat Wiring Harness would work (https://www.amazon.com/CURT-58550-5...9815675&sprefix=5+way++flat+,aps,109&sr=8-5)? Since I'm running string LED's for my singing Christmas tree (8 channels) the electrical load should not cause a problem, right?
Looking for opinions and suggestions.
Thanks
Looking for opinions and suggestions.
Thanks