Enclouser Ideas for DirkCheapSSR
- Thread starter glaforce
- Start date
kychristmas
New member
I thought about that, but 1" Wye fittings are not as available and they cost quite a bit more than a Tee or Coupler
glaforce
New member
I had the same idea with the Y but was unable to find them and if i had i sure they would have been $3 or $4 dollars each and i bought 10 of the tee's for $5.90. You could also put 90 on and turn it down. At this point i have about $1.50 each in the DirkCheapSSR Yard Stake. Not to bad
Gary
Gary
kychristmas
New member
Following up on the Ground Stake enclosure I posted above, I also used 1" PVC Pipe to make bullet-style enclosures for DirkCheapSSRs for my Minitrees. 3" Piece of Pipe with a End Cap at the top. I actually hard-wired the Light strings to the SSR. I then used one of the Plugs I cutoff the strings to make an input cord.
So far, these are working great. Had a few issues working out how to get the whole SSR and wires to stay in the pipe. Once I discovered a Rubber Band worked great as a grommet and held them in place, I was good to go. So far only one faiure of a single Channel.
My minitrees now have one power cable and one SSR signal cable going to them and the enclosure hides will up in the tree. No TA-200 and Stake next to the mini trees as in previous years.
Edit: The picture shows the first one I did prior to adding the Rubber Band Grommet.
So far, these are working great. Had a few issues working out how to get the whole SSR and wires to stay in the pipe. Once I discovered a Rubber Band worked great as a grommet and held them in place, I was good to go. So far only one faiure of a single Channel.
My minitrees now have one power cable and one SSR signal cable going to them and the enclosure hides will up in the tree. No TA-200 and Stake next to the mini trees as in previous years.
Edit: The picture shows the first one I did prior to adding the Rubber Band Grommet.
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This is basically what I did on my mini trees, except I drilled a hole in a cap and put it on the bottom. It works great and makes setting up the trees quick and easy.
JasonPortwood
New member
I took a piece of 1" PVC pipe just about 2 inches longer than the DirkCheapSSR and painted it black.
The power cords all come out one end. The other end, where the ethernet plugs in I put the cap on it. I drilled a hole just big enough the ethernet in the cap. Threaded it through and put the RJ45 end on it. I'll just store the ethernet cable with the cap. Thanks to kychristmas I used low profile RJ45 jacks on the DirkCheapSSRs - well worth it.
On the end with the power coming out I just filled it over with hotglue. About a glue stick a controller or a bit less.
These are hung in my arches with the power side up. http://www.edgewoodlights.com/wp-content/gallery/2012-display/DSCN2483.JPG
That saves on extension cord. If I turn them into fan arches they would hide better. I can always strap those up on to the lights easily out of view.
No problems with water getting in them and I've had enough rain to test that. I figure at worse any moisture would drain out the other end.
The first DirkCheapSSRs I built I put them in heat shrink tubing and sealed the ends with hotglue. They are in Vynil J-Channel under my eaves. No problems there either. Those are hard wired to the lights in the J-Channel. I probably won't hard wire them in again as I don't like it now that I can't easily just replace a DirkCheapSSR if there were a failure.
Jason
The power cords all come out one end. The other end, where the ethernet plugs in I put the cap on it. I drilled a hole just big enough the ethernet in the cap. Threaded it through and put the RJ45 end on it. I'll just store the ethernet cable with the cap. Thanks to kychristmas I used low profile RJ45 jacks on the DirkCheapSSRs - well worth it.
On the end with the power coming out I just filled it over with hotglue. About a glue stick a controller or a bit less.
These are hung in my arches with the power side up. http://www.edgewoodlights.com/wp-content/gallery/2012-display/DSCN2483.JPG
That saves on extension cord. If I turn them into fan arches they would hide better. I can always strap those up on to the lights easily out of view.
No problems with water getting in them and I've had enough rain to test that. I figure at worse any moisture would drain out the other end.
The first DirkCheapSSRs I built I put them in heat shrink tubing and sealed the ends with hotglue. They are in Vynil J-Channel under my eaves. No problems there either. Those are hard wired to the lights in the J-Channel. I probably won't hard wire them in again as I don't like it now that I can't easily just replace a DirkCheapSSR if there were a failure.
Jason
glaforce
New member
I used a thick heat shrink with a glue inside made by 3M. Its a 1" heat shrink and i almost have to drive the ssr into the tube using 1' conduit.
Just my 2 scents on your design
I like your design with it inside the minitree. Now if we could just come up witha way to put it in the tube of the arch i could free up a lot of ta200 ssr units for other things and have a cleaner look to my display.
Gary
CDN_Diesel
New member
is it one DCSSR per channel? For eg: my mini trees will be 3 colors each at 100ct strings. Would that be 3 DCSSR's per tree?
kychristmas
New member
No. Like other SSRs, it's 4 channels per cheap SSR board. I have one unused channel in each of my trees.
CDN_Diesel
New member
thanks.
CaptKirk
New member
My 9 year old drinks a vitamin/protein shake like Ensure everyday (he is a picky eater). The bottle is white or clear depending on brand, has a wide enough opening to slip the DirkCheap in and then plug with a removable styrofoam plug. Open side down and zip-tied to the element and away we go. I'll post a picture when I can.
dirknerkle
Supporting Member
That's what we need! A "senior" version of the DirkCheap! One for those of us who can't remember which side to put the chips on, or which way they go, or even where we put it after we finish assembling it! I can see the board now... no holes, no silkscreen markings.... no.... waitaminute... this is sounding like a fantastic companion to the DIGWDF Wireless Extension cord!
Hmmm... Lemmethinkonthis.... DirkCheapSrSSR ... hmmm..... where are those engineers when you really need 'em......
TomL8345
New member
I have taken a similar approach to some others in this thread, but I have refined it some more. First, I am adding a right angle RJ-45 jack to the board and bringing all the power cables down towards that end of the board. In this configuration the SSR will no longer fit inside a piece of 1" Sched 40 PVC pipe, but still fits nicely inside a 1" Tee fitting.
For the enclosure I cut two pieces of the 1" pipe approx 1" long, one is glued in one end of the Tee to connect and glue a cap, while the second piece I fit over the power cables before I attach my vampire plugs. I also attach a 1/2" elbow to the side outlet of the Tee and a length of 1/2" pipe to slip over rebar I pound into the ground.
When I am ready to set up the SSR, I slip my Cat-5 cable through the piece of pipe on power cables, and attach it to the SSR. I then slide the SSR into my enclosure and slide the loose piece of pipe into the bottom of the Tee without glue. The friction fit of this piece holds the SSR securely in the enclosure while allowing removal for servicing or storage.
I figure I have about $1.65 invested in each one of these enclosures, and a total of less than $9.00 per completed SSR.
For the enclosure I cut two pieces of the 1" pipe approx 1" long, one is glued in one end of the Tee to connect and glue a cap, while the second piece I fit over the power cables before I attach my vampire plugs. I also attach a 1/2" elbow to the side outlet of the Tee and a length of 1/2" pipe to slip over rebar I pound into the ground.
When I am ready to set up the SSR, I slip my Cat-5 cable through the piece of pipe on power cables, and attach it to the SSR. I then slide the SSR into my enclosure and slide the loose piece of pipe into the bottom of the Tee without glue. The friction fit of this piece holds the SSR securely in the enclosure while allowing removal for servicing or storage.
I figure I have about $1.65 invested in each one of these enclosures, and a total of less than $9.00 per completed SSR.
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CaptKirk
New member
That is pretty cool. I use a slightly different approach. I use these:
Discard the cap (recycle), use upside down, stuff in the SSR, and just zip-tie them to an element. Stuff some Styrofoam in the opening around the wires and you have a cheap, water resistant enclosure. I have $0 in the container (I was recycling but now I reuse) and a few cents in the large zip-tie.
Also, because these are low power, the use of SPT core is a bit overkill, so I use the female plug end off old light strings (Home Depot gets a bunch of strings when they do the recycle thing), and/or cheap extension cords from the dollar store.
Discard the cap (recycle), use upside down, stuff in the SSR, and just zip-tie them to an element. Stuff some Styrofoam in the opening around the wires and you have a cheap, water resistant enclosure. I have $0 in the container (I was recycling but now I reuse) and a few cents in the large zip-tie.
Also, because these are low power, the use of SPT core is a bit overkill, so I use the female plug end off old light strings (Home Depot gets a bunch of strings when they do the recycle thing), and/or cheap extension cords from the dollar store.
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timon
New member
Nice idea and I have a twist for you. If someone is building mini or small mega trees out of 1/2 or 3/4 pipe you can take a snap/saddle "T" and glue it to the the full "T". Now you can snap the controllers to the vertical of the tree. Same for any other vertical piece of PCV pipe for any other display element, just snap the snap "T" to the side. You can also get a few sizes at most Lowes stores.