120V Rope lights on SSR

[RichF]

Ok Guys I have looked but have not seen. What is the most rope light the standard US coop SRR can handle per channel with a heat sink. I am looking for about 100 ft per channel if possible.

[kmc123]

Hey Rich,
MOST of the rope light I have is 5.5 watts per foot, which equates to .05 amps per foot.

The SSR's are rated at 1 amp per channel without a heat sink, and some people have been pushing them to 2 amps per channel with a proper heat sink. (I have gone a step further and put heat sink compound in between as well)

Taking all that into consideration, you could put 43 feet of rope light on a channel, and be at 1.97 amps.

Please check your heat sinks, and watts per foot before trying anything I mentioned.

[Creg]

If you were using 8amp triacs and proper heat sinking (and compound), could you drive those to 4 amps? That would give you (almost) the 100 feet that you are looking for.

RichF, keep in mind that you probably wouldn't want to use the other 3 channels on the board in this case because you'd be approaching the max on the traces. You would certainly be maxing out the amps on the fuse that is currently recommended (5 amp max).

I'm still relatively new to this so I'd appreciate a seasoned member validating this "theory".

[Trepidati0n]

The fuse is meant to protect the "wire". Therefore if you took off the headers and soldered the "plugs" straight into it, scratched of the soldermask and soldered a 20 gauge wire on top of it, and replaced the fuse...you should be good to go. The fundamental design of the SSR is very good and thus can be modified to non-standard needs if you have the skills and understanding to do so.

[Sean Bowf]

The fuse holder itself is rated at 10 amps (if I remember correctly). Not that I am endorsing the modification of the SSR boards...

Personally, I would find a way to drive two 50 foot sections (or better yet, three 33 ft sections) of ropelight instead of one 100 foot section, before I would try to modify the boards... And as others have said, I would definately not try to run all 4 channels at the same time.

Another options...I have heard of LED rope light...no idea of cost or feasability for this application. But, it should have a lot lower current draw.

Sean

[kostyun]

Another options...I have heard of LED rope light...no idea of cost or feasability for this application. But, it should have a lot lower current draw.

Sean

LED rope light is out there, but, its not cheap. Red is $170 per roll, but, white goes for about $500 per roll of 150ft.

[omzig]

Ouch! I'm definitely not ready for the leap to LED. I recently got almost 30,000 mini's for about $170!

[kmc123]

I just bought 6 rolls of this alternating Red and Green rope light from action lighting:

http://www.actionlighting.com/item-detail.asp?ID=640&MainCategory=Rope%20Light&Sub=3%20Wire%20Rope%20Light

Here's the great thing about it - it has 3 wires: Common ground, and 2 hots - 1 for Red, and 1 for Green

You can rim your windows with it or whatever else you want, and get 2 colors in one rope!

Also, it's 5.5 watts per foot with all lights on, so if you have red on 1 channel and green on another, that's only 2.75 watts per foot! Granted, it's 1 light every 2 inches when only one color is on instead of every inch, but it's still pretty cool.

[kmc123]

I just got the UPS Shipping Notification - It's scheduled to be delivered on the 24th - I'll let everyone know how it measures up!

[Jeff Millard]

Watch Action Lighting year 'round. They have had some pretty good sales on clearance ropelight.
Jeff

[joneslights]

Kevin, when you get it can you post some pics? No rush but it would be cool to see it....

[kmc123]

I sure will!
I'm expecting it to arrive on Monday the 24th.

[joneslights]

LED rope light is out there, but, its not cheap. Red is $170 per roll, but, white goes for about $500 per roll of 150ft.

Wow, I think I'll build my own.. not this year...