One song from my 2006

[Jeff Millard]

Here's one song from my 2006 display.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=qjn3dE1dGNA

[Jeff Millard]

...and here's my small leaping arch for this year. I like it so much that I plan to make enough of them over the next year to outline the front yard.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tB_98gGGNxQ

[Macrosill]

Nice work Jeff. I do not think I have ever seen any of your videos before.

The arch is supposed to be in an arch shape :lol: Give us some stats on the arch.

[Jeff Millard]

The arch was quite a project for me. I took 10 sets of 100ct minis and cut them up. I unwrapped the second half of the string so all I had was lights. I took the extra hot wire out of the first half, then wrapped the two sets of lights together so there was only a 1.5" gap between the sockets. Solder and heat shrink on one end.
At the other end I soldered a color coded #16 wire to the two sets of lights that runs the length of the 10' PVC. The return neutral connects to a common #14 wire that also runs the lenght of the arch. Then the lights were loosely wrapped around the PVC to look random, and wire tyed. Each set of lights covers 1 foot of PVC.
I used 1 Neutral for 5 sets of lights. This resulted in 12 wires which I crimped and soldered female Molex pins on and inserted into a 15pin connector.
The thing ends up being about 6' long and about 4' high (approx) This was my first attempt. I wish I had run an extra hot wire so I could add the little pile of lights around the ends. After I looked at the original how-to video on YouTube I remembered how good that looks on them.
I will eventually make enough of these to enclose the front yard by overlapping them. I want to make them so they can be triggered by a motion detector.
Jeff