Rope lights

[Warlock]

I stubled upon some old rope lights with a 5 prong plug on the end that works with an old controller I have lieing around.Anyone know the wiring for these lights as it has a thick plastic jacket I really don't want to cut all to crap...It's the old style rope light that uses mini light bulbs..

[Matt]

Can you post a picture? Maybe you could just probe around on the controller with a multimeter and try to find which prong is the common return line.

-Matt

[Warlock]

Hi Matt.There are 5 wires.4 outgoing 1 return that is ground.Now what I don't know is are the hooked up like this...light 1 is connected with light 5 as 2 and 4 and 3 and 6 and 4 and 8 then it starts over.In essance I mean every fouth light is wired together to creat the chase then the selector switch on the controller also does flashing which is how I wanna use it.So the wiring is simply 4 out 1 return to make the 5 wires.

[Matt]

So this is currently hooked up to a small controller that does the flashing, and you want to hook it up to a computerized controller?

Do you know what the return wire is? I suppose you could just run some current through each wire to see which one is which (with mini-light bulbs, you could even use some batteries for testing).

-Matt

[wjohn]

Matt,

Grab a multimeter and measure the cold resistance of the five wires. between the Common the the four Light Strings, you will get 'X' Ohms, and between two hot wires, you will get "2 x X" ohms

that should be an easy, and safe way to test the cable, before you apply power.


John.

[Warlock]

Interesting not even what was asked...Question was the old style 5 wire rope lights.WOuld they be hooked up 1 with 5 and so on or are they simply a straight run as I do not want to have to butcher the outter plastic jacket to find out or does someone know of a way to find out.As for the 2 above posts thanks guys but the controller does work and no it's not being hooked up to a computer.This is a stand alone unit.

[wjohn]

Wiz,

I am not sure if that is a put down, or re-phrase of the question.

Without seeing a sample of the cable, this is just a guess. However I'd assume that the ropelight is wired up with sections of bulbs to make a 110VAC load, much the same as regular strings. the only difference is that there are 4 strings inside the rope light and not one.

Given that the controller works, and that you dont intend on modifiying it or the ropelight; was the question purely acedemic?

[Macrosill]

Wizard,
From what you are describing it would appear to be like you thought. Bulb 1 is tied to 5, 2 is tied to 6, 3 is tied to 7 and 4 is tied to 8 and so on. There would be no other logical reason to have a multi circuit ropelight. However stranger things have happened. I would test the ropelight to confirm it but there is a really good chance it is a "chase" style rope.

[Warlock]

Thanks guys and no John that was not a shot at all..I simply reworded the origional question to ask what I was after.The reason I asked is a few bulbs burned out.PLus I wanted to modify the lights in such a way that I use outlet plus and hook up each channel to a plug.This way I can connect regular mini lights for halloween till my other stuff is ready to roll.I have a 128 channel dimmer on it's way I got off ebay.Only thing is the triacs are old and only 4 amp.I'm replacing them with better ones rated at 8 amp.Not sure what chip set is inside yet as I will not know till it arrives so some rebuilding might be in oder but I'll get into that at a later date once the unit arrives.
Thanks again guys
Wizard