Seal Your Nodes!!

[lboucher]

The following is the story of an idiots long week at work.
(I preface this with recognition to RJ, these nodes still rock and are great.)

So a few weeks ago I saw RJ's video about sealing each node with plasti dip.
I went back and for a couple times debating this as I wasn't exactly sure what I was going to do with the lights.
Eventually i settled on a small mega tree and decided that I would seal them.
In the meantime I went ahead and build the tree.
Then i threw the lights on them for 9/11 just to see how they looked and see how i was going to support them with heavy string to keep the weight off of them. (Just like RJ did in his video.)
In general that worked, but learned a few little lessons that would have resulted in less pull on the wires.
Figured it to be a good lesson learned for when I put them up in Christmas.

Now things go bad.

I had only intended to leave it up a day or two, and there was no immediate threat of rain.
And given the northeast just experienced major flooding, i kinda figured I would be ok for a few days.
Well then work was annoying, and I never had time to get them down.
Rained good 2 days this week.
Didn't touch them for like 2 days.

Planned on sealing them this weekend.
Last night we had a bit of rain, wasn't sure how much.

Checked a few of the nodes hear and there, they looked ok, didn't see much of a hint of water, althought they did look a bit cloudy, wasn't 100% sure why, didn't see actual water. Figured it might just be the platic reacting to the elements.

Meanwhile during the day I put together some AC-AC relays for controlling other equipment.
Went to test, and figured i would just plug my express into my  SSC hub dmx out.

Started up my sequence and my relays looked fine.
Looked out the window, and to my horror, many many nodes were either not on, or a un-expected color.

 

So i turned them off, got them taken down.
I wrapped them around some board to keep some pull on them, while I place them right next to a de-humidifier in a closed room for at least a day.

Here is ta hopin they dry out. Good old wifey aint going to be happy about having to replace those.

Will let everyone know how the drying process turnes out.

Moral of the story, Don't trust yourself to ever have enough time to get your plans done in time. (Ohh and don't assume it won't rain.)

[MrChristmas2000]

When did you buy your nodes?

[RJ]

Interesting they would be affected so fast and so many. We had ours up for two months with a few weeks of rain everyday and only near the end did we have any issues and only a handful of nodes. These were are first and we did not seal them.

RJ

[lboucher]

I bought them maybe 3+ months ago.
Further inspection on teardown did show actual water in them I could sqeeze out.
Will have to see how well they dry and or maybe I stressed a wire or two also.

[lboucher]

Well after 24 + hours drying, it doesn't seem as bad as it looked.
2 Strands look like they may be fine.
Another looks like maybe just a node or two.

And 2 other strands definitly have a few bad nodes, and show intermittent communication issues down the strand.

So maybe a dozen nodes bad out of 5 strands, not horrible but it will take a bit to splice in some new nodes.

[RJ]

Can you sqirt some Corrosion x in them to displace the water and protect them?

RJ

[lboucher]

I had never heard of Corrosion X before. Can definitely give it a try.
I was also going to do the Plasti Dip thing, Reading up on Corrosion X it appears to be a lubricant of sort.
Do you think i will have any issues with the Plasti Dip after squirting some of this in the nodes?

(Wondering to myself if I should squirt some of this into all of them when i go down the line sealing with plasti dip.)

[tbone321]

WD-40 will also displace the water but you might have an issue with sealing them as well.  Contact cleaner may remove the WD-40 but I would try it on a sacrificial node first to see if it works without damaging it.

[RJ]

Yes I would worry about doing it if you are going to seal them. I was talking to fix them. I have not done it but wondered if the corrosion x would be enought by itself. If you could get just a little in them with out making a mess it will kind of coat the stuff. 

RJ

[Rainlover]

I just brought home a can of this from work. I am going to spray some nodes and see if it works.
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I will spray a few nodes and dunk them in some water and see what happens.
I will post results.

John

[JimWright]

This post is a little off of the question being discussed here, but it does apply to sealing the nodes. I bought 10 each 128 node strings in the first buy. After I got them all fixed and tested using Ray Wu's tester (before we had RJ's controllers), I decided it was time to seal them. I had to order the Plasti Dip from US Plastics because NONE of the stores in my area (Kansas City) carried the clear dip. I finally got it and was ready to go. This is where I made a BIG mistake. I knew that I had to do this outside because of the chemicals used to dilute the product (fume problems). So I waited until the first cooler day that we had after this long hot summer. I had read everything that has been said on this wonderful forum, but I guess that I had a senior moment (if you are not there yet, you will be). Anyway, I decided to hang the strings between two trees for drying. BAD IDEA!!!!!! These strings will definitely not hold their own weight. (I know RJ told us that, but I really did not think that there would be a problem with the short drying time). The first day, I did five strings. I dipped and dried, then dipped and dried again. By the end of that time, two of the strings had completely broken in at least two different locations. ALL of the five strings had major (more than 4) problems because of disconnects and breaks. This is my fault. I just wasn't thinking. But I want to make sure that everyone here really understands the problem. It has taken me many hours of testing and splicing to fix this problem. And of course, now I do not have ten full 128 node strings.

The second batch of five strings went much better. I still tied the strings between the trees, but I put four sets of elevated polls across the area to hold the strings up off of the ground for drying. This worked, even though I still had two nodes that I had to replace afterwords.

So another word to the wise. Make sure that you support these strings, no matter how long or short they are. This was a costly lesson in terms of time and money.

I hope this little story helps everyone steer clear of this type of problem.

Jim Wright

[tng5737]

Well, it is true confessions time - when I sealed my nodes I used latex gloves, while I was doing the thrid string my hand felt damp and I noticed that the top of one of the fingers had disintegrated and fell into the dip.
After I recovered from flashbacks to the Andromeda Strain I pressed forward sans gloves.   The bad news is the stuff is darn hard to remove.  However, there are several good points about this:
1) I can now work in my electrical box without grounding of any kind
2) After the residue started to peel - it is fun to go to your doctor, shake hands and tell him you think you've come down with a fungus.

[JoeFromOzarks]

Well, it is true confessions time - when I sealed my nodes I used latex gloves, while I was doing the thrid string my hand felt damp and I noticed that the top of one of the fingers had disintegrated and fell into the dip.
After I recovered from flashbacks to the Andromeda Strain I pressed forward sans gloves.   The bad news is the stuff is darn hard to remove.  However, there are several good points about this:
1) I can now work in my electrical box without grounding of any kind
2) After the residue started to peel - it is fun to go to your doctor, shake hands and tell him you think you've come down with a fungus.

Reading your post made my day!!!   Excellent!! 

joe

[jnealand]

Well, it is true confessions time - when I sealed my nodes I used latex gloves, while I was doing the thrid string my hand felt damp and I noticed that the top of one of the fingers had disintegrated and fell into the dip.
After I recovered from flashbacks to the Andromeda Strain I pressed forward sans gloves.   The bad news is the stuff is darn hard to remove.  However, there are several good points about this:
1) I can now work in my electrical box without grounding of any kind
2) After the residue started to peel - it is fun to go to your doctor, shake hands and tell him you think you've come down with a fungus.

Reading your post made my day!!!   Excellent!! 

joe

+10

[MrChristmas2000]

If you attach your nodes to para cord will I still need to do a sealing job on the nodes?

It was my understanding that if you had later version of the pixels and supported them on the para cord that further sealing was not really required.

I don't want to get halfway into the season and see pixels start to fail from water penetration.