Vampire Plugs Non-Terminating

[inzeos]

Anyone know where to find non-terminating female SPT-2 plugs?  May be out of luck for this season; however, would like to have some coming in for next season.

By non-terminating I mean that I can have multiple female plugs installed on the middle of a piece of SPT-2 cable.

Leif

[Steve Gase]

I think they are all the same.  you break out a tab at the end, or you make your own opening with a pair of needle-nose pliers.

[inzeos]

I think they are all the same.  you break out a tab at the end, or you make your own opening with a pair of needle-nose pliers.

I figured I would do that with the ones I have but I could have sworn I ran across some once that were purpose made w/ out needing to be modified.

[kfxi]

CDI (creative  displays Inc.) has them in stock

Ken

[inzeos]

CDI (creative  displays Inc.) has them in stock

Ken

Hmm, looks like the do have the in-line version.  Though I may just skip them since they appear to be double the price of non in-line female plugs ($0.70 / connector) from other sources.

[shaunkad]

Chris @ wlcventures.com said he would be carring them next year he is by far the cheepest.

[shaunkad]

It only takes an exta minute to make non inline to inline female connectors. I just use needle nose plies.

[inzeos]

It only takes an exta minute to make non inline to inline female connectors. I just use needle nose plies.

Very true...  But 100 connectors is still just shy of 2 hours breaking plastic

[shaunkad]

your talking to a guy WHO filled 1200 yes one thousand twohundred sockets with dielectric grease

[jnealand]

I don't know what you are connecting up, but as my display has grown I put fewer things on any given channel in order to get a finer level of control.  i.e., I used to have 9 strings of LED icycles in one channel, now I have only one per string, but use more channels.  With smart strings I am using even less extension cords.  Something I did not expect.

[inzeos]

I don't know what you are connecting up, but as my display has grown I put fewer things on any given channel in order to get a finer level of control.  i.e., I used to have 9 strings of LED icycles in one channel, now I have only one per string, but use more channels.  With smart strings I am using even less extension cords.  Something I did not expect.

Unfortunately budget and time frames for coop's and shipments from China prevented me from taking the leap into Smart Strings this year.

Right now I'm working on wiring harnesses for my incandescent candy canes, which I've used to outline the long handicap ramp out in front of our house from the previous owners.

I'm planning on using four channels to animate the 32 candy canes.

Channel 1 - Left 8 red candy canes
Channel 2 - Left 8 white candy canes
Channel 3 - Right 8 red candy canes
Channel 4 - Right 8 white candy canes

Figure 4 channels will give me some options for simple moving candy cane patterns.  They can all shift left or right or I can have them shift away from each other in the middle in opposite directions.

So to do that I will need 4 customer extension cables.  Each cable would have on it 1 male and 8 female connectors.  I may add a 9th female connector on the end to enable future combining or extending.

Leif

[jnealand]

A few years back when I was "channel poor"  I made my megatree so that all the reds were on one channel, all the greens and all the blues each had one channel too.  That gave me 8 channels to spin my clear strings, but I could still do color changes on the megatree and I could spin the clear while one of the other colors were on.  Worked much better than I thought it would.  I still have one of those long cords with multiple vampire plugs on it.  I only use it now to turn on all the lights in the megatree (all LED) when I am doing setup so I can check the lights out and see how the tree looks with everything on.

[inzeos]

A few years back when I was "channel poor"  I made my megatree so that all the reds were on one channel, all the greens and all the blues each had one channel too.  That gave me 8 channels to spin my clear strings, but I could still do color changes on the megatree and I could spin the clear while one of the other colors were on.  Worked much better than I thought it would.  I still have one of those long cords with multiple vampire plugs on it.  I only use it now to turn on all the lights in the megatree (all LED) when I am doing setup so I can check the lights out and see how the tree looks with everything on.

My first rendition of a mega tree is starting right off the bat with 48 channels.  I'm thinking of adding another 16 this season if my other elements get finished / set up before the snow starts making things impractical to change.