Attaching Smart String Nodes to House?

[rnult13]

How are people attaching their smart string nodes to their house?

I am looking to attach mine to the roof line, (128 node ct strings) but I am looking for a good solution.

Pictures would be nice.

Thanks,
Rick

[FireMedic4Christ]

I just used one roof clip per node. I'm at the firehouse until tomorrow. The ones I like come from walmart under the holiday time. They have been hanging since halloween with no sagging or issues.
Brian 

[sielbear]

I used the smaller version of that for minis.  Works wonderfully!  I think I picked mine up at Lowes a couple years ago.  Best item I've found.

[injury]

I plan on attaching to the house tomorrow and plan on using some all in one light clips I found at Walgreens. However I wanted things more rigid and as even a spacing as I could so I bought some kind of plastic J channel at Lowes and cut notches for each light and hotglued the wires in the channel. My theory is I won't need a clip at each light to keep things nice, straight,  and even and I won't have to stress the wires themselves (wires seem to be the weak point of these nodes) since I'll just clip the channel on to the house. I cut little flaps at each node and bent them up as I put the nodes in to act as a little hat for possibly some water protection at the base of the nodes.

The channel stuff I purchased I can't find on the Lowe's site (they only seem to have the roofing channel on the site which is bigger than the stuff I used), this at Home Depot's site looks about the same You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login. The channel itself was just the perfect thickness to slide the wires in. It's not exterior grade but at the price it seemed worth the chance.

[twooly]

I used jchannel for mine

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[jnealand]

For years I have had cup hooks installed in the fascia board that my gutters mount on and have hung up to 4 strings of colored lights using them.  Now I just string the SS nodes along the hooks just making sure that the wire is untwisted and all the nodes hang straight down.  The hooks are about 15" apart, just eyeballed, not measured.  By having them back underneath and behind the gutters I feel like I am getting a little more protection from rain as well.  They are very bright and show up extremely well even pointing down to the ground.

[tthompson]

I took 1" PVC and drilled a hole through it and then cut the whole thing in half.  works out pretty cheap that way, but i recommend a drill press because it is a lot of holes that way.

[twooly]

I took 1" PVC and drilled a hole through it and then cut the whole thing in half.  works out pretty cheap that way, but i recommend a drill press because it is a lot of holes that way.

Interesting how do you hang the PVC then?

[rokkett]

I am using the regular light clips You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login....

[johno123]

This year we picked up some 8' PVC strips in the trim section of Lowes, drilled out holes with a press and guide right about the same size as the nodes, added a Ray Wu connector on the beginning and end of the strip, and drilled holes at the top to hand from the eves.  Made a nice neat perfectly spaced section that we can pull down and replace if some nodes get bad.  So far so good!  I'll send some pics in the next day or so.

[chrisatpsu]

This year we picked up some 8' PVC strips in the trim section of Lowes, drilled out holes with a press and guide right about the same size as the nodes, added a Ray Wu connector on the beginning and end of the strip, and drilled holes at the top to hand from the eves.  Made a nice neat perfectly spaced section that we can pull down and replace if some nodes get bad.  So far so good!  I'll send some pics in the next day or so.

like J channel?

[johno123]

Actually it was more of a rectangular thick extrusion rather than the more flimsy J-channel - I'm guessing 1/4" by 1" extruded PVC that almost seemed like firm foam with a hard plastic exterior.  I'll try digging on lowes.com

[JonB256]

Mine metal squares are on my roof, stuck to strips of black coroplast, and the coroplast is stapled to the shingles with 12mm staples. Between each segment of coroplast, I inserted galvanized nails half way into each end and that keeps them very well aligned.

This makes a rectangular shape, 66 pixels across the top and bottom, 59 pixels down the sides.

[lonewolf41]

Not that this is the best way, but it is what I did...mainly because the materials were free.     I used the same 1" PVC that we use for the SSC enclosures and used a router with a 1/2" bit to cut a slot in the PVC.  The nodes fit nice and tight and it holds them well.  I put zip ties around each end node to keep the string in place.  It seems to work great and keeps the nodes straight and pointing out.  I made some hangers that either slide under my shingles or hang on my gutters and cradle the PVC.  I can take some pictures of those if someone really wanted to see them.

Thanks,
-Keith

[mitch09]

Keith,
I would love to see your attachments for under shingles and gutters.

Also did you set up some kind if jig to hold your PVC straight when routing? I tried this and the PVC kept turning.
I ended up just using white electrical tape and wrapping everything. Lots of tape but it looks nice. Also quite time consuming. It would probably be faster to use your way



Ryan