Keeping Things Dry

[travailen]

I have two hubs running in my house and two outside. My layout has been powered up for over three weeks, 24 hrs a day. It is very humid on our area and I wanted to see if the small amount of heat from the SSCs could prevent condensation in the SSCs PVC enclosure. This last week as I was coming to the conclusion that the condensation I was getting was unacceptable, it rained and inch and damaged a few Cat 5 cables. Time for a new plan.

My longest run from a hub to a string is about 30 feet. I used the 18ga RGB wire from Ray to make up a few 50 foot cables and ran them between the hub and the strings. things looked OK. So I decided I would put the SSCs at the hub and run the 18ga to the strings. If there ever was a problem I would just heat shrink nodes in the line until whatever it was went away. So I rebuilt my hubs. Below are two pictures of one of the two outdoor hubs. All the SSCs have connectors on both ends to make them easy to install and remove. I used wireway to keep them in position. Now all the active components are in one place, out of the weather. A place that is warm and has air circulation to keep the condensation under control. There are no exposed connections. So far, everything is warm and dry.

Rick S

[chrisatpsu]

what about the 6ft limitation between the ssc and the fist node?

[travailen]

what about the 6ft limitation between the ssc and the fist node?

Apparently somebody forgot to tell my nodes about that. All I know is that so far everything is working OK. As I mentioned above if I do find a any problems, I will heat shrink nodes into the cable until the the problem is gone. I will also post it here.

Rick S

[caretaker]

Rick, where did you get your edge connectors from for the SSC's?

[travailen]

Rick, where did you get your edge connectors from for the SSC's?

Mouser. I will post the part numbers tomorrow.

Rick S

[travailen]

Rick, where did you get your edge connectors from for the SSC's?

All the parts are from Mouser

3 Pin Connector - 538-10-11-2033
3 Pin PCB Header - 538-22-05-3031
8 pin Connector - 538-22-01-3087
8 Pin PCB Header - 538-22-23-2081
4 Pin Connector - 53-10-11-2043
4 Pin PCB Header - 538-22-05-3041
Connector pins are 538-08-50-0114

I have attached a picture for reference. It shows both V1 and V2 SSCs.

Rick S

[chrisatpsu]

nice!

[johno123]

Brilliant!  Now if we can get an RJ45 jack added to SSV4's then we'll have a really modular piece of equipment!   

[davron12]

Are the 3 pin connectors on the bottom the same as the ones on the top (in reference to the picture)? They look different in shape in the picture.

[DanHouston]

Rick, where did you get your edge connectors from for the SSC's?

All the parts are from Mouser

3 Pin Connector - 538-10-11-2033
3 Pin PCB Header - 538-22-05-3031
8 pin Connector - 538-22-01-3087
8 Pin PCB Header - 538-22-23-2081
4 Pin Connector - 53-10-11-2043
4 Pin PCB Header - 538-22-05-3041
Connector pins are 538-08-50-0114

I have attached a picture for reference. It shows both V1 and V2 SSCs.

Rick S

This combined with the extension cord case I mentioned (it they were purchased in bulk to drive price down) seems like they would be a nice water tight system.

Here's the thread where I posted those:
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[travailen]

Are the 3 pin connectors on the bottom the same as the ones on the top (in reference to the picture)? They look different in shape in the picture.

In the picture they are not but normally would be. I could not find all the connectors I needed to quickly make what I wanted so I got the brown ones and cut them up. In a normal build they would not be used. The part numbers listed are for the correct size and shape parts and are the ones I would have used if I had them at the time I did the build.

Rick S

[travailen]

Rick, where did you get your edge connectors from for the SSC's?

All the parts are from Mouser

3 Pin Connector - 538-10-11-2033
3 Pin PCB Header - 538-22-05-3031
8 pin Connector - 538-22-01-3087
8 Pin PCB Header - 538-22-23-2081
4 Pin Connector - 53-10-11-2043
4 Pin PCB Header - 538-22-05-3041
Connector pins are 538-08-50-0114

I have attached a picture for reference. It shows both V1 and V2 SSCs.

Rick S

This combined with the extension cord case I mentioned (it they were purchased in bulk to drive price down) seems like they would be a nice water tight system.

Here's the thread where I posted those:
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login

There will be no exposed connections for me next year. Everything will be RGB and connected using enclosures as shown at the beginning of this thread. The extension cord connection end will also be inside the enclosure and will have a 3 plug adaptor block on the end. That will allow the local power supply and, if necessary, two extension cords from other enclosures to be connected inside the enclosure. The main extension cord(s) will connect directly to the house. No exposed RGB or main power connections.


Rick S

[DanHouston]

Yeah...I see what you are doing, I was just thinking in terms of getting the SSC back closer to the first node.