rain and Smart string nodes

[lightingnut]

I have not been on here for a while and am looking for an update on the smart string nodes and water tightness. I know last year there were people who were having major trouble with water getting in and shorting out their nodes and or burning up RJ45 male and female connectors.

I held off buying Smart Strings because of this. Has this problem been fixed? I don't want to spend lots of money and use up all my free time and then have water destroy my strings.

So is now the time to order or should I be looking at the Flex strips 5M long?

Thanks for your help.

[keitha43]

I had huge problems with rain last year. Ray let me ship all my nodes back after the season and replaced them with some rated ip68 which are supposed to be more waterproof (I was out the huge cost to ship back). They appear to have been filled inside all the way to the end of the outside so I think they will be more waterproof. But I won't know for certain until this Christmas season and see how it handles rainstorms. If it doesn't I may switch the following season. The main reason I am trying these again are-easier to replace a bad node and spacing between nodes for a megatree. My current tree uses 24 strings 42 nodes tall (ground to top and back down. 84 node strings) and I can run it from 1 smarthub and power supply. To use flex strips I would have to make it a little shorter (9 1/2 vs 11 1/2 feet) and use around 3 meters per string (9.8 feet). This would give me 90 nodes per string and would double my channel count and require a 2nd smarthub and power supply. And with the verticle node count being higher than the horizontal node count certain effect such as text may not look as good.

Sent from my Thunderbolt using Tapatalk 2.

[MrChristmas2000]

I had some trouble with the rectangles getting wet and stopping working. They usually restarted when they dried out.

I tried several soulutions during last season then afterwards cleaned the all up and sprayed them all with Clear Plasti Dip from Performix. Got it at Ace Hardware.

I put them out for the July 4th display and even after it raining they all worked correctly.

[Steve Gase]

I had a mixture of IP67 and IP68 pixels.  The IP67 definitely had more problems -- water was the biggest issue.

I had problems with my SSCs as well, the cat5 connections suffered shorts and corrosion.  I got a can of CorrosionX after the show and sprayed it on some items.  It was a thick bubbly slime, and I don't feel comfortable about putting it on my electronics.  I purchased the HD variety for marine use... that was likely a mistake.

I've decided to do a few things for the upcoming show:  lift the SSCs off the ground, and position the connections so that water runs down over the sealed side of the pigtail connector (not into the unsealed side).  For new SSCs that I build I will also have the input AND output wires run through the same end cap so that the drill holes face down.  The other action is to use press n seal over all exposed cat5 connections.

[rmp2917]

I did not have any problems with any of the IP68 nodes and we had quite a bit of rain and wind.

I did have water get in the SSCs and I had to add drain holes in the PVC to keep them dry. I also had a couple of the RJ45 connectors that got water in them and were shorting out. I sprayed the SSC and RJ45 connectors with the regular CorrosionX and I did not have any more issues.

[jnealand]

I have all IP68 nodes and did not have any issues last season.

[jnealand]

I have all IP69 nodes and did not have any issues last season.

huh?

Who is your supplier for IP69 products?  do you have access to prototype strings?

I think IP68 pixel are the only thing Ray Wu is shipping now.

You got me and my fat fingers.  I fixed it now you can delete your post and I will delete this one.  LOL.