4 pin connector and cable on SSC

[JoeFromOzarks]

Carol is the manufacturer.   Our local electrical house carries that brand.   Any manufacturer will do though. 

I'm reminded that the star we pulley high up into a tree is fed with 150 ft of 4-wire 20 AWG.  The star has 60-some RGB nodes (with the SSC attached to the star) and it too worked flawlessly this year, its second year.

I'm not breaking any rules with this discussion, am I?   If so, I apologize.

One more thing, I keep all strings of nodes off an SSC to less than 80 nodes and that's only three effects.  I prefer to run less than 50 off a single SSC.

joe

[Steve Gase]

Sorry for the departure, but Joe's picture had me wondering...


Joe...


It looks like you are bringing the pixelnet signal (orange/white+orange) into this enclosure and not using the power from the SS (Active?) Hub.  Instead, you combine that incoming signal with power inside this enclosure to provide the 4-core connectors their SS power+signal.   


You didn't create (16) rj45 to 4-core adapters. 


I like it.

[JoeFromOzarks]

That's correct, Steve.   It's simply my hacked-up version of the Pixelnet splitter.

The RJ45 cable between the Smarthub and this odd looking mess carries no power.

The Pixelnet signal from the Smarthub is actually FOUR signals.   I took one of the RJ45 females (that came with the SSC) and put four RJ45 males on.   Each wire color pair carries one signal from the Smarthub.

On the Smarthub end I did the same thing, so the four RJ45's plug into four different ports on the SmartHub.

I'm sorry if I'm not clear in my descriptions, I'm not physically up to par and my brain is dragging because of it.

Please yell if you have questions.

joe

[JoeFromOzarks]

You didn't create (16) rj45 to 4-core adapters. 

There is another outdoor Smarthub which uses RJ45-->4-core adapters but I cannot get to it to take pictures, it's boxed up.

Those "adapters" use sets of both CAT5 cable AND the Carol cable I mentioned earlier.   The Carol is used for long runs, the CAT5 is used on the shorter runs.

I'm really sorry if I'm not being clear-headed, dang pain is about to get to me.   Again.

joe

[JoeFromOzarks]

I remembered I took pictures during the 2013 "breakdown."   Here is a picture of the "Master Outdoor SmartHub."   By "Master" I mean it talks to everything else in the show.

joe

[taybrynn]

I thought the original post by RJ was whether to swap the cat5 female from the SSC for a 4-pin connector.

To me, I don't see much value added in changing the cat5 connection on the SSC, since as David said ... the cat5 is cheap and easy and the
ends are already completed (no splicing needed).  I also like the cat5 cables because they have a little protection (vs. straight wire), but are so much easier to
pick up and store than extension cords ever were.  They are also cheap enough that you can replace them if needed or buy color coded ones
on monoprice.

I think for me, being in Colorado like Sean and David ... we just don't get much (if any) rain in December and don't have corrosion issues
in our dry climate.  Even the snow doesn't cause any problems that I've ever seen.  When it snows, the battery box and all these connections are
just buried and there hasn't been a problem ... except that rabbits sometimes find the cat5 exterior tasty for some reason.

Thats a wild looking DIY SS hub and enclosure ... looks like an electrical panel almost.  Its kind of confusing for newbies to see, I bet.

To me, I sometimes find the cat5 connections in SS HUB a bit crowded, so it might be nice to just have more room between jacks, but thats just
being nit picky.  I can also by some short cat5 pigtails
 and couplers and just spread it out if needed to make connections easier.

[Steve Gase]

If you are building from scratch, you can still get colored monoprice cables, stranded, and twisted pair for all of the reasons you have now.


Instead of purchasing the $1.57 pigtail, you'd get a 4-core connector pair for $0.70 from Ray.  (i've seen them as low as $0.57 with free shipping from another source)


When assembling the SSC, use the 4-core pigtail instead.
Cut off one end of the monoprice cat5 and splice on the other part of the 4-core pigtail.


You'll save a dollar, and get all of the other benefits -- including better water-proofing.




oh...  in the usually-dry Texas climate, 2 Christmas days (separate years) in a row were spoiled by torrential rains, resulting in trips on my circuit-breaker when I did LOR, and blown fuses in my smart string gear.  This last Christmas I did not put up the smart strings or LOR -- no rain.    Call it a coincidence if you like, but water-proofing is a must for me.

[JoeFromOzarks]

I thought the original post by RJ was whether to swap the cat5 female from the SSC for a 4-pin connector.

It is.  I was just tossing in my .02 cents worth.   

To me, I don't see much value added in changing the cat5 connection on the SSC, since as David said ... the cat5 is cheap and easy and the
ends are already completed (no splicing needed).  I also like the cat5 cables because they have a little protection (vs. straight wire), but are so much easier to
pick up and store than extension cords ever were.  They are also cheap enough that you can replace them if needed or buy color coded ones
on monoprice.

You are 100% right on, as usual.   CAT5 cable is the handy-dandy way of doing things and I approve of CAT5 with RJ45 ends completely.   I just can't use that method in my application.

I think for me, being in Colorado like Sean and David ... we just don't get much (if any) rain in December and don't have corrosion issues
in our dry climate.  Even the snow doesn't cause any problems that I've ever seen.  When it snows, the battery box and all these connections are
just buried and there hasn't been a problem ... except that rabbits sometimes find the cat5 exterior tasty for some reason.

At both my house in town, and especially at the lake house (it too is decorated with RJ's Smart String goodies) moisture is a HUGE issue.

Fog from the lake can creep in between anything and everything.  When it lands on something and freezes, it expands and next thing you know, stress and grief with an uppercase G.

I couldn't get by using the RJ45's on the SSC side of things.   I have no choice but to convert to Ray's waterproof 3-pin and 4-pin connectors.

I suspect if I lived in the desert, I wouldn't have had to go through all the trouble and effort I did.

The SmartHubs in both the CG1500 cases and the metal "Hoffman" boxes do not suffer from fog penetration, or moisture issues.  I don't "goo" 'em with any waterproofing.

Thats a wild looking DIY SS hub and enclosure ... looks like an electrical panel almost.  Its kind of confusing for newbies to see, I bet.

Some of the parts are for an electrical panel, such as the buss bars.    The "signal" connector was from Radio Shack, sure fits the bill.

I hope my discussion doesn't freak out the newbies.   Or the old timers!      I had no choice but to "adapt and overcome," that ol' U.S. Marine phrase.

joe

[travailen]

As I have mentioned before, I do things opposite. My power supply, hub and SSCs are all within about 18 inches of each other. The run from the SSC to the display is the long wire(the longest this year was 35 feet to two arches). After running 6 arches and 32 candy canes for my Christmas show with no problems using this method, I will convert my whole 2013 show to this arrangement. I considered replacing the Cat5 connectors on the hub to soldered wires to the SSC connectors but, I  like the flexibility I get from the Cat5 connectors.

BTW, I am in the Houston, Texas area. We have heavy dew almost every morning.  The heat from the hub resistor keeps the relative humidity in the enclosure down. During the 4 weeks the boxes were out, i never saw any condensation inside the enclosure. The enclosures were powered up 24/7.

I vote to keep the Cat5 connectors on the hub.

Rick S

[chrisatpsu]

so, to stay on topic - the carol wire, are the seperate conductors twisted? (like in a cat5 cable) if not, how long to you run the lengths?

[Steve Gase]

I vote to keep the Cat5 connectors on the hub.

+1





My only "improvement" IMHO is to use waterproof connectors at the SSC.

[JoeFromOzarks]

I vote to keep the Cat5 connectors on the hub.

+1





My only "improvement" IMHO is to use waterproof connectors at the SSC.

+1 and +1

joe

[frankr]

I have had several of the SSC dongles fry on me (6 to be specific, 2SSC and 4DSC).  None of them happened after I put just a little effort into protecting them from the elements with some glad press and seal.  This year I was planning to stock up on corrosion-X and continue using the press and seal. 

One other observation I had was that I never had an issue when the cat5 connection points were pointing down and the dongle was hanging down.  Not enough water got in to cause an issue in that case.

In addition, I currently have 6 16 port hubs and plan to add 2-3 more this year. Having a mix of connectors would make life more complicated IMO.

So my vote would be to keep the hubs as is.  There are still many ways for others to work around the connector if they want to modify it.

Frank

[JoeFromOzarks]

so, to stay on topic - the carol wire, are the seperate conductors twisted? (like in a cat5 cable) if not, how long to you run the lengths?

No, the Carol wires are not twisted, at least not in pairs.

I know the one run of Carol cable to the star "way up thar" in the tree is a good 150 feet long, or a little longer - that's between the SmartHub and the SSC.   I believe the run to the wire-frame Santa (rewired Walmart Santa) is about that long too, also Carol.   

At the lake house is a "blow mold" set of candles fed by a good 150 feet (each) of CAT5. 

Except for better flexibility of the Carol cable in cold weather, I really cannot tell a brightness intensity between the two different types of cables but I never metered it.

All SSC's are less than 24" to the first node, typically 12" or less.

Am I helping any?

joe

[JoeFromOzarks]

I wish to add one more comment.    The "tree hanging" box doesn't show any fuses in the power lines, it's an older picture.  I didn't receive the resettable fuses from Mouser until after the box was built and running the tree.  Since that picture was taken the fuses were added and I ran "fused" this past year.

I believe I've followed RJ's intent of not illegally modifying (or hacking/reverse engineering) his equipment.   After running RJ45's the first year and dealing with the corrosion I had to do something drastic.   Using the waterproof connectors was the easiest and most cost effective route for me to take.

joe