Permanent Holiday / Christmas Lights Install using Permatrack 

Really glad you found it helpful! It was more straightforward than I had expected. Thanks for watching!

Thanks for watching!

So glad it was helpful! Already half done my garage door lights. Update coming soon! Thanks for watching!

Thanks for watching!

Thank you! Appreciate the feedback!

I did! 😁 Hope I was able to bring back some fond memories!

Yeah, I have the wives of many of my friends and family complain that I am expensive to know! :) Thanks for watching!

Thanks!!

That's a great idea!

@@AnotherNerdyCanuck Thank you. They are RGB, and also the fence-post lights. So we do color combo's. Orange-Purple=Halloween, Red-Green=Christmas etc. We love color's !

When I first started looking into permanent lights, my thinking was very limited to Christmas, but now it seems there are so many possibilities! Thanks!

@@AnotherNerdyCanuck We have PVC pipes on the inside of fence for wiring. No solar here.

Wow! These are some great questions! The 3 wire cable I used was automotive and jacked for weather. The 14 AWG wire was speaker wire and not outdoor rated. However, almost all of the wire is enclosed in track, and not exposed directly to sun or water. The data wire is must enter at one end of the string and carry on. If you want to have the data go in the "middle" you would need to use the two separate data outputs to supply a data line to each string (however long). However, you can program WLED to treat them all as a single "segment" so your chase style patters will still look correct. I have two more videos coming out to finish my setup in the next couple weeks that should have a wiring diagram and some programming tips. Thanks for watching!

Thanks! Glad you liked it! Links to both are in the video description. Thanks for watching!

Thanks! Just a decoration to fill in dark garage. I took it down after putting up lights around the garage doors. Thanks for watching!

Thanks! Best of luck!

You can! Part 2 has the install! They are so easy to use, now that they are installed, and look great!! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-4OuoXc6ZMx4.html

Yes! It is done and looks great! Hope to have the video out in the next couple days! Thanks for watching!

Thanks! The first batch of track I purchased (2 boxes) last year had a small customs fee that was COD (around $40). I just purchased another box for my garage door lights, and the fee was just the $200 USD and no custom fees. I already had the lights before I decided to buy the track. When I needed more lights, I just wanted to stick with the same brand. Let me know if you have any other questions, and thanks for watching!

Appreciate the experience. I would love to order these….if they ever have stock lol. I’m pretty well prepared, and even have a dig quad sitting in my closet waiting…

I put my name on their email list earlier this month and was able to order some last week. You have to be quick to snap it up when it is in stock! I had to order some brown for the second batch, but since I paint it anyway, it didn't matter to me.

I don't have any wood on my house that requires painting. I suspect for painting you could unclip each section as you went, paint it and then reinstall?

It is the Fireworks 1D preset. Thanks for watching!

I think it really depends. You can occasionally get dead pixels, but with these kinds of lights, you cut out the dead pixel plus the one before it and splice in new ones. The new ones dont have to be exactly the same vendor. As long as they are same voltage and same "family" like WS2811. The reason for the one before, is you don't know if the pixel died or if the output from previous pixel died. I have had these kinds of lights up for 3 years and haven't had a problem.

As LED style lights, and in a slightly protected track, I am quite hopeful for significant durability. I think Phil answered the other questions very well! I am not aware of any warranty. Thanks for watching!

@@pbolduc thanks for the repair tip, I wasn't aware

I've had my solar panels (installed by a local company) for over two years and was thinking of doing a review of them. Maybe I will work on that video.... 👍😁

@@AnotherNerdyCanuck that would be great because I'm finding it difficult to sift through all the different companies out there claiming to be the best to install panels.

I have a couple other videos I am working on, but that is definitely on the list!

At 7:29 it is the effect called "Colorful" followed by "flashing color flow". Hope that helps! Thanks for watching!

@@AnotherNerdyCanuck awesome thank you! I have been looking and looking for something like a classic Christmas light pattern!

I run a playlist of about 10 displays with an average of about 120W draw at the outlet (measured by a smart outlet) and with a total of 835 lights (watch for my update video about adding my garage door lights!). So 6 hrs/day at 120W is about 720Wh, or 0.72 kWh per day. For a 30 day month that is about 23 kWh. We pay about $0.15/kWh, so ab out $3.45 CAD/mon. I only plan to run the lights about 2 months per year (Nov 12 to Jan 1, plus a few holidays through the year), so I estimate my cost would be $7 per year. I think you may need to check your calculations? Thanks for watching!

@@AnotherNerdyCanuck yes, I was basing it on a continuous 19A 12V 24hr/365days. as you mentioned the 19A PSU capacity. With LEDs in patterns, so not continuously on, and only running for a 24th of a year it would be much less. 7$ is much more reasonable. Even if you maxed out that 19A supply, and had all the lights lit with full rgb on in solid color, it would be $48/yr which is not a big deal. The different effects look cool. how do you program them with your particular layout of lights.?

@timsoft I don't do anything complex with the programming, and just treat the roofline as a single string of lights. I could divide it into segments and do more complex things, but I just pick some of my favourite effects, save them as a preset and then create a playlist to cycle through them. I then schedule that Playlist to run each night. I will include some of this info on the next video that shows the completion of my setup. It should be out in the next few days.

Links are in the description! Thanks for watching!

@@AnotherNerdyCanuck Where did you source the wire from? I'm not finding any good Canadian sources that don't cost several $100 for 100M. AliExpress has wire, but shipping is costly and I'm not convinced on quality.

I just bought it on Amazon. 100 m is a lot of wire! I used a 100' roll of 2 wire and a 50' of 3 wire.

I added a link to the power supply. It is probably overkill. Just added some more lights (total of 835), and maximum current is around 19A, and I have a 30A power supply. Not sure about the rafters, sorry. Hopefully someone else will have a suggestion. Thanks for watching!

Regarding rafters attaching directly to the gutter, I had a few locations like this. It required attaching the track to the bottom of the rafters. If the rafters are angled you might have to use an ocelating saw and notching them level where you attach to the gutter.

Thanks for the comment!

You do not need a separate power supply, just another pair of wires from your power supply. By using a thicker wire to directly supply power downstream of a connection, you allow current to bypass the first string of LED's, and don't overpower the small wires in the first string and minimize the voltage drop from that high current.

I did. I wasn't sure how much current would be traveling along them. In hindsight, I could have used smaller gauge wire, or tapped off the 14 AWG wire I did use.

😂😂👍 So far I haven't noticed a problem. Although, once it is set up and running, I don't monitor it that closely.

@@AnotherNerdyCanuck I was just curious. Because as you know here in Canada, we get the "do not turn turn the temperature in the house lower than 25 degrees Celsius, or we have to plug in our car all day and night, and also to run our car in the middle of the night for 30 minutes, if we want it to start in the morning freezing temperatures" . That good old -35 & -40 with a wind chill of -45 to -50 weather 🥶

In the LED Preferences section, add another output in the Hardware Setup (click the PLUS button under your first GPIO. Add the second one (3 or 16), and that should work! When I hook up my garage door lights, I will include the setup of the second data line in that update video. Thanks for watching!

@@AnotherNerdyCanuck hmm. I don't see any "hardware setup" under LED Preferences.

What version of WLED are you using?

@@AnotherNerdyCanuck I just updated to most current version. Everything works now! Thanks. When will your garage lights video be up?

Good news!! I hope to put them up next weekend and have the video out shortly after that.

Much appreciated!

Yes! You can program it to turn on each light to any color you want, including warm white. You can even have it use every 3rd or 4th light to space it out more.

@@AnotherNerdyCanuck yeah that's exactly what I want every 4th light

In your segment setup you just set the spacing to 4 and it works great!

I ordered 3 of them on Nov 28, 2021 and they were delivered on Dec 3, 2021. Thanks for watching!

I'm not sure what they are made of. Sorry! They are quite sturdy and fairly thick. Thanks for watching!

Sorry, just a DIY guy! Glad you liked it! Thanks for watching!

From PermaTrack.us, they come in white, brown or black. Thanks for watching!

Hahaha!! Thanks for the warning!! I wonder how successful I will be....

@@AnotherNerdyCanuck Tbf, it’s a great app to play with to make some great displays.. look up the XLights videos on here and you’ll see

Ok. Will do!

They're is an American site and a China site. Both times I have ordered from China.

THANKS MAN! @@AnotherNerdyCanuck

😂👍

It is certainly less expensive than having a contractor do it for you! DIY for the win! :) Thanks for watching!

Thanks!