# Plug-n-Play LED Lighting System



## GhoulishCop (Sep 25, 2009)

I was tired of trying to hook up my LED lights every Halloween with my homemade "vampire clips" that were based on the designs by niblique71. They were easy to reroute lights if you needed to, but attaching them to the landscape wire was a hassle for me.

So at a recent NJ M&T meeting, hpropman showed me a system he designed to quickly connect and disconnect lights using RCA jacks. I liked it so much I built a bunch of them over the past two days and I made a video of the process to help out others that might also want a simple connector system.






What I think I like best (other than the ease and convenience) is that it's a sleek solution to a common problem. Again, the design is hpropman's, who is an electrical genius and we're lucky to have him as a resource here in NJ.

Rich


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## niblique71 (Dec 2, 2009)

Nice work Rich! That setup should work great for your needs


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## dionicia (Aug 4, 2007)

I think I'm going to rework my spots to do this too. Thanks for posting.


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## IMU (Apr 8, 2009)

Hey Ferb ... I know what we're going to do today!


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## BobC (Aug 23, 2005)

Rich, I like it....also you have a potty mouth...lol


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## cagedpsycho27 (Jun 10, 2012)

RCA hook ups work as power? I never knew that. 
This is a great idea, I plan on modifying it a little to add an on/off switch and a coaxial input for a 12v laptop cord. Think this should work?


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## GhoulishCop (Sep 25, 2009)

cagedpsycho27,

hpropman says he actually connects the boxes serially and has just one line running to his power supply. Whether that means a coax input would work I don't know, but it seems like it should.

Rich


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## BioHazardCustoms (Aug 5, 2009)

Awesome project, Rich! Looks very easy to accomplish!


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## Haunted Spider (Sep 6, 2010)

Ok, stupid question here I am sure but..... What if I bought the RCA jack box, soldered it together with the connections, and then bought some cheap 15 foot RCA cables with 5 component cables. Each of those would have 2 wires in them a piece and I could cut the cable in half so I would have 10 individual 7.5 foot pieces that I could then solder the cut end into my LED lights. I mean shoot, i can get a 15 foot cable on monoprice for 7 dollars and 50 cents. So each one comes out to 75 cents. Does a RCA connector cost less than that if you solder it yourself? (granted I have to factor in shipping but I will be getting other things as well)

Edit 

( So the Composite RCA cables uses 3 coax cables and 2 RCA audio. I think the composite would be difficult, especially with the coax. But monoprice also has a single RCA audio cable , 12 foot, and 89 cents. So that could make 2 audio cables, and if you add up 5 of those it is cheaper yet than the composite version. Shipping to me adds 8 dollars on 20 cables. So it comes out to 24 dollars for 40 jacks and 6 foot of audio cable attached to each. That would be around 60 cents each and save two solder points and have a sealed end with no leaks for moisture.) Now to make sure it is copper inside and not aluminum.


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## Haunted Spider (Sep 6, 2010)

I tried searching for the jack box and the connectors but can't seem to locate them. Do you have pricing on where you got them and how much?

Edit. I answered part of my own question. the Jacks sold by Radioshack are called Phono jacks. and you can get a phone jack board there for 4 dollars. Ok, at least I know where to get one now. Thanks google


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## Haunted Spider (Sep 6, 2010)

I want to thank GhoulishCop for helping me to start my first project this year for Halloween. The RCA cables can be used. I bought 20 from Monoprice, dual audio RCA 25 foot each, for 1.70 a piece. That is less than 50 cents for a completed end, and 12 foot length, or a 20 and 5 foot length. Each cable gives you 4 leads.

The RCA cables are a center stranded copper, surrounded by plastic, surrounded by the second wire also stranded, coated in the plastic casing. It can be braided together and soldered to each side of the LED (resistor in there too.) I hooked up an end of a RCA cable I had laying around to a series of lights I had last year and the cable worked just fine (waiting for the others to get shipped in).

Also A thought for those doing the Jack board idea. You can pick up a Speaker wire connection board with up to 8 ports,(4 sets of wires) and solder your leads from the Computer power supply to it. That way you have can put 4 of the jack board box wire connections into the Speaker board for quick release and less wire twisting together. I set one up this evening with 4 of GhoulishCops board assemblies and it lit up all 4 just fine.


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## mrklaw (Nov 11, 2005)

thanks for sharing this. We had a guy in our haunt group do a presentation on using RJ-54 jacks and old Cat-5 or even Cat-3 ethernet cabling to run power, audio and other low-voltage data around in his haunt.


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## GhoulishCop (Sep 25, 2009)

Spiderclimber,

Great innovation there! I'm still planning on building a few more of these so I'm going to incorporate some of your ideas into the plan. Thanks!

Rich


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## Haunted Spider (Sep 6, 2010)

Hey thats what this forum is about, sharing and expanding ideas for people who just have no idea how to do it on their own. Combine a few minds and the things just start taking off. 

Crossing my fingers my cables come in today so I have all day on the 4th to work on them while off work


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## Horror Roots Productions (Jul 8, 2012)

What are you using for power?


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## jaege (Aug 23, 2009)

I do not mean to step on the OPs toes, but an excellent power source is an old computer power supply. It will give you all the amperage you could want at both 5 and 12 volts. I have a couple I use for just this purpose. Of course, if you do not have an old computer you can buy a new power supply for under 40 dollars. Beats the heck out of a million wallwarts.


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## Horror Roots Productions (Jul 8, 2012)

jaege said:


> I do not mean to step on the OPs toes, but an excellent power source is an old computer power supply. It will give you all the amperage you could want at both 5 and 12 volts. I have a couple I use for just this purpose. Of course, if you do not have an old computer you can buy a new power supply for under 40 dollars. Beats the heck out of a million wallwarts.


I thought thats what he said he was using in his video, I wasnt quite sure. Could you provide some information or pictures on how to wire up LED's to a computer power supply?


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## Haunted Spider (Sep 6, 2010)

I don't want to thread hijack here but to answer Roots question, the LEDs by most of the haunters on this site are powered by a computer power supply. If you tear one out of a computer there are all kinds of wires coming out of it. You need a voltage meter to be sure but basically, you need to take one black wire and the green wire and tie them together. This creates the connection the supply is looking for. Then the yellow is normally 12 volt, so if you have 12 volt leds, use the yellow wire on one side and another black on the other of your LED with the resistor in place and there you go, power. It really isn't much more complicated than that but youtube a couple of videos on how to do it to make sure. The nice thing about the power supply is it has a built in fault circuit so if you cross the wires, it will short out inside and shut down for a minute or so. Sometimes you have to unplug it and plug it back in for it to work again. Nice feature to keep you from frying yourself that the wall warts don't have.


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## halstaff (Nov 18, 2009)

Here's the tutorial I've used to convert a computer power supply - http://web2.murraystate.edu/andy.batts/ps/powersupply.htm


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## Horror Roots Productions (Jul 8, 2012)

Thanks fellas! Ive been looking up LEDs on ebay and found lots of cool color changing capable spots and floods, but most of them arent wired to plugs (im guessing because its all chinese made, and thus makes it more universal to customers in different countries?) so ill check that tutorial out. 

Thanks again,
H.R.P.


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## Cole&Jacksdad (Jan 20, 2011)

Horror Roots Productions said:


> Thanks fellas! Ive been looking up LEDs on ebay and found lots of cool color changing capable spots and floods, but most of them arent wired to plugs (im guessing because its all chinese made, and thus makes it more universal to customers in different countries?) so ill check that tutorial out.
> 
> Thanks again,
> H.R.P.


I get my LED's pre wired for 12 volts on this site.
http://www.niktronixonline.com/

Pretty much hook them up to 12 volts and you have light.


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## Haunted Spider (Sep 6, 2010)

I second the niktronix buy. They run about 50 cents each but are pre wired red and black and the resistor is already in place. If you are new to LEDs here is something to note. a blue and green LED are very bright compared to Red and Amber. You will need 10 red to overpower a green, or even equal it. So if you want everything red, plan on several more than you thought. I personally like 3 red and 1 blue to make an eerie purplish. Out of the 200 I ordered so far only 2 don't work.


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## Cole&Jacksdad (Jan 20, 2011)

They just changed names and web site. Here is the new web site.
http://lighthouseleds.com/


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## abaron13 (Sep 25, 2011)

A question about this awesome setup: how to make the jack box itself water resistant? Mine will end up sitting in my cemetery for over a month and I don't want anything to short.


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## hpropman (Jul 27, 2008)

you can mount the box inside those Plastic food storage containers see the link below. You can mount the power distribution box inside the Plastic container. I would mount the box inside the the container to the bottom of the container (doubled sided tape works well), run the cables through the lid, silicone the lid on to the contaier and mount the box upside down (the lid down and the bottom of the container up), I would mount some feet to the lid to hold the plastic container off the ground.

http://www.glad.com/products/food-storage/containers/?gclid=CKeR1ZqilrICFQgRNAodmC4AHg


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## [email protected] (Aug 25, 2012)

The clunky vampire clips always struck me as the weak point in an otherwise elegant design. This new option is neater and sweeter. Bravo guys!


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## niblique71 (Dec 2, 2009)

I'm liking this concept more and more, but combined with the vampire clips (a Hybrid) like Joe suggested. I plan on using the Vampire clips to create "Nodes" or "Zones" with Joes Boxes. So his boxes will be connected to my main wire (Landscape wire) with the Vampire clips I designed. I will be building a whole new round of lights this year using a new supplier and a combo of Joes new LED Spotlights and my system.



[email protected] said:


> The clunky vampire clips always struck me as the weak point in an otherwise elegant design. This new option is neater and sweeter. Bravo guys!


Actually the Vampire clips aren't that clunky at all. With a single small piece of wood it is Easy to press the clips into the Main wire using the wood as a "flat surface" of sorts to press into. It still offers a flexibility that a "Plug-in Node" system can't. And Just for the record the Vampire clips survived 60 continuous days this year without one single failure or disconnect, including rain and 100mph winds from Hurricane sandy. I use them because there is over 600' of main wire which would be difficult to achieve with a straight "node" system.

With that said I can now use the Vampire clips to Joes Boxes and have "Zones" with RCA LED Lights. I'm really looking forward to making use of the Hybridized setup next year.

Great work everyone.


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## [email protected] (Aug 25, 2012)

Sorry.... "Clunky" was a poor choice of words. I just meant that the rest of the design is so sleek and "store-bought" looking that by comparison the vampire clips looked homemade.


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## Haunted Spider (Sep 6, 2010)

Hey there Ghoulish. 

I put together an instructable on a plug and play system of lights using hpropmans, AllenH, Nibliques, and your design all sort of conglomerated into one. I am going to post a link to the instructable in the prop how to but wanted to give you a heads up. I was definitely not trying to steal your design or any of the others, just giving a detailed written break down of what to do with pictures for others to follow.


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## GhoulishCop (Sep 25, 2009)

HS,

Sharing and expanding is what we all do. Terrific job on your lighting system!

Rich


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## Haunted Spider (Sep 6, 2010)

Thanks for the compliments. Just didn't want you feeling like I stole your thunder. I took a lot of what you did from your video and put it into my instructable. The jack board idea is genius. I just like the RCA hook up for everything, as well as the prewired vs messing with resistors.


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## mroct31 (Nov 10, 2007)

Is the speaker terminal plate on the computer power supply able to power more than one phono jack box? As it has 8 jacks does it get set up to power say 4 jack boxes?


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## Haunted Spider (Sep 6, 2010)

It does. The speaker plate can power 4 sets of wires, one red and one black for each leg of the cable. 

So 1 speaker plate powers 4 jack boxes for a total of 32 inputs into the system. 

The catch is you need to know how much energy you are pulling. The giant floods I used pull about an amp each, so you could only put the number of those per the rating on your supply. My supply is 15A so I could run 15 of them, but I could run hundreds of the smaller LEDs. In my display I ran 5 of the giant floods, and 30 of the little lights (multiple on one plug in) and did just fine. Never shorted out once.


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