OT- Programmable LED Rope Lights

kl8ton

Way OT

My MIL has commissioned me with outfitting their wagon (think horse drawn carriage headed out west to prospect for gold) with programmable LED lights.  My in-laws own a campground and pull this wagon around for the kids on holiday weekends.  

Does anyone have experience with any products that are readily available (not shipped from alibaba)?

I will run them all as 12v off a deep cycle battery or 2.   I was thinking rope lights all over.  She wants the wheels to light up too.  There are hoops where the "canvas" would be, but there is no canvas.  I would need them to be red white and blue, flashing, chasing all solid, etc.  Also orange lights would be required for halloween weekend.  I have a bout 5 business days to get this thing put together.

Ideas?  I can wire 12v stuff just fine, just have no idea about programmable LEDs?

She wants this thing to light up the night sky.  I am picturing hundreds of lights will be on this thing by the time it is all said and done.

Help?

hondabbq

I ordered up some from ebay to light up my 2 cabinets with memorabilia. They are on a remote as wel that can turn them on/off and change colours, speeds, and different modes. they had outdoor specific styles too. 

xfire_ATX

I have these in my house
https://www.sylvania.com/en-us/products/featured-products/Pages/mosaic-flexible-led-strips.aspx

They work on line voltage- they have scenes to change colors or a remote to do whatever I want.

DaveRichardson

The only problem I see is in the wheels.  Twisting and small wires don't go together very will in my experience.  Maybe the wheels can be backlit on a stationary item behind the wheel.

there are plenty of led bundles out there that run off a remote and will flash and cycle thru all their colors.  Might have to look into pairing this with a sound system that talk to each other (Christmas lights) so the wagon will "dance" to the music.  I know there are some systems that have a simple "ear" that listens and pulses and adjusts to various sound frequencies.  Typically runs off a small PC.

Sea2Ski

Check out Oznium.com. I have ordered several of their items in seperate orders.  I did a ton of outdoor lighting with their products, and I am going on 4 years now with only a few failures. I am actually going to be using them again when I landscape light my sisters place in a few weeks. 
Since these lights are designed to run off a car battery, you could use a smaller garden tractor battery which would be perfect for your situation. 

I have no affiliation with the company in any way. 

Sea2Ski

Oh - just saw you have 5 days to get this done.  Yikes.  Going to be tight on this. 

also - no matter what you will only need a garden tractor battery to run LEDs even if you overly pimp this wagon out. 

kl8ton

@DaveRichardson
Yes, the wheels.  I was thinking of a separate setup for the wheels like the kids get on their bicycle wheels.  Also, in my opinion, the wheels are not that important.  They aren't nice wooden spokes like you would want, they are steel wheels with radial tires, like a grain hauler's running gear.

I will check these ideas out.

Thanks,

DaveRichardson

Ummmm, @Sea2Ski - you just nailed it with this website!!!!  I foresee this being a favorite on my desktop soon!

Sea2Ski

@DaveRichardson you are welcome.
I stumbled across them and have had good success with their products. The pieces that did fail, failed within 24 hours of initial burn time and they were replaced. Their prices are very reasonable in my opinion, and shipping is fantastic. They even send a picture of your order being packed.  They have an active forum and people that really know their stuff. Have a question on how to light a wagon wheel? I am sure they will have an answer.

I hope if anyone orders, they have the same experience. I always hesitate to recommend a place because if that person has a bad experience, they associate that with the person making the recommendation. But I have had a few good experiences, so I thought I would pass it along.

Toxarch

I've ordered lots of stuff from Oznium and always had a good experience. Sometimes their stuff is back ordered so those might take an extra week or so. Some of the same stuff can be found on ebay or Amazon for a little cheaper. 

If done a lot of led lighting, from changing led colors in dash circuit boards to strip lights under kitchen cabinets. Even added color changing led strips to my egg table. The stick on strips are nice indoors, might be troublesome in the elements. I have some on the bass boat that have done OK but will have to be replaced sometime in the future. If you can find color changing rope light, that would be your best bet for most of the wagon. Call a local sign company and see what they have and can get. Most are switching to led back lighting. Might be able to get some good stuff from them locally. 
The wheels would be very hard to do unless they were isolated with their own power sources. Maybe rechargeable AA batteries?

johnkitchens

We used programmable rope lights for the prom this year. One of the parents picked them up at Ace. They were really nice, but kind of pricey! 

GregW

If you find any lights that require AC 120 power You may want to consider powering the lights off a power inverter. I used to put lights on a trailer and powered them this way.

kl8ton

Here is the wagon.  To "get by" for Memorial day weekend, I ran to Menards and purchased hundreds of feet of rope lights.  I didn't realize this wagon was so nice.  Last night was the first time I actually laid eyes on it.  It has hydraulic brakes, electrical system complete with battery, flashing lights (to allow travel down the road), and a courtesy light for those stepping on the back steps.

kl8ton

After a bit of frustration, here is the "thrown together" version to get by this weekend.  My in-laws liked this enough to where they may not want to spend the money on a cleaner installation.  If they do go ahead with a clean install, it will probably cost 10 times what this did.  I think I am at $140 for lights, $50 for the power inverter, and I am using a jump pack that they already owned.  I could use the batter the wagon already has on board too.  Thanks for all the ideas guys.  I will update this post again later this summer if they want to spend the money with a more elaborate setup.

My frustration came when after connecting about 150' of lights end to end intertwining them through all the rails and hoops, i decided to plug it in and test it.  And I needed some light as it was getting dark.  Well, the first strand was half dead, and not allowing power through to the strands connected downstream.  I lost about a half hour there.

Again, thanks for all the ideas.