What to do with rope lights?

[ChadTower]

Somehow I ended up with 9 18' indoor/outdoor rope lights.  Some all red, blue, or green, some clear hose with varying colors inside.  I'm sure there is something amusing I can do with these.  Ideas?

[Well Fed Games]

Somehow I ended up with 9 18' indoor/outdoor rope lights.  Some all red, blue, or green, some clear hose with varying colors inside.  I'm sure there is something amusing I can do with these.  Ideas?

Are you near an airport? Write a message in cursive to planes that pass overhead at night.

[BobA]

Put them on a sequencer and make a nice Christmas display.

[ed12]

9=
1=m
2=e
3=e
4=r
5=y
5=x
7=m
8=a
9=s

ed

[Howard_Casto]

It's an interesting question.  On the one hand rope lights cover a lot of yardage and they are really good for making "forms" for the holidays  (in other words a wire sculpture lined with lights).  On the other hand they get really hot, typically look a lot uglier than their mini light counterpart and generally eat up the power. 

I think the guys are right on the gigantic sign.... that's about all they are good for. 

People also use them to line their boats or decks, but I don't reccomend that as you'll have to run a drop cord to plug them in and they eat a lot of power for such a use. 

[ChadTower]

I have been thinking about making some forms.  Here they would have to be metal to stand up to the weather for very long.  I don't know how to weld so any form would have to either have another type of joinery or be one long rod.  I suppose I could use plywood and try to seal the edges.  I have about 100' of main street frontage in my yard but I have 13' bushes along that whole side.  Maybe the best thing to do here is just wrap them in the trees in my yard as Xmas decorations.

[Ed_McCarron]

20' tall Mario.

[HaRuMaN]

Hang yourself in style?   

[NiN^_^NiN]

You can put some in the kitchen above the cabinets on a timer so you have a soft glow at night?
You can use it to line your driveway/walkway to the front door at night?
You can wrap it around the back of your tv and have some nice mood lighting?
You could use it under your stairs so you have soft glow?
You could wrap it around your mirror in the bathroom and have it turn on at night when you go to the bathroom so your eyes aren't hurt from turning the lights on?

They are just off the top of my head but there is a shitload you could do

[Howard_Casto]

You can put some in the kitchen above the cabinets on a timer so you have a soft glow at night?
You can use it to line your driveway/walkway to the front door at night?
You can wrap it around the back of your tv and have some nice mood lighting?
You could use it under your stairs so you have soft glow?
You could wrap it around your mirror in the bathroom and have it turn on at night when you go to the bathroom so your eyes aren't hurt from turning the lights on?

They are just off the top of my head but there is a shitload you could do

Those would be good ideas, but like most holiday lights they are meant for temporary use.  You aren't going to get many hours out of them if you use them year-round and more importantly, depending upon their quality they might be a fire hazard!

Just something to keep in mind... I could be wrong on that.

I vote for the 20 foot Mario now that it's been suggested. 

[ChadTower]

Or hell, just hang yourself period.  I've got plenty of rope I'll be happy to mail to you free of charge.

Stay classy, Jim.  


I do need to try some out inside and see how hot they get.  The instructions say you can chain them up to 200ft but then it has various warnings about heat that contradict each other.  One of them actually says "Do not leave unattended".  Erm... 

I sort of like the sequencer idea.  I might have the right colors and enough space to make an animated Pac sequence though Berzerk might be more my style.  I saw some metalform displays at an Xmas light festival last year that provided a lot of good examples of how to do stuff like use one string to form disjointed shapes (electrical tape over the parts you want blacked out).

[Malenko]

9=
1=m
2=e
3=e
4=r
5=y
5=x
7=m
8=a
9=s

ed

I like Eds suggestion, but you have to misspell MERRY as per his post =)

[ed12]

well it was off the top of me head
i tend to call it typomatic typo

ed

[NiN^_^NiN]

You can put some in the kitchen above the cabinets on a timer so you have a soft glow at night?
You can use it to line your driveway/walkway to the front door at night?
You can wrap it around the back of your tv and have some nice mood lighting?
You could use it under your stairs so you have soft glow?
You could wrap it around your mirror in the bathroom and have it turn on at night when you go to the bathroom so your eyes aren't hurt from turning the lights on?

They are just off the top of my head but there is a shitload you could do

Those would be good ideas, but like most holiday lights they are meant for temporary use.  You aren't going to get many hours out of them if you use them year-round and more importantly, depending upon their quality they might be a fire hazard!

Just something to keep in mind... I could be wrong on that.

I vote for the 20 foot Mario now that it's been suggested. 

That is a good warning I know a lot of the guys who do HTPC just use the old ropelights behind their tv witht he bulbs and not leds and they have been working for years with daily use but then again the quality of the ropelights they use is unknown

[Howard_Casto]

Or hell, just hang yourself period.  I've got plenty of rope I'll be happy to mail to you free of charge.

Stay classy, Jim.  


I do need to try some out inside and see how hot they get.  The instructions say you can chain them up to 200ft but then it has various warnings about heat that contradict each other.  One of them actually says "Do not leave unattended".  Erm... 

I sort of like the sequencer idea.  I might have the right colors and enough space to make an animated Pac sequence though Berzerk might be more my style.  I saw some metalform displays at an Xmas light festival last year that provided a lot of good examples of how to do stuff like use one string to form disjointed shapes (electrical tape over the parts you want blacked out).

Whatever you do we want pics.   


You were talking about needing to learn how to weld to do the forms but I don't think that would be necessary.  As long as you can find wire that is bendable you should just be able to bend the stuff into shape and twist wires together when needed.  I got out the reindeer today and while the nicer ones have a lot of welds the cheaper ones don't... they are mostly twisted and bent together in a hook and loop fashion.