Once you know what you’re putting in your controller box, how do you lay out different controllers, receivers, power supplies, and other components?
Once you have your controller box and everything laid out and organized that you want to place inside you might now be wondering what the most practical way is to do so.
Organization
Ultimately laying out your controller box and doing it well will save you a lot of time and frustration as you set up your Christmas light display. That said, when you’re laying everything out and figuring out where everything goes into the different boxes how do you decide where to put all of your different items so that it will be as convenient and stress free as possible?
Accessibility
One of the most important things to consider when laying everything out is accessibility. You want to make sure that you can easily access every part of your controller should any of the components unexpectedly fail.
If an SD card needs to be replaced or a pigtail comes loose or any other number of things, you want to make sure that you can get to the part that needs replacing to be able to fix it.
Wiring
Another aspect of the accessibility component is being able to access the wiring in your box. When you are wiring things for your display, whichever side of the box has the holes in it is where you will want to make sure to place all of your ingoing and outgoing cables for easy access.
With the cables on the one side, you can then put your power supply into the lid and easily be able to connect to your receiver board while keeping everything organized and making sure there is space for it all.
Fans & Cooling
The next aspect you want to consider is your fans and cooling for your box. Some of your power supplies will use fans to keep cool. If your power supply is one that does have a fan you will want to make sure that they way your box is organized will not choke out that fan. You will want to be sure to create enough air space for all the fans necessary to prevent overheating even if you have to flip your power supply around to make it happen.
If you potentially live in a warmer climate or perhaps have difficulty with condensation getting trapped in your box you may also have fans on the box itself to work around.
Layout
There are a couple different options when you are laying out your controller box with pre-built boards. Oftentimes you can find a supplier that sells pre built boards with holes already drilled and you can simply piece things together as you wish.
You will want to consider the space you have to work with on each side of the box and decide what will fit best where while giving you easy access and enough room on both sides.
Closing
There are quite a number of possibilities for arrangement when it comes to laying out the pre-built kits. The best thing to do is to look for some inspiration, perhaps on some Christmas light groups, tutorials on our site, and other videos that you may find etc. where you can get ideas for your layout based on what worked for others.
Watching what others have done and beginning by buying pre-built mounting boards or even pre-built controllers will save you a ton of time and frustration and will help to ensure that your Christmas lighting hobby remains as fun and as stress free as it should be.