Old Way
Another time consuming part of putting up Christmas lights has been attaching dozens of clips to the gutter. Scooting across the edge of the roof on cold, sometimes damp shingles, and reaching down while leaning forward to the gutter is not my idea of fun. Then running and attaching mutiple extension cords across the gutter braces and up to the controller. There has to be a better way?
New Method
I needed to find a simple way to attach 1/2″ PVC pipe to the gutter. After doing some research on the ‘net I got the idea to use J-Bolts. Inside my gutter the supports are under an inch wide so there’s not going to be an issue hitting a support brace when hanging the pipe. Using three J-Bolts per 8′-9’ section of pipe worked nicely.
Results
I was able to hang and wire 51 feet (6 sections) of pixel pipe in 20 minutes compared to over 90 minutes of crawling around the roof in the past. In under 10 minutes, the left four sections were hung and cabled by standing on a small step ladder. There is landscaping in the way under the right side gutter. It’s easier to climb out a 2nd story window to hang those two sections from above. I positioned both sections in front of me on the roof. I wired the pigtails of the two sections together. Then I was able to hang both sections from a single seated position in the middle of the right side taking about 10 minutes including time to walk upstairs and climb out the window.
Making the Gutter Mount
The hardest part is to drill a straight hole through the round pipe. I drilled holes 18″ from each end and another in the middle of the pipe. If you have access to a drill press that will make it much easier. You can hand drill like I did. I found using either a cloth measuring tape, or cut a strip of lined paper to tape on the pipe, and use the factory stamping that runs down the center of the PVC pipe to center the three holes before drilling. I put nuts on the top and bottom of the j-bolt making it easy to tighten to the pipe in between.
Breaking into Sections
Making the pvc pipe sections between 8′-9′ long allows for easier storage and also covers the entire gutter in nearly equal length sections. I also accounted for the fact each block of pixels is 4″ long. You want to be able to divide the length of each section by 4 and also have 1-2″ left over for zip tying the power pigtail to the pipe.
- Gutter Left side:
- 4 sections 8′ 6″ long (102″)
- light strips = 100″ / 4 = 25 Pixels
- room for pigtals = 1″ (each end)
- 4 sections 8′ 6″ long (102″)
- Gutter Right side:
- 1 more section 8′ 6″ long (102″) (same as above)
- 1 section 9′ long (110″)light strip = 108″ / 4 = 27 Pixels
- room for pigtals = 1″ (each end)
TIP: Don’t worry about small 1-2″ gaps. At night the bright lights glow between the gaps minimizing their visual impact.
In 2020, I was in a hurry and used 4″ zipties on the J-Bolts to hold the extension cord. For next season I have purchased reusable rubber GearTies which work extremely well and are faster to attach than a ziptie. The ties can be taken off with a couple twists by hand, no tools needed. The GearTies provide a quick way to attach the EasyPlug extension cord to the back side of the pixel pipes to hide the cord better in daylight. I wire pairs of pixel pipes together and then wire to the controller. For the gutter outline I only needed one 20′ extension cord to reach the end of the far left pair of pixel pipes. The other sections used short 5′ cords to reach the controller.
See the other pages in the Build menu to learn more details about each display element or click here to read about the Pixel Controller Mount.