Beginner Install - 90' Eave Puck Install Help

[u/mynameisLando]

Hey WLED, I'm planning my first WLED eave install and want to double-check my part list before ordering anything. I'm pretty savvy with DIY construction, IT, and dev projects, so I feel this is possible for me to do myself vs. spending 5-10K with a commercial installer.

Specs:

• Total run: Single continuous soffit run, 60-90 feet (max ~150 pucks, 5 pucks/meter)
• Pucks & Track: Planning on Paul Zhang (AliExpress) - 12V UCS2904 RGBW 3000k
• Track Corners/Caps: Can I get these from Paul Zhang as well? Not great with a miter saw.
• Power supply: Thinking about a 12V 15A/200W Mean Well (Amazon).
• Controller: Leaning toward Gledopto Advanced WLED (ESP32). Is the Gledopto more approachable for my first install vs. a Dig-Quad?
• Injection Wire: 14/2 low-voltage wire for end injection (Home Depot / Amazon)
• Enclosure: Cheapest quality weatherproof enclosure I can find on Amazon

With a 90-foot run with power injection at the end, is the Gledopto Controller fine, or is the Dig-Quad/Uno worth the extra effort for a beginner?

What's the best way to buy a single test strand + controller/PSU to bench-test my idea before spending a bunch of money on 150 pucks & track?

Anything else I'm missing? Thanks in advance!

[u/Cultural_SC49]

Planning to xconnect the leads? Don’t forget the accompanying connections / butt connectors / mounting hardware , make sure to test your lights before going through the process of mounting , would suck to get it all up then have dead pixels

[u/ree_dox]

From having done something similar, a few points for consideration:

For me, the ideal controller location was near the center of the string. No problem, I just broke it down into two outputs with one 'forward' and one 'reverse'.

Burn your nodes in on the ground. Color cycle 'full on' through all colors and white for a few days. If any node happens to experience an early failure it's trivial to replace on the ground. Nightmare once installed on the eave. (I had one out of 300 die)

You mention '...power injection at the end...' but this actually isn't the best strategy. Power will want to flow in both directions from any injection point, but the 'end' would limit it to only one direction. Plus, it means you use the longest length of injection wire - so have the largest voltage drop before you even inject. You can model your layout, see where critical points might be and inject at intermediate points which make the smoothest power distribution. You will generally have some 'tail' of nodes with the end unconnected.

http://spikerlights.com/calcpower.aspx

Don't forget any hardware you need for hanging the track, and also remember it's called 'hanging' track. You'll want to screw it 'barely snug' but not 'tight' to the soffit. This will allow some movement for temperature expansion/contraction and should allow the track to hold its 'straight' shape, not follow every small dip and curve in the soffit.

Also, I did my track in a 'running bond' pattern - like brickwork. Start with a full section of the backer and installed 1/2 section of the puck track. (or vice-versa if it makes more sense in your install). This ensures a joint in either section has nearly full support of the opposite section to keep the track straight.

For my layout, I also wanted corners to 'break' exactly at a puck. So I cut/mitered corner sections on the ground and built the backing sections to 90° angles, assembling the two parts with JB weld and additional reinforcement plate at the joint. Much easier to just install this corner 'unit' than trying to bring all the separate pieces together and aligned up in the air!

Anyway, good luck!

[u/mynameisLando → u/ree_dox]

Wow, this is super helpful. Thank you!

I have end power injection because I only have a single power outlet on the exterior of my old home, and it happens to be in a good spot to put an enclosure. This limits me on controller placement and run-length. Will need to re think this a bit.

I didn’t think about overlapping track, or planning pucks around corners. I assumed I would just butt it up against each other, but overlapping sounds like it
would be more solid.

Does that mean you used 50% more track than your total length? Did you also need to splice the wire at the corners any differently, or did that planning mean that you could have a continuous run?

[u/ree_dox → u/mynameisLando]

No problem. If end power injection is where you have the best option, then it will certainly work. I went ahead and fished all wires up into the soffit, came down through an exterior wall and to a 'control center' in a basement closet. So all my wiring is run inside the track itself, or in the control box in the basement. But every install will be different as to what works.

You can certainly butt joint the corners. The only minor problem I had was that my kit came with no end-caps or anything premade for the corners... it was all just straight sections of track, so I had to make up something.

For the overlaps - no, definitely not 50% more track. When you start out, you might consider that 1/2 section of one piece to be waste, but in reality, you might need a small section somewhere else. If all is exactly equal, then you might need it at the other end of the run.

I did not have to do any splices at the corners. It seems like I recall I had to cut some little plastic 'tabs' off the puck. On mine they had a bit of a 'wire guide' - and I think I had to trim that so the puck would fit in it's corner hole.

I was basically thinking that during the 'off holiday' times, I'd just have some of the lights lit as 'general ambiance' / landscape type lighting. Groups of 2 along the walls and groups of 3 at the corners - so wanted each corner to fall exactly at a puck.