Rope Light
Rope light is used for all of the lighted displays on grounds. We use 3/8" incandescent and LED rope light. The lights are mounted on metal welded frames. Each year new figures will need to be lit, some figures will be relit with LED lights, and most if not all figures will need a few sections of rope light replaced.
Watch the video below to the 3 min mark to get an idea of how you attach plugs and slice connectors to rope light.
Watch the video below to the 3 min mark to get an idea of how you attach plugs and slice connectors to rope light.
Important things to know about working with Rope Light:
- Our rope light can be cut every 18". Look for the cut mark (see photo on left) to indicate where you can cut the rope. DO NOT cut the rope light anywhere other than on a cut mark.
- While rope light is very bendable, it is possible to break the bulb inside if it gets crushed or stepped on.
- All LED rope light will look clear when it is not lit up. Non-LED rope light has a colored casing.
- Do not plug in the entire spool of rope light at once while it is wound around the spool as it can damage the rope light.
Relighting an old figure
One of your first tasks with rope light will likely be to re-light some of our older zoolights figures with LED rope light. This entails the following steps:
- Take a photo with your phone of the figure before you take the old lights off. If you need a camera - Cagney or Andy can lend you one.
- Take off one section at a time of the old lights, and follow behind with the new lights. This should make it easier to relight if you can just follow how it was lit before.
- when you take off a section of old, use that to measure how much of the new rope light you need to cut.
- Cut your new section and then attach the plug or connector to make sure it works. This is much easier to check and fix before you have zip tied everything down!
- Use white zip ties to attach the rope light to the figure. Place a zip tie every few inches, closer on turns and angles. Make them tight, but not so tight that they will crush the lights or easily break when the figure is moved around.
- Reuse connectors if you can, if they look black or rusted, use a new connector. Do not throw the old connectors away unless you know for sure they don't work, as we may need to use them for repairs in a pinch.
- Save the old rope light that still works in boxes, sorted by color
- put old rope light that doesn't work in a separate location/box so it can be recycled.
- Be sure to test your final product by plugging it in.
Lighting a new figure
All new figures will be lit with LED Rope light. New figures come as metal frames that we have a welder build from sketches that we send him. The wire frames should have all the lines needed for the figure, and we just have to attach the rope light.
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Fixing sections that go out
Before figures go out on grounds:
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You will also end up fixing figures again once they are out on grounds, sometimes the act of moving them into position causes more pieces to go out.
We also get the occasional piece that is older and seems to have a piece go out if you look at it wrong, so once figures are out on grounds, we will be checking them once again for any repairs needed.
Lastly during ZooLights we will need one or two people to come in a couple days a week to make repairs to pieces that go out during the event.
We also get the occasional piece that is older and seems to have a piece go out if you look at it wrong, so once figures are out on grounds, we will be checking them once again for any repairs needed.
Lastly during ZooLights we will need one or two people to come in a couple days a week to make repairs to pieces that go out during the event.