Once you have your controller built, power supply and lights, you need to waterproof your stuff! A cheaper option is to put them inside a sealed Tupperware container and drill holes on the side to pass the wires through. I went with a standard enclosure a lot of people seem to still enjoy... The Cable Guard CG-1500 enclosure ~$26
SUPPLIES:
• Cable Guard CG-1500 ~$26
• 3/4" Strain-Relief Connectors ~$0.88 each
• 3 pin pigtails (Connect light strands to controller)
• 2 pin pigtails (Power Injecting)
• 3.9"x3.9" BUD Industries Air Vent ~$6.28 (for air to vent out of CG-1500)
• Screen Patches ~$2.77 (Allow air in, from pre-cut holes at bottom of CG-1500, and bugs out)
• 12V DC fan ~$6.89
• Temperature Control Switch ~$10
• 12V 30a Power Supply ~$20
• San Device e682 Controller
This is the completed CG-1500 Enclosure set up and ready to go. :)
Inside I like to keep things neat and tidy. The power supply and e682 controller fit snug side by side. I took off the cover of the power supply to mount it to the CG-1500 and then put it back together.
I extended the pigtails to the controllers with some 3 conductor 18awg wire.
...Actually, it was 2 conductor wire, but I threaded the 3rd through the short jacket to get 3. (Please ignore the wire color difference... I know which go to 12V, data, and GND.)
3/4" strain relief connectors keep the pull off the controller and power supply. The left-most strain relief connector is all for power injection from the power supply. The next 4 on the right are for e682 ports 1-1 through 1-4, 2-1 through 2-4, 3-1 through 3-4, and 4-1 through 4-4.
Lastly, to keep things cool, I installed a 12V DC fan inside the box to vent hot air out.
It is connected to a super cool, $10 temperature control switch that you manually set in degrees Celcius. I have it set that when the temp inside the box reaches 82.4˚F (28.0˚C) the fan switches on. When the temp drops to 78.8˚F (26.0˚C) it switches off.
I made this setup assuming I'd use all 16 plug-in ports. Turns out, I saved myself literally hundreds of feet of extension wires by reconfiguring my house lights and connecting several of my strings end to end. For example, I used to have about 146 lights on the top roof as one of the plug-in ports and another port for the 99 lights that stretch across the front top of the house. Instead I connected the entire top row as one string of 245 lights. You get into voltage drop issues but it is solved by power injecting every 100 lights or so. (More on power injecting here...)
All that to say, I am currently only using 9 of my 16 total plug-in ports which saves me TONS of wire and $. I was able to power and control my entire house with a 2 conductor + ground 500 ft spool (~$123) of LED wire and a 2 conductor 200 ft spool (~$38) for power injecting from 2 total 12V 30amp power supplies. (~$19 each)