#1

[lrrowe]

I used the grocery store purchased debit card for $50 and used most of it on my order for 4 items. It said not for international use and it worked. All four of my items have shipped. I will report back on them when they arrive.

[ghcoe]

Cool. Good to know about the card. My first order from them last year was with a gift card and it worked fine too. I received the first of my items yesterday. Arrived in good shape and all LEDS worked.

[ghcoe]

Led tail lights arrived today. Worked fine.

[lrrowe]

Thanks George for the tips. Yes wandering around the site was a challenge at first. I did like the very low price of the LED strips (similar to what you posted) such that I am willing to take a chance. I also did a quick review of the company on the internet and saw both good and bad stories. So I am taking baby steps.

I took the step today and ordered about $48 worth of lights and an IR Thermometer plus a belt. I did use a prepaid Visa card I bought with $50 on it. I was able to enter the order and the site said the card was accepted. But I skipped over the personal data they asked for in the "account" section.

Now we will see what happens.

I believe in buying "Made in the USA" products, but I do not think anything I ordered is built here. Sort of sad. Maybe the temperature reader is, I did not check.

I got some input today about Aliexpress that bothers me. I do not like to pass on things that I cannot totally verify, but in this case I thought it would be better to do so and share what I have.

A friend who owns a local retail business told me that his ordering from Aliexpress crashed his website along with hacking many other local business. He said his hacks came fron China and Russia. I asked how he knew that and he said the FBI got involved and traced it back to them. Now I know that Aliexpress is connected to Alibaba, a Russian company. (From Google searches).

I knew about Alibaba before I placed my order. That is another reason I used a prepaid CC.

Now I am in a quandary. Do I order any more? Do I go on the Aliexpress site again?
If I do want to try it again, I do have this old slow XP computer that I rarely use. Maybe I will dedicate it to Aliexpress. I can always reformat it if ever infected.

[ghcoe]

Well not too worried here. They are global and I think that if they were scammers they would be out of business by now. There are issues, but be smart and all should be good. Even E-bay has scammers and hackers.

[lrrowe]

Hopefully so. But for awhile, I will be careful and use my old pc because I do want to order some more stuff.

[ghcoe]

Yeah I hear you. Got my license plate lights today. Good stuff, made better than I was expecting.

[ghcoe]

Weather has actually been pretty good here the last few weeks. I did manage to get out and spend some time with the foamie. I have most of the electrical here now so I decided to do some electrical work. First is the wiring for the inside switch. I made a hot wire and plugged it into my soldering gun and started to cut a channel from the floor up to the switch location and then up towards the roof.

Hot wire

DSCF3388 s.jpg (88.73 KiB) Viewed 1959 times

Cutting the wire groove

DSCF3384 s.jpg (79.61 KiB) Viewed 1959 times

Grove cut

DSCF3389 s.jpg (111.28 KiB) Viewed 1959 times

[ghcoe]

Next was to install the switch box. I will be using a low profile switch box for the switch location and it will also be my hard spot to mount the switch and plate. First I marked out where I wanted the switch to be.

Marking out the switch location

DSCF3390s.jpg (95.39 KiB) Viewed 1959 times

I used the regular soldering gun tip to do the cut out (not pictured). Then I made another hot wire, a square shape to cut the back portion of the box.

Square shape

DSCF3394s.jpg (98.2 KiB) Viewed 1959 times

Removing the pieces

DSCF3395s.jpg (90.25 KiB) Viewed 1959 times

[ghcoe]

Looks like a perfect fit. Now to drill a hole for the wires to get form the groove to the switch box.

Test fit

DSCF3397s.jpg (93.66 KiB) Viewed 1957 times

Large drill took care of this.

Wire route

DSCF3400s.jpg (84.09 KiB) Viewed 1957 times

Wire route to switch box.

Hole

DSCF3401s.jpg (94.22 KiB) Viewed 1957 times

[ghcoe]

So to make the switch box permanent I decided to use caulk. Been experimenting a bit with it as a glue for foam and it seems to work pretty good. So I caulked around just the inside edges and the back portion of the box cut out.

Applying caulk

DSCF3404s.jpg (87.17 KiB) Viewed 1954 times

I sanded the sides and the back of the electrical box to allow a little more grip for the caulk to attach to.

Sanded

DSCF3406s.jpg (97.3 KiB) Viewed 1954 times

Then I just slid the electrical box in and pressed against all four sides to make sure I had good caulk contact.

Installed

DSCF3407s.jpg (80.51 KiB) Viewed 1954 times

[ghcoe]

Next was the drilling of the floor for the wires to come through. I did not cut the foam all the way to the floor to allow some water protection. I took a long drill bit and drilled in form the top down to make a pilot hole in the right location.

Drilling the floor

DSCF3402s.jpg (110.72 KiB) Viewed 1953 times

Once I got the pilot hole drilled from the top I was able to then use a larger diameter drill bit to finish the job from the bottom.

Larger drill

DSCF3403s.jpg (96.11 KiB) Viewed 1953 times

Ready for wire....

Finnished

DSCF3408ss.jpg (96.63 KiB) Viewed 1953 times

[KCStudly]

Cool.

[ghcoe]

I was able to do some work out in the shop today while it rained outside. I finally got my last LED's in from China and now it was time to figure out how to install some. The first install was the left side porch light.

I will be installing the porch light 3 inches below the roof line. I will also be installing clearance lights which are the same style of light. Three inches allows the lights to be accessed from the other side of the wall with a little clearance to the inside roof line.

First I mark my location with the T square.

Marking the spot

DSCF3438s.jpg (87.11 KiB) Viewed 1821 times

Then I drill a 3/8 hole.

Drilling the hole

DSCF3439s.jpg (86.59 KiB) Viewed 1821 times

And then the test fit. Looks pretty good.....

Test fit

DSCF3440s.jpg (59.85 KiB) Viewed 1821 times

[ghcoe]

On the inside I installed another box. This box will be the connection box for the porch light and the interior lights. I drilled a hole for access to the porch light from behind. A washer and a nut will go in behind the porch light to hold it in. I also drilled a hole in the now bottom of the box so I can finish cutting the wiring channel to the box.

Box

DSCF3442s.jpg (86.54 KiB) Viewed 1817 times

Wiring grove is now cut and wires are installed.

Wiring groove and wires

DSCF3447s.jpg (108.55 KiB) Viewed 1817 times

Now to repair the wire groove that will be exposed above the door. I just used some white latex caulk to glue the channel piece back into position. Before I glued it in I did cut off some of the back to allow for the wires behind it.

Grove repaired

DSCF3448s.jpg (123.24 KiB) Viewed 1817 times