Lights On Briarfield

We’ve had a couple of strong wind days, gusting over 40 mph. The most recent (today) has damaged the mounts for the large star atop the mega tree.

From the ground I can see the lower 3D printed mount has snapped off and the top bolt has also sheered off (circled areas in picture).

I’m hoping it will hold on until this weekend when I plan to bring it down for repairs. Once it comes down it will stay down for the rest of the season since there are only 2 weeks left. I will need to 3D print a new mount.

Additionally, the lightning storm we had several weeks ago fried two of the controller boards. The upstairs 16 port controller and an 8 port that controls the right side of the driveway. The boards technically work if you put them into test mode, but they no longer received any signals from the main controller which makes them worthless. I wonder if they could be repaired, which is beyond my abilities.

Luckily I had one last spare for the upstairs. I had to wait about a week for the replacement 8 port to come in. The upstairs control board in particular has been replaced 4 times, 3 of which were this year. I think its time to try a different vendor.