#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

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Cutting the wire groove

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Grove cut

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[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

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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

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Removing the pieces

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[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

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Large drill took care of this.

Wire route

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Wire route to switch box.

Hole

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[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

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

Sanded

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

Installed

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[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

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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

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Ready for wire....

Finnished

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[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

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Then I drill a 3/8 hole.

Drilling the hole

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

Test fit

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[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

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Wiring grove is now cut and wires are installed.

Wiring groove and wires

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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

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