Given up on tape wire

[akelly318]

I had installed tape wire electrical in my dollhouse last year and it worked fine until this summer when I moved and I guess something knocked out of place...I tried to fix it but I already wallpapered and I didn't want to rip everything out. Really sad because I spent time on the wiring but in the end I think it's best for me to just invest in battery powered lights. Oh well  I've removed all the wired lights in the house and will reuse them in other projects, though! 

[Motorhead]

So sorry to hear of this! Must be devestated! I'm currently doing lots if research on the tape wiring for when I'm ready for my arthur build.

[wormwoodz]

Sorry to hear  Did you find the spot where the connection is broken? If it's only in one room it might be fixable without doing much damage.

Unfortunatelly that can happen with tapewire while moving the house, was one of the reasons I opted for roundwire instead. I've heard people recomend using templates and double sided adesive tape to cover the walls where the tapewire runs to make it easier to do repairs when this happens, maybe something to keep in mind for a future project. Roundwire can make it a lot more messy to hide all the cables, both methods have their pros and cons I guess.

[L Swearengin]

I kept losing lights in one room in the Lily.  Lucky for me I was still building it.  I found the problem...the little brass nails weren't holding, so I hammered in the brads and it fixed the problem.  Think if I wire another house I will just for go the nails and use brads (things with the holes in them).

[havanaholly]

18 minutes ago, L Swearengin said:

I kept losing lights in one room in the Lily.  Lucky for me I was still building it.  I found the problem...the little brass nails weren't holding, so I hammered in the brads and it fixed the problem.  Think if I wire another house I will just for go the nails and use brads (things with the holes in them).

I thought the things with holes in them were the eyelets, and the nails were the brads.

[KathieB]

1 hour ago, havanaholly said:

I thought the things with holes in them were the eyelets, and the nails were the brads.

Yes ... they eyelets offer more surface contact with the copper tape, thus offering a more secure connection, although inserting them in MDF is difficult. The brads tend to wiggle loose if the house is moved, jarred, etc. The way to assure a solid connection is to solder the connection, no matter which type of connector is used. 

Eyelets

Brads

[amyole]

I am hardly an expert when it comes to wiring a house: I have only wired one house & it remains unfinished, so from time to time I check to see if it still works. It is difficult for me to think that I may have gone through all that work and when the time comes there could be problems like this. Even though I took pictures of where I put the tape wire, the thought of having to rip out the wallpaper to fix it is a real downer. I am rather enamored with battery operated lights. I like that you can put them anywhere without having to plan ahead - you see a dark spot in the house & pop in a light. Some of the battery-op lights are super expensive; the selection seems to be improving, though. I have only bought one "electric" light fixture for my wired house, and it was equivalent to a battery-op fixture. 

[Guest]

After reading about a lot of these kinds of issues, I've decided to go with traditional wire in my house. I think it's probably a bit more painful in the beginning but it just seems more straightforward to my questionable brain.

I'm sorry you've had this trouble. It must be incredibly frustrating and just make you sad. At least you have the option of battery powered, which is a positive. 

I've been wondering about battery powered lights. Is the base is incredibly out of scale due to battery placement? (I assume they are run on a watch battery in the base.. or am I way off base.. ) 

 

[akelly318]

2 hours ago, amyole said:

I am hardly an expert when it comes to wiring a house: I have only wired one house & it remains unfinished, so from time to time I check to see if it still works. It is difficult for me to think that I may have gone through all that work and when the time comes there could be problems like this. Even though I took pictures of where I put the tape wire, the thought of having to rip out the wallpaper to fix it is a real downer. I am rather enamored with battery operated lights. I like that you can put them anywhere without having to plan ahead - you see a dark spot in the house & pop in a light. Some of the battery-op lights are super expensive; the selection seems to be improving, though. I have only bought one "electric" light fixture for my wired house, and it was equivalent to a battery-op fixture. 

I've found some quite cheap ones at Minimum World. I think I might buy a bunch of these to make my own lights  Hope is not lost for me !!

[KathieB]

My issue with the battery lights is that the little switches are difficult to work with my aging fingers, plus having to reach inside the rooms ... well, with so many needed to make a nice effect, it would be a daunting task to turn them on and off. Maybe in a room box or shadow box vignette requiring only a couple lights, but a whole house? I don't think so.

[Mary11]

Electric lighting is a nice effect, but I guess my thing is how often would I light it up? I'm working on the Yorktown now. Almost finished removing all old wood, ready to prime the walls and then start laying the wood floors. I don't think, at this stage I'm going to light it. I want floors that are going to stay not ones that don't sit right because I couldn't glue them down all the way incase there's a wiring problem down the road. I wired her when I first built her years and years ago. She was lighting fine then all of sudden she didn't light anymore. I don't know if I'll go battery or non working lights. I think it comes down to, to each his own.

 

[wormwoodz]

2 hours ago, KathieB said:

My issue with the battery lights is that the little switches are difficult to work with my aging fingers, plus having to reach inside the rooms ... well, with so many needed to make a nice effect, it would be a daunting task to turn them on and off. Maybe in a room box or shadow box vignette requiring only a couple lights, but a whole house? I don't think so.

My feelings exactly :/ It would drive me crazy in any house with more than 2 or 3 rooms, if there was a system that would allow to remotely turn on all the lights at same time I would consider it (led lights are really nice!). But as I really like to be able to see inside my dollhouse any time of the day, without having to point an exterior light source at it, this would be the worst option for me. For table or floor lamps they are okay thou  

[Mary11]

6 minutes ago, wormwoodz said:

My feelings exactly :/ It would drive me crazy in any house with more than 2 or 3 rooms, if there was a system that would allow to remotely turn on all the lights at same time I would consider it (led lights are really nice!). But as I really like to be able to see inside my dollhouse any time of the day, without having to point an exterior light source at it, this would be the worst option for me. For table or floor lamps they are okay thou  

I used battery lights in my Garfield inside and out. The outside ones base glued onto the house then magnetically attached. The switches on some are a little difficult, I found that to be true with my not so nimble fingers.

[L Swearengin]

I've used both battery and tape wire.  I also have LED strip lights on the Beacon hill.   I have had them on 24/7 for nearly a year now  (I can't get to the switch lol).  I actually use mini string lights (Christmas lights) in a few.  It's not too hard to hide the wire and lights the interior.   And yes they are eyelets.....lol. my brain wasn't working.  Haha.    I attach "lights" ( non working )for looks. And use the strop or string to light the house.  I guess how you do it is up to the builder.

[akelly318]

On 1/8/2017, 7:30:16, wormwoodz said:

My feelings exactly :/ It would drive me crazy in any house with more than 2 or 3 rooms, if there was a system that would allow to remotely turn on all the lights at same time I would consider it (led lights are really nice!). But as I really like to be able to see inside my dollhouse any time of the day, without having to point an exterior light source at it, this would be the worst option for me. For table or floor lamps they are okay thou  

I'm only going to have 1 light per room and maybe 2 max as floor/table lamps so it's not an issue for me :)

[Ashlie]

There are tons of ways to troubleshoot your electric! Its really important to know where you put your connections- @KathieB is completely right about eyelets, they are the best option as they have more surface area. 

If your house won't light at all- 

Test your lead-in wire with a test probe by touching the tines to the tester. If it doesn't light, then your transformer or lead-in is busted and need to be replaced. 

If the light lights up, then your lead-in and transformer are fine. Now to move onto the junction splice (the little white box attached to the tapewire). Gently pry it from the dollhouse and plug your lead-in into it. Now press the test probe to the tines of the junction splice- If it doesn't light, the junction splice is busted, and if it does, replace it back into your tape wire.  test again at it should work.

If certain floors/rooms aren't lighting-

Now, for the fun part- determine where the disconnect is. Start at your junction splice and move along the tape wire until you find where the loose connection/ cut tape wire is. If you do not know where your tape wire was laid or have no record (worse case scenario) It is almost better to re-wallpaper the problem room then turn your walls into swiss cheese with your test probe. When you find It is a loose connection, first try just pressing or tapping over the connection with your fingers- If there is no change, place a small wooden block over the connection and give the block a good whack with a hammer.

If it is a cut (I've done this a bunch of times while trimming paper from doorways), you will have to gently peel the wallpaper away from that area. Patch over the cut with a piece of tape wire, matching blue to blue and copper to copper, and make connections on both sides, bridging over the cut. If this worked you can now glue the wallpaper back down or patch over it with a scrap of paper. If that did not work or you found no disconnects then test your lights by touching the plugs to your lead-in wire.

 

Battery lights can have a very bright, unnaturally white light, which I've found a lot of folks don't like, but other then that they are a great option. They take a lot of guess work out of lighting and are really easy to change and move around. You also don't have to wallpaper with them- theres no tapewire to cover! 

[L Swearengin]

The houses I've wired have only celing lights, that way all my wiring in on the floor so I just have to lift the carpet to find a disconnect.  When I want a table lamp I put a plug into the tape then plug in the lamp.  Might not be a perfect way, but who ever said I was perfect.  Lol

[akelly318]

On 1/12/2017, 8:32:30, Ashlie said:

There are tons of ways to troubleshoot your electric! Its really important to know where you put your connections- @KathieB is completely right about eyelets, they are the best option as they have more surface area. 

If your house won't light at all- 

Test your lead-in wire with a test probe by touching the tines to the tester. If it doesn't light, then your transformer or lead-in is busted and need to be replaced. 

If the light lights up, then your lead-in and transformer are fine. Now to move onto the junction splice (the little white box attached to the tapewire). Gently pry it from the dollhouse and plug your lead-in into it. Now press the test probe to the tines of the junction splice- If it doesn't light, the junction splice is busted, and if it does, replace it back into your tape wire.  test again at it should work.

If certain floors/rooms aren't lighting-

Now, for the fun part- determine where the disconnect is. Start at your junction splice and move along the tape wire until you find where the loose connection/ cut tape wire is. If you do not know where your tape wire was laid or have no record (worse case scenario) It is almost better to re-wallpaper the problem room then turn your walls into swiss cheese with your test probe. When you find It is a loose connection, first try just pressing or tapping over the connection with your fingers- If there is no change, place a small wooden block over the connection and give the block a good whack with a hammer.

If it is a cut (I've done this a bunch of times while trimming paper from doorways), you will have to gently peel the wallpaper away from that area. Patch over the cut with a piece of tape wire, matching blue to blue and copper to copper, and make connections on both sides, bridging over the cut. If this worked you can now glue the wallpaper back down or patch over it with a scrap of paper. If that did not work or you found no disconnects then test your lights by touching the plugs to your lead-in wire.

 

Battery lights can have a very bright, unnaturally white light, which I've found a lot of folks don't like, but other then that they are a great option. They take a lot of guess work out of lighting and are really easy to change and move around. You also don't have to wallpaper with them- theres no tapewire to cover! 

Thanks for these tips but I already ripped out my lights lol I'm more focused on finishing my dollhouse at this point which has progressed a lot since I took out the wiring 

[Elsbeth]

I've been happy with my battery lights. I too only use 1-2 per room, and often for taking photos...so I tend to move them around a lot. Plus, when I'm taking photos, I shine extra light on the house, so it isn't like I would depend on wired lighting. 

But you know what this made me think of? I have a 1960's Lundby house with a transformer...and it works. It is 50 years old!!!!!!!! So what are they doing that holds up so well over the decades...I got the house on craigslist...old dusty, traveled plenty...and the lights still work. Oh well, someday someone will figure it out for the 1:12 crowd. For now, I think battery lights are wonderful and flexible...and with even smaller leds becoming available for crafting uses, we can make our own now. Great potential.

 

Oh and for the lights that seem too white/blue, you can use a yellow or orange sharpie to tone it down. I also heard glass paint can be good, but I couldn't find any, and the sharpie did fine in toning down my ultra white light. Since then, the bulbs on the market have improved in color. I was an early adopter.