Hanging LED Lights for the Patio, Part 3

Wrapping up the install by adding a DPDT switch to allow for more control options. The switch allows selecting between full blown home automation mode and plain old manual on/off control; all this is solar powered

Since these lights will illuminate the outdoor cooking area, which will be of great use in a power outage or other grid-down situation, the Google Assistant features will be of little use. Also, for sitting out on the patio on a warm summer evening, the automatic motion sensor control may cause the lights to turn off after some period of inactivity. I may add a "patio scene" to the control logic to get around this.

I always try to consider adding in grid down type of features into projects like this. All my Class-II lighting controls have a built-in switch to allow for manual on/off control with only 12V battery power:
https://youtu.be/FZx2Px5f-ZQ
Some of those controllers are hard to access if needed, but at least that option is there. With these lights, grid down operation just requires flipping the switch on. Considering the increasing fragility of the CA power grid, these lights and the outdoor kitchen may be getting to real use soon.

So far have been using these lights for about 5 months now, they are still working well. I've left them in automatic mode all that time.

Amico 48FT LED Outdoor String Lights with Shatterproof LED Filament Bulbs:
https://amzn.to/3CLlFpx
These light are spaced about 3 ft. or 1m.

The 15-light string was cut into 9- and 6-light strings and mating connectors added to the cut ends. Adding a mating connector on the end of each string allow for extending the string in the future:
2-pin low voltage lighting connectors:
https://amzn.to/3RpZppk
Be sure to get the right size and configuration of connector to match your light string. I ordered a set of the connectors that looked similar but were too small. Only then did I find out there are 2 different sizes. I'll be using the smaller waterproof connectors on my 4Runner when I replace some old incandescent lights with LEDs, they'll be ideal for that.

3 of the socket connectors were used to make a splitter to take the power feed and send it out to the 9 lights under the patio roof, 6 lights under the house roof and finally to the gas grill 12V light input.

Wire Loom Tools:
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2979358
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3127294

Toggle switch box:
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3660963

Other than the sting of lights and the weatherproof connectors, this whole project was done with materials on hand. Made use of the existing patio light circuit I set up some 7 years ago. Then by adding a simple toggle switch, I increased the functionality in case of a grid down event.

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Intro/Outro:
Louisiana Fairytale by Austin Rogers
https://web.archive.org/web/20170402222425/http://drfiddle.com/show_tune.php?id=94