[Khalid Bashir]

Thanks to everyone for the recommendations,

It would be great to find someone who has the ability to build a bespoke site which doesn’t rely on a “off the shelf” theme. I’ve had not so great experiences in the past with themes that become outdated or after the developer does some customization they become totally un-upgradeable, leading to a totally new costly website.

The hosting companies always upgrade their servers with latest PHP versions for security, which makes older sites which are not upgradeable totally without the any support from the hosting companies I.T.

[Khalid Bashir]

I think an hourly rate is more specific and tailored to your own business and its overheads, hence more accurate.

If anyone needs a great free tool to manage staff clock in and clock out and time for specific tasks and projects take a look at Time Clock Wizard. Great functionality 🤓

Employees clock in and out at their pc in the office, manager gets pings and can view remotely, can also calculate how much to pay for hours worked.

[Khalid Bashir]

Hi all,

Two cents worth:

I think your decision to charge should be “market led”

Are other companies charging? If they are you could too

If not, then you may be less called upon probably.

[Khalid Bashir]

Hi all,

My two cents:

Pricing jobs is a really tough one, what do you include what don’t you include.

Here’s a story for ya all.

My ex-accountant in his infinite wisdom (being a number cruncher after all) decided to buy an expensive phone system to re-appraise his billing while at the same time streamline the process. So he bought an expensive phone system and billing software which would now start billing for every minute of support to its clients.

So my accountant became my ex. accountant quite quickly, poor fella decided to retire a couple of year after that.

The most valuable commodity is your time. How do you bill for your time, if your project takes longer than you anticipated you are losing money by the hour, Software reliance will often lead you array, best rely on your mental computational skills and leave the rest to mother nature to nourish you!

Cost of Materials multiply by a minimum of 3 or 4, you wont go wrong.

Example:

Cost of materials £100

Sell £400

£100 for you

£100 to running costs

£100 for tax etc and savings

I learn that one from a builder doing my sunroom 🙂

The funny thing is if you check the above the £100 for tax etc is about right as a percentage if you divide the amount for the tax and NI into the sell price (£100/400=25%) which is not too far off 20% plus 7.5% N.I.

🤓

Correction:

You don’t pay tax on your gross profit, its paid on your net profit. The above will leave money left over for savings, or re-investing (happy days)

[Khalid Bashir]

Hi all,

I’m not a sign maker, but here is my two cents worth:

From a financial point of view, all you guys who have offered a price could look at your gross profit percentage (that’s your last years total sales minus the cost of total materials as a percentage)

G.P % Calculation:

Divide your gross profit amount into your Total Sales amount and then multiply by 100 = G.P %

If everyone posted this percentage you could average it to give you an industry average for how much you could sell the ACM panels and have peace of mind that its industry wide! 🙂

The person asking the question can sleep easy knowing he’s not over-pricing and not under-pricing his job 🙂

In theory at least

[Khalid Bashir]

Wow, that’s a great looking machine, probably need a fork lift to load the vinyl 🙂

Very impressive!

Congrats

[Khalid Bashir]

I’m very sorry to hear that bad news mate, I hope they didnt get away with any expensive tools inside. Its bad news. I hope you get it back quick, but I reckon it was stolen for the parts. The way things are heading with inflation, fuel price hikes and crime in general its not looking good.

I would highly recommend everyone considers buying a small tracker, I got a vodafone curve device, made for tracking pets, I can monitor the family car from anywhere, (Also keep an eye on the wife 🙂 LOL, You can draw a circle to create a zone around the vehicle, for your work and home, or even when you park in the town. As soon as its moved you get an alarm, cost £3 per month, covers you everywhere in the world.

Vodafone Smart Curve,

I hope you get some goods news David

• This reply was modified 2 years, 3 months ago by  Khalid Bashir.
• This reply was modified 2 years, 3 months ago by  Khalid Bashir.

[Khalid Bashir]

Ah, you should never strip pvc m8, thats your problem.

Extract from 3M Scotchlock Connectors Datasheet:

Scotchlok butt connectors
employ a specially designed, wire
insulation displacement contact
to make a reliable electrical
connection to each wire. A “livespring” joint is made by driving
the wire down into the “U”
contact connector. This simple
process displaces the insulation
and grasps all conductors with
a firm, resilient pressure, all in
one motion.

“No stripping of wire
insulation required”

Scotchlok
butt connectors include a
factory-installed sealant to
protect against corrosion and
seal out moisture. They are also
available in a dry/flame retardant
version for central office and
vault. A variety of sizes and wire
combinations are available to
accommodate almost any need.

Essentially the pvc insulation is used for the alignment of the wire into the stripping slit internally on the connecter. By stripping away the PVC you are probably crushing the copper strands below the metal plate inside, and once the pressure is released from the compression ie springback your contact is not as good for conducting and thus causing the over heating.

The final position of the copper strands should be in the slit and not compressed below it. The PVC sheared in this process and holds the wire in place.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 3 months ago by  Khalid Bashir.

[Khalid Bashir]

Eh up! I think there maybe a dodgy batch of connectors being sold in the country or cheaper unbranded copies. What a coincidence, I had a customer based in West Midlands, phone in asking whether we have “Genuine 3M” in stock. It appears he has suffered the exact same fate as Steven.

Rob’s advice makes sense, I can’t imagine nothing worse for work flow than having to come off fulfilling a new order, instead having to waste half or a full day fixing a daft wee connection with all the agro to boot 😡

[Khalid Bashir]

No problem Mark,

That’s sound advice from Peter, When using pliers the crimps do not compress totally due to the angle, so it’s a good idea to buy the Preset Tool, well worth it for less than a tenner. But if you have a mole grip they do a great job, you simply set the grip to the desired setting and you’re pretty much compressing with flat downward force, good as’ if not better than the Preset Tool 😉

• This reply was modified 2 years, 3 months ago by  Khalid Bashir.

[Khalid Bashir]

Hi Steve

Not all wires or gel crimps are the same mate,

Possible causes of Gel Crimps failing/melting:

1. Poor connection

The crimping action doesn’t always create the desired connection, especially when you are on site, or in a rush in the workshop. You may find when you tested the sign it was all good. But you can’t actually see the connection ie, if only a very small section of the outer PVC insulation was stripped in the crimping process then the conduction would be poor. This will eventually cause overheating and melt the copper strand/s which were conducting electricity. Its a good idea to check the gel all gel crimps are bedded flat to the top surface of the crimp body.

2. Overload using incorrect wire gauge

I hear a lot of the time, sign makers using speaker or bell wire for connecting LED strings together and more dangerously using the speaker wire to make connections of multiple LED circuits to a single LED Driver. If the Driver is not fitting within the sign, typically fitters will combine the circuits close to the LEDs into a connector block and then route a twin core flex to the LED Driver. This section of the wire must be of a higher rating than the wire used to join single LED strings (depending on the no. of LEDs and the load in total). Wires have specific maximum load amperage ratings which should not be exceeded. If exceeded the wire will most likely melt. Using gel crimps limits your choice due to the size of the holes in the crimps, hence always us the the thickest guage wire possible, from memory the gel crimp in your photo will take a 0.75mm CSA wire with a max 2.08mm outer diameter. 0.75mm is typically about 6Amp so the total permissible load at 12V would be 72W

Also be warned that cheap wire is Copper Clad Aluminium (CCA) this wire is has inferior conductivity to solid copper stranded wire, and hence more likely to melt. Cheap speaker wire is made from CCA

3. Gel Crimps

Unknown to most, Gel Crimps were designed for low voltage telecommunications use, These are not rated nor are they recommend for 12V or 24V signage applications. BUT we see them doing a good job all the same most of the time when used with care, as mentioned in points above. 3M UR2 and 3M UY2 are better to use, but again be warey there is alot of counterfeit substandard chinese knockoffs on ebay and amazon. I would recommend 3M/Corning packaged product only.

How many LEDs are you connecting to the Gel Crimp? Do you have a photo of the burnt out gel crimp in order to identify the cause from the points mention above.

I hope it helps.

[Khalid Bashir]

Sorry, in reply to your last point,

Yes I agree, about leaving their electrician to make final connection.

The open frame LED drivers where the screw terminals are visible should technically be installed by a qualified electrician and the final placement should be out of reach and placed within an enclosure. Simply leaving the open frame LED driver exposed but out sight could be deemed as dangerous as someone could reach for it and touch the 240V supply side.

Cheers

Khalid

[Khalid Bashir]

Hi Dan,

The LED strip you have in the photos will output light at an angle of 120 degrees, hence i would recommend you try spacing the rows of leds to suit an overlap of light on the surface, you don’t want to end up with hot and cold spots on the surface if the LEDs are too far apart. As a general rule of thumb the distance from the surface material to the backing board where the LEDs are placed should be roughly the same.

Joining LED strips .. you have two options 1. Solder using pre-tinned wire or 2. LED strip Connectors. I would recommend using snapfit connectors, no soldering required.

As for a good supplier….. try http://www.citi-led.co.uk a supplier who’s expertise lies within the sign industry. If you dont find the item you’re looking for drop Khalid and email he’s most helpful. That’s me by the way! Cheers Dan

[Khalid Bashir]

Hi Robert

I remember the good old days tubes and ballast! happy days… everything was so simple. Except the electric shocks working with 240V!

I think personally even after 10 years of LEDs going mainstream, there is still some confusion about how correct installation determines how long the LEDs last.

Cheers

Khalid

[Khalid Bashir]

Hi Dan

This is my first reply on the forum, I have not had the opportunity to reach out and say a hello to all the members yet.

I can definitely help with any LED related issues.

Typically, you connect the red and black wire from the LED strip to the + and – on the LED Driver Outputs (some times called transformer). You need be very careful when handling the open frame LED driver pictured with the screw terminals. High Voltage inputs are next to the low voltage outputs.

Your LED strip should state whether its 12V or 24V on the white PCB, use only the same voltage of driver. Using a 24V Driver on 12V LED Strips will most definitely burn the LED diodes a 1 or 2 minutes. The Driver power ratings are typically noted on a label fixed to the driver casing.

You cut a long strip into multiple smaller strips. The limitation being the shortest cut is identified by two copper conductor points. Typically on 24V Strips it is 6 LED diodes (100mm) and on 12V strips it is every 3 Diodes (50mm)

A scalpel should be used to scrape away the silicone cover in order to solder fresh power feed wires in to the two copper conductors on the strip.

If you do intend to use multiple strips then you simply connect these in parallel to the driver by grouping all the (+) postive red wires and (-) Negative black wires and connecting to the + and – on the output side of the Driver.

Single colour LEDs can be dimmed and made to flash with a 12v dimmer flasher units. This can be done by using a remote control or by a rotary knob.

I can get carried away with LED talk, its second nature to me in my work hence I don’t want to bore you guys too much!

Feel free to reach out whenever you need help, I’m you man when to comes to LED tech.

Cheers

Khalid

PS. forgive the grammar or my typos