One of the first orders of the day is to design and 3D print holder clips for the previous hot glued LEDs.  Hot glue wont hold up to the elements and temperature changes outdoors, so a mechanical support option is much preferred:

How things were when they arrived:

not looking so good! :O 

Now let's do some TLC:

^ adding in some very essential strain relief.  Its not perfect (those heat shrink connections were certainly not my work!) but it ill do the job well for now

ahh, now isnt that better?  Nice cozy LED digits all mounted correctly.  Youll notice the strips are sticking out in many places instead of being cut to match the slots - a choice made by the previous designer to save time I guess, and instead did not use those LEDs in the code.  A bit hacky, but it works I guess.

[To be continued...]