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Anyone else building a frame for a 12 ribbon CCR tree?


Frank Farmer

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Pictures :)

 

The sled that holds up the tree & spider web, the front 2x6 is held on with galvanized steel corner brackets with 6 bolts each.  The vertical 2x6's at the far end will have controllers mounted to them, and one gets the radio antenna. 

2013-09-26%2018.25.37.jpg

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Here's pictures of the test hang of my Franken Treetm  and my Franke webtm.   :P 

 

The tree will get Technicolor Pixels this year with 3.5" spacing.  Alas the web will have to wait until next year for RGB, this year it gets strands of orange & purple LEDs, since my shipment had 5 bad strings.  I ordered extras but am still one string short to be able to pull off both this year. 

 

The tree still needs a pair of triangle supports to keep it from shifting and looking lopsided.

 

You can see the "sled" doesn't hang over the roof much 2" to  3" is all.  The rest of the 8' serves as a reverse lever.  I did tie the rear of the sled to eye bolts on the other side of the roof for safety but so far the lines are slack.   I still need to add some sort of backup system so that if the main rope were to fail the whole monstrosity doesn't some crashing down. 

 

Here's the tree:

 

2013-09-28%2017.55.42.jpg

 

and the web:

2013-09-29%2016.15.03.jpg

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Wow, the frames look great.  Can't wait to see them lit.

What is the diameter of your web frame?

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Wow, the frames look great.  Can't wait to see them lit.

What is the diameter of your web frame?

 

The web is about 12' 6" in diameter,  the spokes are 6' long but as you can see they don't meet in the center.

 

Thank you for the inspiration. 

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 I still need to add some sort of backup system so that if the main rope were to fail the whole monstrosity doesn't some crashing down. 

<snip>

 

Here is what I would do for your backup system.  I am assuming that at the peak of the roof on the underside is a beam (likely at least a 2 x 6).  I would drill a hole through that beam.  Put a fairly large eye bolt through the hole with a nut and large flat washers on both sides of the beam.  Take a piece of heavy steel cable with loops at both ends and run the cable through some part of the tree or web and connect both ends of the cable to the eye bolt using cable disconnects.  Have the cable with a little slack, but not very much.  This is a variation on what we do with stage lights.  Optionally you could put in 2 eye bolts in opposite directions.  I would put the bolt(s) through the beam as close to the top as you do it and still have it usable for the purpose and fairly close to the wall of the house.

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Here is what I would do for your backup system.  I am assuming that at the peak of the roof on the underside is a beam (likely at least a 2 x 6).  I would drill a hole through that beam.  Put a fairly large eye bolt through the hole with a nut and large flat washers on both sides of the beam.  Take a piece of heavy steel cable with loops at both ends and run the cable through some part of the tree or web and connect both ends of the cable to the eye bolt using cable disconnects.  Have the cable with a little slack, but not very much.  This is a variation on what we do with stage lights.  Optionally you could put in 2 eye bolts in opposite directions.  I would put the bolt(s) through the beam as close to the top as you do it and still have it usable for the purpose and fairly close to the wall of the house.

 

Thanks, I did't want to have to get on a ladder 2 stories up to do any of this, so I modified your advice and used some aircraft cable to capture the tree/web and connected that to eye screws in the 2x6 eves on the opposite end of the roof.  Same idea but much longer cable, which fortunately was already at my disposal. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Well, here is the first picture of my aluminum frame.  I think I first started thinking about actually building one in July.  I must say this has not been a 'simple' project but has required lots and lots of problem solving as I have progressed. 

 

I decided to go with 1/8 inch thick 3/4 X 3/4 inch aluminum tubing and found a local (Seattle) source and placed my order.  My wife and I strapped 15 sections of 21 ft lengths over the cab or our pick-up and carefully navigated to our home in west Seattle.  I found a nice cutoff tool at our local Harbor Freight and cut the sections into the designed lengths.  I then set up my drill press and drilled lots and lots of holes.  I think Frank has thoroughly explained how it all goes together (Thanks Frank!!!).

 

I decided to mount my frame on my 20 ft. length of 1-3/4 inch diameter which has provided the support for my Ham Radio antenna.  Using the basic design provided by Frank, I attached the three cross members to the mast using three U-Bolts.  I was very concerned that the weight of the frame would prevent me from erecting it on my mast.

 

post-11738-0-34461300-1382575421_thumb.j

 

At the base of my mast I have a concrete foundation block with a U-mount that's designed to accommodate a 4X4 timber.  I have a pivot using a bolt that spans the U-mount and can raise and lower the mast by tilting in on the pivot.  So in the past few days I have literally built the frame in place (I assembled and drilled the frame in my driveway in September) and was finally successful in raising it.  Initially I was able to raise it with my wife pulling on a pulley line and me walking it up and presto, up it went.  Yes it was heavy but it did go up.

 

So here is my first picture of the frame.  The CCR's will be tied to it at a later time and I have built two boxes to contain the controllers and a power supply, almost identical to Frank's (again, thanks Frank!).

 

Its been fun starting with the design, acquisition of the aluminum and hardware, laying it out and drilling the holes (I only made two mistakes) but am thoroughly relieved to know that I can actually erect it.

 

:D

 

Now off to the training session in Portland this Saturday and then spending a month sequencing.

 

Ken in West Seattle

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Great job!

The star looks good too. I think you will have less problems with the wind than I do with my solid star.

Frank

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Great post everybody, It's too late for this season but I would love to start preparing for next year.  I will be building frame, thanks for the drawings Frank, but my question is can you replace the individual controllers on the ccr's with the CMB24RGB controller. This has a total of 24 channels so I would need 2 of them( 3 channels per ccr) Would the sequences work with this set up that you sell or do I have to use the individual controller on eact ccr?

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Great post everybody, It's too late for this season but I would love to start preparing for next year.  I will be building frame, thanks for the drawings Frank, but my question is can you replace the individual controllers on the ccr's with the CMB24RGB controller. This has a total of 24 channels so I would need 2 of them( 3 channels per ccr) Would the sequences work with this set up that you sell or do I have to use the individual controller on eact ccr?

That will not work if you want to do the 12CCR animated sequences with any level of detail/graphics as seen on YouTube videos.   The CMB24RGB controller will do 24 channels = 8 RGB pixels x 3 channels/pixel.  The 12 CCR trees I have seen need 1800 channels = 12 CCRs x 50 pixels/CCR x 3 channels/pixel. 

Your proposal would have would have 2 CMB24RGB controllers = 48 channels = 4 Channels per each light strand in the tree = you could only use 3 of the channels to light up the whole strip in any single color.  

Hopefully I am understanding you correctly and am clearly communicating that sticking with the CCR controllers for a 12 CCR tree is the way to go.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Today the 12 CCR tree on 3/4" alum tube is UP! This was the first outing, so I had to custom build the bracing and wirelooms for the 6 channel star.

 The tree is braced at 6', 11' and 14' onto the house and is as strong and ridgid as I expected. Each of the 3/4" alum tube has a square oak insert  extending 6" to stand on. I plan to use them to adjust heights in the future, but for today - everying is standing and good.  I have the controllers at the bottom of the CCR tree - I just have to figure out some better/more secure way to lock the units.

 

The bottom of the tree is 9' across and is visually pleasant, not as wide as I first planned.

Construction notes - I really apprecite I took the time to lable EVERY connection  - it sure helps when connecting things...

 

Tonight will  be the first evening operation in place. I am using the new God Bless the USA sequence to honor Veterans Day.

This afternoon everything is powered up and running - I have the 12CCR tree running on it's own high speed network and it looks like it is working ok. I will see how some of the other (faster) sequences react shortly, but the God Bless the USA sequence works quite well.

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I also put up (hung) my tree today.   It is also made from 3/4 aluminum tubing and It's 15' tall (not counting the star/snowflake supports on rod 1 & 12).  Each tube has 50 Technicolor pixels on it, and it's all controlled by SanDevices Pixel 1.   2 zip-ties per pixel comes to 1,200 zip-ties applied over two days... the painter Renoir once said "The pain is fleeting, but the beauty lasts forever", and I'm glad that I'll only have to put it together next year. 

 

There is a simple snowflake that I've yet to mount at the top, nothing special this year, just white, maybe I'll pixelize that for next year. 

 

Thanks for the idea Frank, here's your picture:

 

2013-11-11%2016.38.10.jpg

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I have completed the construction and mounting of the 3/4" aluminum tubing 12 CCR tree. I have a more detailed document with other pictures about the construction and mounting details available - just send me a note and I will email it to you ( the doc is about 6mb.)

 

Works great ! First show was Veterans Day using the God Bless the USA seqence that Brian did.

 

 

 

 

post-9868-0-12277800-1384400711_thumb.jp

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Hey Guys,

Your tree's look great

Khawes: Your pixel spacing is very good!

htebault: would love to see your detailed doc, will send you a PM.

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  • 5 weeks later...

Gday Frank

 

This is my first year with a tree and star(maybe first in oz) so I have cords and power supplies everywhere, I am looking at using one power supply per 6 ribbons as well are you using the SP-320-12?

 

Cheers Adrian

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Adran,

Yes, I'm using the SP-320-12. This power supply is big enough to run 10 ribbons; however I didn't wat the power supply running at full all the time. So now, even with all the lights on, the power supply is running at about 60% load.

Thre are more pictures on my web-site (see signature below) and if you need details on anyting, let me know. I ca take more pictures now as I have the tree up.

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