shfr26 Posted April 19, 2010 Posted April 19, 2010 How many channels do you have to use?How many arches do you have already?Do you have any trees now?
jpbaily1 Posted April 19, 2010 Author Posted April 19, 2010 I only hae 32 ch now. I want to get another 16 for this year.Presently I have (3) 10' arches across the front lawn which runs the length of one side.No trees yet. I would only be able to make a 10' tall or so tree if I go much taller than that it will look "odd" in my small front lawn.
jimswinder Posted April 19, 2010 Posted April 19, 2010 Depending on what you want to do with the tree (how many colors, etc) I would think you would want at LEAST 32 channels for a mega tree...4 colors and 8 segments for a full (complete circle) tree...Thought my first one was only a half circle of 4 colors and 5 segments.Mini Trees can add a lot without them being channel hogs (4 colors - 4 channels each)
eluttmann Posted April 19, 2010 Posted April 19, 2010 I would do both ... last year I used 16 channels for 2 arches (assuming 8 channels per arch) and 16 channels on a 11' mega tree (2 colors, 8 channels each). For the mega tree I used 70 ct lights which are 24' long, so for each channel I just folded each string to double my strings per segment. See the following document, look at pages 4 and 5 on folding the strings:http://www.lauderdalechristmas.com/How%20To%20Build%20a%20Christmas%20Mega%20Tree.pptIt talks about 12 channels per color, but I used 8 and it looked fine to me. The above would leave 16 channels free for the rest of your display (assuming you buy the extra 16 channels for this year). If you need more than 16 channels for the rest of the display, you could free up 8 channels by syncing all your arches to the same 8 channels.
shfr26 Posted April 19, 2010 Posted April 19, 2010 This year I will be doing 5 arches using 14 channels, 7 for the back three and 7 for the front 2. 7 channels per arch and 100 lights per channel. I also have about 10 spiral trees that I use and my new element of 9 mini's, 400 lights per tree in a pyramid form. If you have no trees at all yet I would go with the tree.
jpbaily1 Posted April 19, 2010 Author Posted April 19, 2010 Yep no trees yet, just 8 of the spirals in varing sizes.I am still on the fence with this one.Tree @ 10' tall would be GREAT, and I can add more chanels in 2011... Hmmm;)
jpbaily1 Posted April 22, 2010 Author Posted April 22, 2010 Bought my new 16ch controller, it should arrive next week.
jpbaily1 Posted May 9, 2010 Author Posted May 9, 2010 Got the 16ch controller, going to get another one soon...I will do a 15' Minni Mega Tree.Now to learn how to program it....
jpbaily1 Posted May 28, 2010 Author Posted May 28, 2010 Ordered my 2nd 16ch controller today.I will have 32ch for the 15' tall tree.3 colors = 30 chanels at 15 2' slices, correct?Leaving 1 ch for strobes and 1 ch for tree topper (star).Now to search for sequences to learn from.
redsea300 Posted May 29, 2010 Posted May 29, 2010 My 2 cents, You should do both. Then you do not have to decide
jpbaily1 Posted June 12, 2010 Author Posted June 12, 2010 How many channels are required for 15' tall tree using 3 colors with a 10' diameter base?So to go completely around the tree using white, blue and red minis, how may strings on what spacing?I go from the top to the bottom one or twice for each slice in each color then move to the next slices etc.?
jem5136 Posted June 13, 2010 Posted June 13, 2010 Hi,I would go with the Mega Tree. I have seen some really cool mega trees using only 16 channels. It was 4 colors, 4 channels per color. And they had it set up where the pattern went: Red, Green, White, Blue. That covered 1/4th of the tree, and they did it 4 times. All the channels could be on and it looked really good.Hope this helps,Jesse
jpbaily1 Posted June 13, 2010 Author Posted June 13, 2010 And that is where I cannot get my head around the tree...:shock:Do I really need 32ch on a tree?I want to have 3 colors (Red, Blue & White) each to go completely around the tree.Then a Star & a string of strobes. The star & strobes take 2 channels.That leaves me 30 ch. Would that be as simple as having 10 slices of 3 colors?If so I can't seem to find the spacing at the bottom of the tree with a 10' diameter.Or is it as simple as 10 slices makes 3.33' wide slices per color at the base to go all the way around the tree?
jimswinder Posted June 13, 2010 Posted June 13, 2010 jpbaily1 wrote:If so I can't seem to find the spacing at the bottom of the tree with a 10' diameter.Or is it as simple as 10 slices makes 3.33' wide slices per color at the base to go all the way around the tree?You need to find the circumference of your diameter. If it is truly 10' (120 inches), then your circumference is 377 inches (10 slices would be 37 11/16 inches each) Divide that by how many strings of lights you are going to have.My Mega tree has two colors per string (Red and blue / Green and White) and 12 of these strings per slice, with 3 sets of strings per channel. So I have 16 channels per slice.So in your case, using 12 strings per slice, I would have a string of lights every 3 1/8 inch around the base of the tree.
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