Calc spacing on my tree?

[jpbaily1]

I am going to build my first mini-mega tree this year.

I have downloaded calc programs but I have not found one that gives you the distance between light strands around the circumference of the tree base.

So I have 32ch dedicated to the tree.

3 Colors (Blue, Red, White).

15' tall tree W/ an 8' diameter base.

Is there a formula that calcs the distance between strings?

[ainsworth]

the circumference of the base is 301 inches

You state 3 colors and 32 channels; that's an odd number of channels per color. Assuming that you have 10 channels per color (and the other 2 are for a topper) that also means you have 10 segments in your tree. So each segment of the tree uses 30" of the base.

Now you have to determine the light "density" you want. If you have 1 string per color per segment your spacing is 10". If you want 4 strings per color per segment your spacing is 2.5".

Once you have the density of lights, you may want to adjust the tree height to match your light string length. A 15' tall tree with an 8' base has a length of 17' for stringing the lights. (pythagorean theorem gives you this length). if you have 17' long strings that's perfect! However if you have 22' length strings you will have a lot of "wasted" lights. If you increased the height of your tree to 20.5' that would give a string length of 22'.

Another option would be to connect the strings together as one long string and go up and down with them. So if you wanted to use 4 strings per color (assuming when attached together they had a total length of 88') you could go up and down a 15' tall tree 2.5 time (start at the base, end at the top) and you will have 3 connection points at the base so you would space them 3.3" apart.

Bottom line is; you need to know the number of connection points at the base. Once you know that, divide that number into your circumference and you have the spacing.

[Anthony in Houston]

I have a mega tree calculator send me your email address and I will email it to you.

Anthony

[anthonyrusso3]

Please send me a copy also....... Thank you

[anthonyrusso3]

That is anthonyrusso131@verizon.net

[friskybri]

I will take a copy of the calculator. building a 20' tree with 96 strands. 3 colors. Friskybri@hotmail.com Thanks, Brian

[Ed Slonka Jr]

Here's on too:



http://www.altoonalights.com/mega/mega_calc.php

[jpbaily1]

ainsworth wrote:

the circumference of the base is 301 inches

You state 3 colors and 32 channels; that's an odd number of channels per color. Assuming that you have 10 channels per color (and the other 2 are for a topper) that also means you have 10 segments in your tree. yes, 10 ch per color & one ch for strobes & one ch for topper.So each segment of the tree uses 30" of the base.

Now you have to determine the light "density" you want. If you have 1 string per color per segment your spacing is 10". If you want 4 strings per color per segment your spacing is 2.5". for spacing I would like to be able to turn on all "slices" of one color and have a "full" tree lit in say red.

Once you have the density of lights, you may want to adjust the tree height to match your light string length. A 15' tall tree with an 8' base has a length of 17' for stringing the lights. (pythagorean theorem gives you this length). if you have 17' long strings that's perfect! However if you have 22' length strings you will have a lot of "wasted" lights. If you increased the height of your tree to 20.5' that would give a string length of 22'. are the string lenghts measured from 1st light to the last light on a string? Or by total string length?

Another option would be to connect the strings together as one long string and go up and down with them. So if you wanted to use 4 strings per color (assuming when attached together they had a total length of 88') you could go up and down a 15' tall tree 2.5 time (start at the base, end at the top) and you will have 3 connection points at the base so you would space them 3.3" apart.

Bottom line is; you need to know the number of connection points at the base. Once you know that, divide that number into your circumference and you have the spacing. Thanks!

[jpbaily1]

Well, here is what I have now. (1) 10' tall 1.5" EMD pipe. This is slid over a 5' metal fence stake & had to be twised on as the fit is extremely tight. On top I have the 4" - 2" PVC reducer with 10 hooks screwed into it. Here is the challenge, I an not sure which way to do the spacing (See pics). One way is to have the bundle of lights combined as a slice together. The other is the slice seperated. Do I need to add more lights to ea. slice to fill in? I still have (4) slices to go up, but it looks thin.

A kind thank you in advance for your assistance.

[jpbaily1]

I added another 3 strands of 100 lights to each of the 10 slices as the tree was not "full" enough for my likes.



Each "slice" is about 6" wide X 10 slices for the tree.

There are 3 colors (Red, Blue & clear) X 4 strands per slice = 420 one hundred light strands.

420 x 100 lights ea strand = 4200 lights plus one strand of strobes & finally ch 32 is for the star (which I do not have yet).

[thevikester]

jpbaily1 wrote:

I added another 3 strands of 100 lights to each of the 10 slices as the tree was not "full" enough for my likes.



Each "slice" is about 6" wide X 10 slices for the tree.

There are 3 colors (Red, Blue & clear) X 4 strands per slice = 420 one hundred light strands.

420 x 100 lights ea strand = 4200 lights plus one strand of strobes & finally ch 32 is for the star (which I do not have yet).

JP...in my world...420 X 100 is 42000...which is a good 800 dollar mega tree. That baby really shines, or you are off just a bit... I just had to, I'm in the financial service industry, and I just couldn't let it go by!

[Omer]

Anthony in Houston wrote:

I have a mega tree calculator send me your email address and I will email it to you.

Anthony

planning for a 22 foot tree next year, would you be kind enough to send me a copy
oakenworthy@yahoo.com

[jpbaily1]

Should have been;

10 slices X 3 colors (30) X 4 100 count strings ea. slice = 12,000 total lights on the tree.

Don't know what I was thinking on the other post.

[papap]

Ok, I'm thinking of using 100 count lights. They are about 34'. Figuring on running them up to top and back down to base. So I'm guessing a 15' tall tree. How big would the base have to be?

[JBullard]

Do you want a "Fat" tree or a "Skinny" tree?

How many strings are you going to use?

For a "Fat" look then a 10' base might be used.

For a "Skinny" look then maybe 5 feet.

For something in between, then maybe 7 - 8 feet.

A lot will depend on how tall, and how many strings you use.

There is no "rule" for this, it is your tree, make it look the way you want it to look.

What I would suggest, once you have the tree up, with the lights on it, THEN adjust the base so the tree has the shape that looks good to YOU.

[papap]

Was thinking of 10 strands of 3 differnt colors. so that would end up being 20 strands of each color going up and down the tree.

[JBullard]

papap wrote:

Was thinking of 10 strands of 3 differnt colors. so that would end up being 20 strands of each color going up and down the tree.

Like I said, it's your tree, make it the way you want it, and to heck with what anyone else thinks.

There are NOT any rules for making a megatree.

(Unless you are on the PC forum, over there if you don't do exactly what some "expert" says, then you have done it wrong -said while shaking head in bewilderment)

[papap]

that's what I figured. Just going to start on it and see how it goes.

[jpbaily1]

On my 10' tall tree, I started with 3 colors (Red, blue, & white) which took up 30ch of of LOR.

Started with (10) ea. red, blue, & white. It looked thin so I added (3) strands of ea color around the ring,

I ended up with (30) 100 count of mini light strings of Red, Blue & White for my tree.

[jpbaily1]

New findings.

USE a tree base to attache your light strings to.

It got windy yesterday & a few of my strings can disconnected from the light stakes in the ground. Ya know those little green cheesy ones that are made to let you run lights in a straight line in your yard.

For my frist year though I am not too dissapointed.

I stopped by to see a tree that a fourm member did at this plaec & got some GREAT info.