Mega Tree Question

[TiSwAs]

Totally loving the idea of having a Christmas display at home - it seems i'm EXTREMELY late in having this idea for this year but hopefully i can get something going.

First off i'd love to do a smallish mega tree 15ft-18ft - i get the design structure of it and seems straight forward
Am i going to get a good display for a mega tree with 16 channel controller? was thinking of going to start off with Simple Controller Configuration using a Personal Computer but i'm having trouble computing mega tress/the amount of channels/red/green/blue lights.

my problem is how the chuff do you design a mega tree - i like the spiral light design and would like it if someone can send me in the direction of a video that describes the wrapping process(around the tree)/channels and colours order etc.
i hear all sorts of things like 16 channels 32 stands etc and its beyond me i bet it's real simple and i need that explaining too.

Also i'm having diffcullty in finding cheap lights and the controllers for the UK anyone any idea where i can purchase seeing as we are on 240v in the UK - also is the 16 the bigest on LOR do?

Hope someone can help!

thanks

[Mark Showalter]

Welcome. I don't think your too late for this year. I didn't start until October last year and managed to pull off a decent 32 channel display. There are a couple of threads that can help you construct a Weber (spiral) tree.

Try these:

http://forums.lightorama.com/forum79/26416.html

or

http://forums.lightorama.com/forum81/27437.html

Good Luck!
--
Mark

[mmais68569]

Lets start at the bottom first.
Yes 16 CH is the largest LOR makes
Now for the tree;if you are going to use 3 colors red, green & blue that would be 1 channel per color. Now to make a tree look just OK you need to divide the tree into 4 sections, now you would have 12 channels.
To make it look good I would suggest 8 sections now you need 24 channels.
And if you want it to rock use 16 sections or a total of 48 channels.
To do a spiral you will need 10-16 channels. Mine is 16 Ch. what you do is start at the top of the tree & wrap around your tree to the bottom & the end of your string of lights. Make sure the spacing is some what equal around the tree. That is 1 CH per string of lights for a total of 16.

Hope this helps a little.
Mike

PS I would not try to do anything this late in the year put your plans together & have a nice show next year.

[TiSwAs]

Thanks for the replies

What type of lights do i buy and am i ok with the ones with a squencer built in or do i have to chop that?

[JBullard]

TiSwAs wrote:

Thanks for the replies

What type of lights do i buy and am i ok with the ones with a squencer built in or do i have to chop that?

For use with LOR, do NOT use lights that have their own controller on them.

[captainron19]

I dedicate 1 16 channel controller to my mega tree and use only red and green lights on it. Channel 1 red, Channel 2 Green , Channel 3 Red .... and so on.

I use the Phillips Energy Efficient minis from target for them - lower power draw and they dim nicely. I use 3 strands of 100 count lights for each channel

[TJ Hvasta]

There is PLENTY of time to build a not-so-mega MegaTree!!

My first MegaTree was 11' tall (12' pvc with 1' in the ground), made up of just multi-color lights.. that was all I had left. For its size, and layout, it looked rather good. And I decided to build it the first week of December, so you've still got a month!!

My second was 14' tall, used 16 channels, same as Ron, 8 red, 8 green, but Red lights were channels 1-8, Greens were 9-16.. its much easier getting it to color spin that way..

My third was still 14' tall, but I used 48channels with Red/Green/Blue superstrings (single colors braided).. 'looked the best!

I was going to add white this year, but decided against it.. sticking with RGB again.

I really recommend, for your first MT.. start a little smaller.. 15'-18' is big!! 10-12' would be a good starting point.. and if you're using steel pipe (fence post}, it gets unweildy.. For the strings, you can go Up & Down (Wedge, my first and current version), Up & Over (Slice), or just Up (String). Plus if you do a Webber (Spiral) Tree now, your neighbors have nothing to look forward to next year Also consider doing minitrees instead, or also.. Tomato cages, wrapped with 1-2-3 sets of mini-lights.

A 16 string tree (8 Red, 8 Green), either Up/Down, or Up/Over will give you 32 visible strings and make it look full.. uh, fuller.. mmmm, more full?

Hope that all helps.. And Welcome to the Madness that is LOR!!

[captainron19]

What TJ Said..... you are best to start small and expand as you go. I started my mega tree with 16 channels and actually the only thing I upgraded on it was the height.... I use to double the strands (from top to bottom) and then as I went higher I have each single strand going from the top to the base and to me it is ok for now but I may expand my channels on it next year. Here are some examples of it with 16 channels of red and green....

2010 Videos

[TiSwAs]

great replies guyz thanks for taking the time - i'm stoked and want to get started asap
I will email LOR tonight and see what the lead time is for a controller to the UK converted to 240v

All the best

[aurickle]

I guess I'm insane.

This is my first year doing a mega tree. I'm going with a 20' tree made of 48 channels (96 strands in the slice formation). Half are green and half white; all are C6 LED bulbs and there's a 3 channel star topper.

To jazz things up, I'm adding snowflakes inside the tree: six are 17" with blue lights are three are 42" with white lights.

Honestly, I found the sequencing to be very easy for the tree -- easier than for the rest of the elements in my show this year. S3's Chase and Fill tools work wonders!

Assuming I don't lose my mind between setting up and taking down this year, I'm thinking about adding a weber spiral to it next year. There's no way I was even going to consider that for this year, though! I'm not totally nuts; just mostly.

[scubado]

IMO with doing a small display, go with a single color. This will allow you to control more elements and make programing easier. If only a couple elements can change color it may look out of place.

In my display, I have a 10 and 12' tree. I don't consider them mega trees because they are two color and one channel for each color. Maybe next year I'll convert them over to Mega trees. I have a very limited budget and a mega tree isn't that high on the priority list.

[Mark Showalter]

I think Scubado may be on to something here. I rushed a Weber tree into a 32 channel display last year. Anything that lit up was going to be one color...

I started planning in October. I had to learn the software and create the props for the display in a very short amount of time. In your first year make it realistic and obtainable. Plan it all out on paper first then check your schedule and check book to see if you can really make it happen.:shock:

[metallus2000]

TJ...On the 16 channel one, can you draw a rough diagram onhow the lights are strung/connected?...Did this in the past, haven't done a megatree in two years and now I must have lost those brain cells :-(