Mega Tree Channels

[AZDan]

My first year with LOR and shooting for 48 channels. 16 channels each of white, green and red. 32 strings each color (200 lights each string)

Am I overkilling this? Is there such a thing as too many channels with a MT? My MT is 2" square steel and 30' tall with a 4.5' Holdman star on top.

Put the killawatt to work and the amperage is within limits for each controller.

Am I being too ambitious and setting myself up for an epic fail?

I have had the MT going for 3 years but up till this year it has always been static. Have not done 96 strings on it before either. I will have to weigh the lights to see what kind of load I am going to have.

Anyone have any idea what kind of load I should be able to put on the 2" square tube?

[TJ Hvasta]

Hi Dan.. sound right to me.. thats what I have (actually, was 64ch, RGBW), the blue incand strings have faded like KC & the Sunshine Band. I had to hit them with blue magic marker each year. Just wont plug them in now.. A single controller can do abt 9000 lights (amperage-wise). I had four controllers at the base of my MT, one for each color. Now I'll have a spare I can use for the one that burned last month

You're going to have it guyed too.. a 30' mast, 4 points, plus 15' or 20' up 4 points again.. .. you know what kind of winds we get with Dec storms.

Edited September 16, 2012 by TJ Hvasta

[AZDan]

I've been guying that sucker every year since I had it built. I have it positioned more than 30' from the house so it will not hit anything if it were to fall. I have always hoped that if a gut fails the light strings will act as a back-up until I get it fixed. Have not had a failure yet.

I originally thought I was going to try for blue also but scrapped the plan after I did my light inventory. Everything blue faded or paint chipping off. Thought about those light color caps but at walmarts prices it would be cheaper to buy new strings. Maybe next year I will add blue Webber spirals to the MT.

Every free moment being spent modifying the sequences at the moment. TJ, the sequences have helped out considerably, thanks again. No lag so far with visualizer but the computor I am using to run it is a 4.7GHz i7 with 3 interconnected video cards and 3 GB video RAM. I have a feeling it would be hard to make this system to lag. Actually running all 8 cores full blast with a distributed computing project trying to find a cure for cancer at the same time.

[Max-Paul]

One of the reasons to invest in LED lights. The blues do not fade nor chip...

[AZDan]

Thats my plan too.... Next year??? Or maybe this year if the "try for free" goes well for me. I bought out all the warm white and multi LED's from about 10 Walgreens after last Christmas but regretfully they did not have any other colors. Bought a ton of LED icicle and dripping icicle lights at the same time but again all white.

I have left a set of multi LED 5mm mini's in a tree here in Arizona for 3 years now and the colors have not faded. I agree with you Max-Paul that they are the way to go.

[TJ Hvasta]

Good deal Dan, I figured you had the MT guyed.. thot I remembered seeing it from yer yard pics. Glad the sequences helped out, too.. I may see how many led sets I can get in the After sales, just for the megatree, but i still have to stash some $$ away for the replacement boards that burned up..

[ufmatt00]

I am planning on putting up a 18 feet Mega Weber (Spiral) Tree at my home this year and need your input. I have decided to go with only two colors my first year: 3200 LED Blue M5's and 3,200 LED White M5's. My question is this: I only purchased a single controller for this tree. Will 8 Channels for Blue and 8 channels for white be enough to turn out ok or do I absolutely need to buy another controller so I have 16 channels for each color? Your input would be greatly appreciated.

[caniac]

I am planning on putting up a 18 feet Mega Weber (Spiral) Tree at my home this year and need your input. I have decided to go with only two colors my first year: 3200 LED Blue M5's and 3,200 LED White M5's. My question is this: I only purchased a single controller for this tree. Will 8 Channels for Blue and 8 channels for white be enough to turn out ok or do I absolutely need to buy another controller so I have 16 channels for each color? Your input would be greatly appreciated.

it is all about the spacing, you could make one controller work but as most will say here the more controllers the better. I am assuming that you are using 32 strands of each color so given that you will have four strands of each color per channel. With the right sequencing that will look good but two strands per channel give you the ability to do more detail effects (the spins/chases will look better and more detailed, i.e. with your configuration a fourth of the tree will be lit up at any one time, with another controller an eighth).