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Another Mege Tree Question!


James Shelby

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I'm planning a 35 foot tree with 16 cannels of Red, 16 of Green, 16 of Blue and 16 of white. I've never built one before so I was planning on having the back half of the tree to mirror the frount half. So you should have left to right 1-16 on one side all four colors and the same 1-16 on the other side, my queston is; I this the way to do it? As I'm programing, it it just doesn't look right, if you fokes tell me it's OK then I'll run with it but it would be nice to know now and not later.

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James Shelby wrote:

I'm planning a 35 foot tree with 16 cannels of Red, 16 of Green, 16 of Blue and 16 of white. I've never built one before so I was planning on having the back half of the tree to mirror the frount half. So you should have left to right 1-16 on one side all four colors and the same 1-16 on the other side, my queston is; I this the way to do it? As I'm programing, it it just doesn't look right, if you fokes tell me it's OK then I'll run with it but it would be nice to know now and not later.


James - explain in a little more detail what you mean by "left to right 1-16". You are programming for a circular item, basically, the base of the tree. Imagine looking down from the top of the tree. Then divide the tree (circle) into 16 wedges. Program from there. You can see how I did mine on http://lightsonchelsea.home.comcast.net. Click the link that says "All About Our Mega Tree"

Hope this helps.

D.T.
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James Shelby wrote:

I'm planning a 35 foot tree with 16 cannels of Red, 16 of Green, 16 of Blue and 16 of white. I've never built one before so I was planning on having the back half of the tree to mirror the frount half. So you should have left to right 1-16 on one side all four colors and the same 1-16 on the other side, my queston is; I this the way to do it? As I'm programing, it it just doesn't look right, if you fokes tell me it's OK then I'll run with it but it would be nice to know now and not later.

James,
Something to consider here......
A couple of years ago, it suddenly occurred to me as to why I was putting lights around the whole tree after doing it that way for a few years.

Last Christmas, I only put lights around the front 180 degrees of the tree. And you wanna know something?.... no one noticed any difference. Unless the tree is out in front of the lawn where people can fully see it and get the depth perception, then it is not going to make any real difference if you go all the way around the tree.

Example, my tree was on top of a potting shed on the side of the house. People could only see it from the front and not able to walk around it, so I was able to push all of the lights to the front half of the tree that I usually put on the back half. The pattern is much more dense with lights and looked better. When you look at a tree at night from even a short distance, light patterns such as circular movements don't really appear circular at all due to the lack of depth perception. It looks like side to side movement. In fact, when you put lights in the back, often they are obscured somewhat by the strings in the front.

In summary, I'm not going to put lights all the way around the tree any more. It saves on lights and controllers, and I got a better effect. Although if your tree is out in the front of the lawn where people see it from various angles, then it might look better with lights all around.
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if I'm to understand it correctly you want to put 64 channels on your mega tree. left to right 1 thru 16 that is one color. cutting in half I would think 1 thru 8 on the front 9 thru 16 on the back. . that way you could spin your tree doesn't matter what color you use but you could than spin the lights around. does that make more sence?

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Richard Hamilton wrote:

James Shelby wrote:
I'm planning a 35 foot tree with 16 cannels of Red, 16 of Green, 16 of Blue and 16 of white. I've never built one before so I was planning on having the back half of the tree to mirror the frount half. So you should have left to right 1-16 on one side all four colors and the same 1-16 on the other side, my queston is; I this the way to do it? As I'm programing, it it just doesn't look right, if you fokes tell me it's OK then I'll run with it but it would be nice to know now and not later.

James,
Something to consider here......
A couple of years ago, it suddenly occurred to me as to why I was putting lights around the whole tree after doing it that way for a few years.

Last Christmas, I only put lights around the front 180 degrees of the tree. And you wanna know something?.... no one noticed any difference. Unless the tree is out in front of the lawn where people can fully see it and get the depth perception, then it is not going to make any real difference if you go all the way around the tree.

Example, my tree was on top of a potting shed on the side of the house. People could only see it from the front and not able to walk around it, so I was able to push all of the lights to the front half of the tree that I usually put on the back half. The pattern is much more dense with lights and looked better. When you look at a tree at night from even a short distance, light patterns such as circular movements don't really appear circular at all due to the lack of depth perception. It looks like side to side movement. In fact, when you put lights in the back, often they are obscured somewhat by the strings in the front.

In summary, I'm not going to put lights all the way around the tree any more. It saves on lights and controllers, and I got a better effect. Although if your tree is out in the front of the lawn where people see it from various angles, then it might look better with lights all around.




I love it when another person thinks the same way you do or should you run! You hit it right on. I wanted 4 colors each 1-16, (4 controllers). I was thinking the very same thing as you, that is what started this topic. I looked at it as most people with 1-16 going all the way around the tree but as I got deeper into it I could see only one side of the tree. With my spacing at 22 inches all the way around the tree I felt it would look better if I mirrored frount to back pushing all the lights to one side making the spacing 14 inches. Half a tree now 1-16 with the back half mirrored 1-16. In your tree you chose not to cover the back but that was my question would it look funny if I did cover the back or should I build it like most people all the way around the tree with the 22 inch spacing?
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DownTown wrote:

James Shelby wrote:
I'm planning a 35 foot tree with 16 cannels of Red, 16 of Green, 16 of Blue and 16 of white. I've never built one before so I was planning on having the back half of the tree to mirror the frount half. So you should have left to right 1-16 on one side all four colors and the same 1-16 on the other side, my queston is; I this the way to do it? As I'm programing, it it just doesn't look right, if you fokes tell me it's OK then I'll run with it but it would be nice to know now and not later.


James - explain in a little more detail what you mean by "left to right 1-16". You are programming for a circular item, basically, the base of the tree. Imagine looking down from the top of the tree. Then divide the tree (circle) into 16 wedges. Program from there. You can see how I did mine on http://lightsonchelsea.home.comcast.net. Click the link that says "All About Our Mega Tree"

Hope this helps.

D.T.
Ok OK OK I'm looking at this all wrong, you helped me a bunch thank you thank you thank you. I was looking at ONE string of lights at 22 inches and to me that was to far apart but from what I now see you fill that space up with three, four or more strings with in that 22 inch spacing. I went brain dead for a moment. In my bridge I use 3 runs of strings making up 12 inches, so my strings are 4 inches apart. These 3 runs are on one channel. Correct me if I'm wrong but I could do the same thing with the mega tree I could use 3 runs per channel cutting the 22 inches down to 7.3 inches, thats a lot of lights, 3 times as much but that would fill in the spacing. Am I on the right track?????
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