Is there such a thing as a 7-channel spiral tree?

[Jaynee]

I have 7 channels currently unused.  In another thread in the coffee shop, I mentioned the possibility of doing tomato cage Christmas trees (if I can find the ones I bought a couple years ago), but then thought "why make 7 small trees when you can make one bigger one?"

But is 7 channels enough to make it worth the effort?  I was thinking the biggest I could go and be able to store it would be 6 feet tall.  Given where I would place it in my display, it would be easily visible from the street, so there's no need to go bigger than that.  I just don't know if seven channels is enough for a 6 foot spiral tree?  I could maybe get rid of my yard perimeter channel and have that apply to the spiral, for 8 channels.

[jamills706]

I made a big "flat" tree using 9 CCRs last year - it worked out great!

Kind of depends where you intend to put it if a flat one would work or if that would be enough strands to make it worth while.

[Jaynee]

I wouldn't be using CCRs - just plain ol' string lights.

[jamills706]

I understood that - but the effect would be the same, I would think.

I mean, I thought the 9 strands of lights in a basically flat tree looked great from the road - so even if they were not RGB lights, I'd think the effect would still be nice.

[EmmienLightFan]

You could do spirals in one direction, but 7 is not enough channels for two directions to look right.

Or have one channel dedicated to lights all over the tree, then 6 to the spirals.

 

You could do a mega tree with 14 strands by joining two or using long strings, and have them on opposite sides.

[75redman]

If you build one there will be.   I use 8 channels for mine.  My tree is 8ft and I use 50ct strand of mini led lights for each channel.  I'm at work now so I can't post a pic but if you look at my videos on youtube you can see it there. 

You could also make a couple of 7 ch arches and have them run off of the same channels.

[Dcroc]

Glad someone asked this.  Is 8 even enough?  What is the "standard"?  I will have 16 channels open. Is it better to have one tree with 16 strands, or two trees with 8 strands?

[Little_b]

It all depends on what you plan to have it do.  I have a 23' tree with 24 channels, 8 red, 8 green, 8 white.  Each channel has 6 strands, 3 grouped together that mirror on the opposite side.  I have pretty simple sequences so this works for me.  I've thought about turning them into 16 channels each color to make a Spiral Tree, but just haven't gotten around to it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtro7jRWHOA

 

[zman]

I think 7 could be enough if you actually had 1 channel for 2 strings of lights on opposite sides of the tree. 

I caution anyone who "fills up" the rest of the channels within any display. Its always a good idea to keep a couple empty for spares in case something happens to one in the display somewhere. The spare enables you to quickly make a cord/sequence swap out.

[Cdanna77]

1 hour ago, zman said:

 I caution anyone who "fills up" the rest of the channels within any display. Its always a good idea to keep a couple empty for spares in case something happens to one in the display somewhere. The spare enables you to quickly make a cord/sequence swap out.

 

I second this. Highly. 

I had to do this last year. Swapped over the plugs to the open channels,changed the out put number on the sequences all that in less then 5 min an I was back in business. 

[Jaynee]

19 hours ago, 75redman said:

If you build one there will be.   I use 8 channels for mine.  My tree is 8ft and I use 50ct strand of mini led lights for each channel.  I'm at work now so I can't post a pic but if you look at my videos on youtube you can see it there. 

You could also make a couple of 7 ch arches and have them run off of the same channels.

Thanks for the link to your video of the 8 channel spirals.  I think I'm going to go for it and just have my candy cane yard perimeter be static this year.  This way I can have 8 channels.

 

13 hours ago, zman said:

I caution anyone who "fills up" the rest of the channels within any display. Its always a good idea to keep a couple empty for spares in case something happens to one in the display somewhere. The spare enables you to quickly make a cord/sequence swap out.

On my first controller I do actually have an empty channel available even though I count it as part of my display.  I don't keep it empty for your reason, but now that I know about your reason - I'm glad I left it empty!

[George Simmons]

19 hours ago, Dcroc said:

Glad someone asked this.  Is 8 even enough?  What is the "standard"?  I will have 16 channels open. Is it better to have one tree with 16 strands, or two trees with 8 strands?

In my experience, whether sequencing to the Animation/Visualizer for a client or in real life out in the yard, is that the fewer channels, the jerkier it will look at slower speeds.  IMO, the beauty and WOW factor of a spiral tree isn't with the number of colors, or the size of the tree - it's the graceful undulating motion.  This is totally lost when it begins to look like an old stop-motion Gumby cartoon.  My advice for the best return on investment is 16 channels, single color.  I've sequenced as few as 12 channels, and thought I did a pretty good job, but I found it a bit too confining for my taste/preference.

[Jaynee]

If I magically end up with an extra $300 laying around, I'll definitely think about getting another controller to dedicate to a spiral tree, but for now I need to work with what I have!   I at least did opt to use 8 channels versus 7 channels.  Maybe even see if I can figure out how to free up another one so that I can have a channel of lights all over the tree as someone else suggested (I do like that look in the videos I see online).

 

 

[1983ss454]

If I magically end up with an extra $300 laying around, I'll definitely think about getting another controller to dedicate to a spiral tree, but for now I need to work with what I have! [emoji6]  I at least did opt to use 8 channels versus 7 channels.  Maybe even see if I can figure out how to free up another one so that I can have a channel of lights all over the tree as someone else suggested (I do like that look in the videos I see online).

 

 

If you keep an eye out you can usually pick up a perfectly good working used one for $150-170

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Old Sarge]

7 channels.. You can make a flat tree or go up/over and down the opposite side would be 14 strings of lights but 7 channels etc. and you could also if you wanted to use two different colors on every other channel and still reserve one for the star. maybe use 4 strings and go over and down and then 1/2 way around do the same with one channel.. you can get a lot of strings as 4 X 7 is 28 strings of lights. What I mean is think of a + with each end a string of lights and the center where they cross the top center of the tree..

 

Use your imagination... you will think of a lot of different possibilities..