Jump to content
Light-O-Rama Forums

Rope Light Megatree


loafyloaf

Recommended Posts

I am planning a 10' tall, all rope light megatree for 2009. Here's my plan (please feel free to point out any potential problems!!)

- 2 colors, white and red, 16 of each, strung up and down for 64 strands total

- Planning 16 channels (would love to do 24+, 3-4 colors, don't have the channels to spare this year)

- 25 curtain strobes in the middle

Would you stake them in the ground R R W W R R W W or R W R W R W?

Any videos out there of rope light megatrees?

Thanks!

Brad

Newbie

Link to comment
Share on other sites

loafyloaf wrote:

I am planning a 10' tall, all rope light megatree for 2009. Here's my plan (please feel free to point out any potential problems!!)



G'day Brad,

I used rope lights for my Mega Tree in 2003, 2004 and 2005, prior to LOR and LEDS. My tree was around 20' high and although it originally only had 8 rope lights connected I finished up with 12, alternating red and green. The rope lights were very effective.

The biggest problem I found was the weight of the rope lights. I originally tried to connect all of the ropelights to the top, with the star, and then raise the pole. This was a big mistake and bent the 2.5" aluminium pole in half. After getting a new pole I used a pulley type system, whereby I put the pole up and guyed it securely, then raised the rope lights to their final place. I've used this pulley system ever since and I now have a lot more weight being suspended through the 36 LED strings plus strobes. This leverage problem may be less of an issue with a 10' pole, but it is worth keeping in mind as you are planning on using a lot more ropes than I did.

I also tried the R G R G R G type of pattern where the up corresponded to the down on the opposite side of the tree. This looked great but it can get into a real mess at the apex with all of the ropes crossing over each other. I found it a lot neater and manageable to do the RR GG RR GG type effect now days as I can lift and secure one half of the lights before attacking the other side.

Attached is a pic of our tree from 2005.

Best wishes with your project.

Cheers,

davidt, Australia





Attached files 172272=9859-xmas2005-ropetree.JPG
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...