Noob building Mega Tree first lighting setup help

Hi all thanks for having me.

Im a complete noob at this pixel lighting although have become pretty obsessed pretty quick. I want to start building a light show.

For this coming year i just want to start with a Mega Tree and learn all the ins and outs of what is required in terms of hardware and software.

I want to build the tree once, so i want to build it properly hence asking the pros for help. Im hands on, and im an electrician, so should have any issues once im shown.

I want a 5.5-6m tall, 180degree, with roughly 16 strings of roughly 180 pixels, so 2880, plus a star. I will use 12v 12mm pixels mounted through the black straps.

Putting all that together makes sense. But what confuses me is:
- what controller is sufficient for all those pixels? (will only use it for this tree and star)
- power injection (prefer not to, but will if i have to?)
- computer?
- power supply?

If someone can shed some light on all this, that would be awesome.

Thanks

jfknr said:

Putting all that together makes sense. But what confuses me is:
- what controller is sufficient for all those pixels? (will only use it for this tree and star)
- power injection (prefer not to, but will if i have to?)
- computer?
- power supply?

If someone can shed some light on all this, that would be awesome.

Thanks

Click to expand...

Controllers
Most controllers can run this amount of pixels easily. How you have it hooked up will determine what you go with. As you mentioned that you would prefer to avoid power injection, i'll assume this in any recommendations.
1. Baldrick 17. This is perfect for a mega tree, 16channels for the main tree, 1 for the start on the top. Depending on the star you choose, you may need to power inject, but can likely get away without....maybe
2. Kulp K16 or K32 varieties. Will need to load up the last channel with the 180 + Star, plus a little Power injection if using the 16port versions but will work
3. Falcon F16V4 or V5.
4. Hanson HE123 boards
5. Genius Lights 16 or 32 ports.

If you want to power inject, you can get away with an 8port controller, so many different ways to connect everything up.

Computer
You can run the show from your PC/Mac, but most light to use a Raspberry Pi (Pi 4, 2gb will do), as a show player. Then its independent of your PC and runs in the background using FPP. Can also use Beaglebone's but Pi's are more common.

Power Supply
For what you have listed and assuming you run it at 30% as is common in the hobby. 1x600w or 2x350w meanwell/equivalent 12v power supplies will do the job.

Software
Xlights

Well For the controller you need a "mains" controller, i would recomend a flacon f16 or a baldrick. There are also other vendors which you can buy them from and other controllers. I dont think many people run more than aroun 600 pixels per port but you can choose. Power surply: I would reomend meanwell and computer, with enough memory 1TB or some ram for rendering in xlights, dont really need a good graphics card becasue xlights is "fairly" simple. Hope this helps

Thanks guys appreciate the quick response. This is going to be fun!

you can also look at power balancing (using a tee to put power at start and end of each string) which can be easier than injection... Greg macaree has a good YouTube video on this..

pretty ballsy ( also epic) going for a megatree up front as those 2900 pixels could go a long way to a decent first year display with outlines props etc..‍

good luck though. post progress here as I'm hoping to add a MT this year

RolyT said:

you can also look at power balancing (using a tee to put power at start and end of each string) which can be easier than injection... Greg macaree has a good YouTube video on this..

pretty ballsy ( also epic) going for a megatree up front as those 2900 pixels could go a long way to a decent first year display with outlines props etc..‍

good luck though. post progress here as I'm hoping to add a MT this year

Click to expand...

Nice, ill check that out.

Haha ballsy or mad. Who knows what will happen haha

Thanks mate

I'm going to throw another option at you.... since you said you want to build it once

Bullets are nice, and pretty reliable and all... and heavy and take up a lot of space...

My first tree was 24 strands x 75 square nodes at 2" spacing in boscoyo strip. Yeah it looked ok, it was pretty reliable and reasonably quick to build and put up each year... but it didn't excite me.

Then in 2024, inspired by @Kent and @Mark_M 's mega tree builds I built a new tree with seeds....

- custom PCB topper to distribute power and data at the top of the tree
- 42 strands x 192 nodes at 1" spacing
- alternate node, so all connections are in the PCB
- ws2815 dual data seeds from Knowshine, native 12V
- a bunch of 3d printed bits to mount it on a PVC sleeve that slides up and down the post
- all fits in 1/6th the space the old tree took up
- doesn't catch the wind the same way
- much easier to hoist (most of the weight is now in the star which has 655 bullet nodes

The star is dual data gs8208 bullets, again native 12V.

For controller I'm using a Falcon F16 - 14 ports for the tree, 2 ports for the star
PSU is a HP server PSU, which can be sourced pretty cheap.

B4IGO said:

Bullets are nice, and pretty reliable and all... and heavy and take up a lot of space...

Click to expand...

Agree... you can also use seed pixels (like B4IGO says), or something intermediate, like the gumdrops that go in the same tree strip, are much lighter, and use 1/3 of the power as a traditional resistor bullet. If you go bullets, these also come in the resistor variety or ones that use 1/3 of the power. One of my trees is built from bullets, the other from square nodes, 5 years no issues, but if I had it to do over I would not use these things...

I am not sure that the seed pixel strung straight from top to bottom design is "build it once" design. A distributor has been getting a lot of seed pixel warranty claims, the suspicion is they were used on trees like that, but nobody knows how much tension was used on the failed ones and whether the tree had guy wires or was just a free-standing base. (Tree in photo above does not have much tension. Mark's tree is the longest-running that I know of and looks a bit tighter but those pixels have a thicker wire than most are getting these days and he has good guy wires. I guess if you want to go with the design, make sure the tension is reasonable and that the pole cannot move around much to create additional stress on the pixel strings.) If you do want to apply a lot of tension / be more careless, the kraken seed pixels with the steel wire molded in may be a better choice.

merryoncherry said:

Agree... you can also use seed pixels (like B4IGO says), or something intermediate, like the gumdrops that go in the same tree strip, are much lighter, and use 1/3 of the power as a traditional resistor bullet. If you go bullets, these also come in the resistor variety or ones that use 1/3 of the power. One of my trees is built from bullets, the other from square nodes, 5 years no issues, but if I had it to do over I would not use these things...

I am not sure that the seed pixel strung straight from top to bottom design is "build it once" design. A distributor has been getting a lot of seed pixel warranty claims, the suspicion is they were used on trees like that, but nobody knows how much tension was used on the failed ones and whether the tree had guy wires or was just a free-standing base. (Tree in photo above does not have much tension. Mark's tree is the longest-running that I know of and looks a bit tighter but those pixels have a thicker wire than most are getting these days and he has good guy wires. I guess if you want to go with the design, make sure the tension is reasonable and that the pole cannot move around much to create additional stress on the pixel strings.) If you do want to apply a lot of tension / be more careless, the kraken seed pixels with the steel wire molded in may be a better choice.

Click to expand...

Yes, agreed. I do not apply much tension, as I like the look of the tree being slightly "soft", so that is definitely a consideration that needs to be taken into account.

Importantly, as @merryoncherry points out, there are several options these days for pixels and things in the hobby have changed a lot in this regard in the last couple of years, so don't rush into a design or purchase...

RolyT said:

pretty ballsy ( also epic) going for a megatree up front as those 2900 pixels could go a long way to a decent first year display with outlines props etc..

Click to expand...

It's how I started, I think a megatree is a great way to get into it as it's basically the hero of the display and easy to build on, I basically started with a 16 x 100 tree then expanded it to 32 x 175 over time, all while adding more props and other things to the display.

Suggest buy a big topper to begin with so you can add more later, get a controller like a falcon v4 that can adopt a 16 port expansion board, or a kulp 32 port so you can just go 1:1 output to mega tree and still have room for expansion later, overall build everything with the mindset that this is going to get bigger every year, because.. it will.

The others have covered the seed vs bullet vs other so I will not touch on that.

If you wish to use less power injection (PI) or power balancing (PB) then you'll want to use 12v pixels as you can power more before the need for power injection comes into play. I easily power up to 200 pixels per port with the need to PI or PB. I have started to PB when running 250 or more pixels from a port but almost never go above 350.

So, you want a tree 5.5m tall? You'll want the ability to raise and lower the topper to make setup and take down easier without any ladders. After 5 years, I am looking to rebuild my tree and one of the main reasons is that I need a ladder to put it together and take it apart. It's hassle having to grab the ladder to do anything with it in the middle of the season. I had some strings have issues for the first time and did not have the time to get the ladder out to work on it so left them to fix in the off season. With a strap and pole system (ASAP pole system http://www.magicchristmas.org/ check the bottom of the page for instructions) I could have made adjustments without a ladder.

180 irregular pixel count per strand is questionable. Most pixel strands in bulk come in 100 or 50 count unless you are special ordering your pixels. This means you will always need to modify string some way to build, expand (because you will), or repair (because eventually). I oddly did not learn this from my megatree but my minitrees. I had 3 of them go bad and they were built with 180 pixels each. I thought I was being clever when I built them and made the strings but then I had to fix them. The quickest way was to expand from 180 to 200, no longer requiring me to cut and soldier strings to fix them.

Possible solutions for this situation:
1. Custom order lengths of 180 pixels and always have extras on hand
2. Adjust the count to something that is easily ordered and does not require adjustments
3. Adjust strings to match and have extras on hand.

Personally I would see about moving up to 200 per string since it would only add a bit more height to the tree but you would no longer be required to need special counts on hand.

Decide on an easy way to hook your strands up to the topper. This can be done with J hooks, carabiners, special clips etc and THEN mock up the top with the connections. Depending on the topper size and the way you connect to it the space can get very tight up there. This will make it harder to connect and disconnect the strands and organize things. Mocking up the top also ensures the parts you picked will actually fit. I ordered some carabiners that I thought should work but due to the topper they could not fully close properly.

There are a few critical measurements for designing a tree. This is a great site for helping https://www.lightshowhub.com/tools/mega-tree-calculator
1. Height of the tree, this is where the topper will sit.
2. The diameter of the topper, this will determine the overall size at the top of the tree and how much space you have to work with at the top.
3. The diameter of the base ring. This will help determine the overall shape of the tree. From a skinny tree to a fat wide tree. This also helps to determine the spacing at the bottom of the tree.
4. The length of each strand of lights. This tends to be the most critical and it really determines the height of the tree overall.

Also, think about how you are going to create tension and connect the bottom of the strands to the base ring. For the last several years I have been using bungee balls and they have worked great. They are stretchy enough to provide movement during high winds but still firm enough to keep everything in place. They do eventually stretch out and might need to be adjusted or replaced but I consider them a very nice to have for me.

Lastly, Where you place you tree matters along with the viewing angle of the tree. These can be for another day or topic.

Just some quick thoughts from someone looking to rebuild a mega tree and add a second on to the show.

I made up a 6m, 118 pixel per strand, 24 strand pixel tree up at the start of December. It uses 5V seeds that I got from @merryoncherry and finally got around to doing. I made the controller and the 24 strands up 1 day and installed it the next. The entire 24 strands with pigtails would fit in a bucket to store it. 5V 5cm spacing pixels with "power balancing" across the bottom. 4 strands per output across 6 outputs on a Baldrick 8.
The tree shows for a few seconds on
View: https://www.facebook.com/61553371951174/videos/1192184772464521