Build guide BooY's MegaTree Build

[BooY]

Hey guys,

Thought I would start to put together a thread on my Megatree build, those of you in chat would know I linger in there a fair bit and post up photos of the slow progress.

The base plan is pretty similar to what a lot of poeple are doing.

Aim is for a 6m Tree with 40 Strings across a 64 hole topper to get just past 180° around the 225° mark.

Controller will be an F48 with 3 smart receivers, ultimately the F48 will be in a seperate control box closer to the house but to try and have the tree running for this year it will be temporarily mounted within the same control box as the tree.

Power will be from 3x 1200W HP Server Power Supplies hooked with Alans PSDIST2 Server Breakout Boards
But thats enough txt for now people want the photos.

Control Box Build
Thanks to Darylc for the Falcon Group Buy at the start of the year as from it I got a nice big box of goodies

View: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DqIQKDIaI7s_h-pWPNVWxSo3Bu0Sq7xM/view?usp=sharing


To Start I wanted an Escutcheon Panel for the controll box to mount everything on

Thanks to Lithgo for the exposure to lightburn, way nicer than LaserCAD that i've been using for the past 2 years for lasering.

I used Glass Panel standoffs to mount the escutcheon to the backplane


Here is the basic layout plan for the box

View: https://drive.google.com/file/d/19etJe6bWP9UvRkCeCRmAc-tfilSnc3VZ/view?usp=sharing


The Smart Receiver's are Din Mounted using a 3D printed standoff I tried.
1st off Designed in Fusion360

Then Printed and tested

These are the Connectors I'm using for my display as it gets built.

and these are the PSU connectors from Alan (Hansons)

View: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OqUt8VgDT-pe69oDgnzccZJZh9sXLwVI/view?usp=sharing


Bottom Gland plate Punched and filled, will still need to punch out more out of the box as 12 will not be enough and still have some ethernet passthrough connectors to fit

Video of the hydraulic punch for anyone interested

View: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1A-6GGU9CvaRJbPnJvb25M85FpQeJ08X5/view?usp=sharing


Back in the box to make sure I gave enough slack for some cable management, I may need to redo the positives as i ended up moving the PSUs forward a little further than I originally planned to give better access to the terminal and fuses, but thats no biggy

I need to mount up the F48 and put a temporary 5v supply in for it, after that I should be able to finish the ethernet cables and test to make sure everything is find, then cable manage and reassemble ready to go.



Edited so that photo limit not exceeded in post so they all view

 

[BooY]

Are you going to be using an imported boscoyo megatree topper?

hehe for sure.........or at least his strip thanks to @Troy ELD


Topper and Bracket Design and Build

So the Pole Design/setup for my tree is a little different (similar principal) to what a lot of guys have on the fourm.

I started with the idea that I wanted to be able to Winch the topper up and down full height for the fitting of the strings, and also wanted to hinge the pole over similar to that of a flag pole.
In doing these 2 tasks I wanted to maintain the use of a single winch for both actions.

I also wanted to try and keep as much of it as possible bolt together

and with that lets start some pics.

The Toppers went through a few revisions with the help of @LawrenceDriveLights. and the guys in Chat

Rev1 Turned out like this.

I ended up getting 10 of these made up as it bought the cost down and there was a bit of interest from the guys in Chat to use some. Turns out they were semi popular and I sold the 2 I had to the side for me.

But with that came some improment opportunities and some design changes and that bought about MK2 topper.

I have 2 of these of the larger side put away for myself this time one for this build, and once i iron out any improvement / changes to the brackets the second one should be a quicker easier build.

Here is a Strip test to see the overlap just using some toggle hooks I had lying around.

Moving from the top of the tree, I drew up some designs to make a hinging bracket so I could install a single pole bolted down to concrete over concreting a pole in.
This should make it easier enough to hide again if we ever change where we want the tree, while being more secure than a portahole (sandy rock area pegs dont really work)

This is the basic concept of what I am planning.


View: https://drive.google.com/file/d/19eqmYcHfNVBcG4gCR6RRresSRTE8JK8F/view?usp=sharing


Along with the upper winching section designed to be able to lock off the topper without relying on the winch as the holding support.


View: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Kgh9LhX_262yEFqjNR3NKRY2pAyCgsfO/view?usp=sharing

This is how the brackets for the hinge turned out

and a sneak peak of the concept in real life. (Proper Bolts at this stage pending)

 

[BooY]

Reserved for More Stuff

 

[TANSA]

Switchboard builder ?

 

[BooY]

Switchboard builder ?

I&E Dual Trade

 

[Derf]

Are you going to be using an imported boscoyo megatree topper?

 

[BooY]

Pole Erection

Pole and Post for the build is a 75x75x4mm Gal Post & a 40nb Heavy Wall (4mm) Gal Pole.

Base mostly assembled

Cutting some Booker Rod to use in the concrete as a ground ancor.

View: https://drive.google.com/file/d/15PRiBDI0gVxf7wGDhJ6ddOxzsGEYqFBd/view?usp=sharing


Dig a hole, bolted up some ply just to maintain spacing, booker rod was cut to 750mm, hole is just over 800 deep.

Added the Post and made sure it was level.

Selected Brake Winch to install.

Pole Up for testing, had to make a few tweaks and design changes to the bottom assembly which means I need to redo the lock off mech, but everything working well so far.

Video of the topper coming down

View: https://drive.google.com/file/d/18vS_3K2_D_q9KMbWBpF9Ym9mpZEolFLj/view?usp=sharing


And Topper going up and pole coming down. Little bit of a stuff around as the temp strap got stuck on the winch cable but they wont be a problem once I remake the latch to hold the pole.


View: https://drive.google.com/file/d/19-9Y3VqznhknDD3fv7SKBFwlyh9kdJta/view?usp=sharing


I have a PCV Sleeve to fab up to make the topper stay true, and that should be the pole ready to go.

Next it to make the bottom Ring and to start on the Pixel Pushing for the 2nd time.

 

[damona]

Be Careful purchased a brake Winch it only worked horizontally --o , as gravity must be assumed to be in one direction for the insides to work.

 

[Croydon Lights]

How did the completed Megatree go this year as I am making mine bigger this year
Did you add any guide wires to the top?
Instead of a round pole could you use a square pole so that the topper wouldn't spin, rotate or was this not a problem
I was think of attaching guy wires to the topper and tighten them off when the topper was raised

 

[BooY]

Tree went pretty well, I need to make a few tweaks to the design, just waiting for a new shed/workshop to go up so I have somewhere to set it up and work on. mainly the bracket for hoisting the topper would get stuck when passing through the topper, I just need to tweak that with soem guides and it should be fine.

I didn't really have any issues with the topper spinning, becuase its 2 wire connection it can rotate but not spin.

I used some telocom rope as guidewires this year which held the tree nicely.

I just used rope to hold the bottom of the strips to the trampoline base as the electic ball straps I ordered didn't arrive in time. however I didn't have the trampoline base pegs down so maintaining decent tension was a bit difficult, i need to sort out a decent way of holding down the base

 

[Croydon Lights]

I was think of attaching the base to the pole base with 20mm square tubing in triangle effect so I could still mow under the base as it is in the middle of my lawn

 

[Johnno]

Hey there BooY, looks awesome, I can see you put a lot of thought and planning into it as any I&E Dual tradesman would Just wondering where you got the connectors for the bottom of your enclosure(with the blue cap, can't think of correct name), as I hate the look of pigtails hanging out the bottom of an enclosure.

 

[Croydon Lights]

Hi BooY do you sell the brackets for the hinge or would you have a drawing of them that I could buy from you

 

[Snicko]

the brackets would be awesome as a kit!