Gilrock
Full time elf
I wanted to make a thread to document the parts used to create my 12 ribbon tree so I can have an easy place to show people that ask how I built it.
The main structure holding it up is a 20' telescoping flagpole from Harbor Freight. At the top of the pole I used brackets to mount a board where I screwed in 12 eyelets. I tied ropes to the eyelets which are used to support the ribbons. You can also see the ropes going out in both directions that put backwards force on the pole to balance out the pull of the 12 ropes in front. The ribbons are attached to the ropes with tie wraps. I have to cut the tie wraps off and reattach them every year...a process that takes me about 3 hours. I usually attach a few tie wraps then lift the pole up a few feet and then keep repeating this process until the pole is almost fully extended. The ribbons are about 16' long so I didn't have to go up a full 20'. I used a marker to mark the poles so that next year I know how far to lift each section. This year I drilled a hole through the pole where each section meets as a safety stop in case a section came loose and tried to fall....it can happen.
The base is just an 8' 2'x4' with 3 holes drilled in it to drive steel pins into the ground. With my hard Arizona dirt this thing is rock solid with just the 3 pins driven into the ground. I equally spaced another 12 eyelets which are used to tie the bottoms of the rope. I bought 50' ropes and cut them in half to create each piece and used a full 50' rope to attach to the top for the strands that go backwards.
Another angle of the base:
To keep things easy I run each ribbon on its own output from a J1SYS P12R controller board. My ribbons are the 30/m type so I have 50 pixels per ribbon. I bought the 10' long pieces of 3 core wire and cut them leaving an 8' and a 2' piece. The 2' piece is used to create a pigtail that attaches to the controller while the 8' piece was soldered onto the ribbon. I like to use 1/8" heat shrink on each conductor and then a larger heat shrink that covers up everything I just soldered.
I made this cheap housing from a plastic container from Walmart. There are two 350W 12V power supplies mounted to each side of the container and the P12R board is mounted with standoffs to a piece of 1/8" hard plastic for support and then that is attached to the container. There is a large hole cutout where the cables enter so I put a rock under the upper side of the container and rain water flows off of it. I've been rained on pretty hard and the inside of the container has stayed dry. Even if water got inside everything is lifted from the bottom so it would take an inch of water before anything could get damaged.
I thought this was a fairly inexpensive way to build a 12 ribbon tree so I hope it gives you some ideas.
Watch this tree in action here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ju6eOBwzEsU
The main structure holding it up is a 20' telescoping flagpole from Harbor Freight. At the top of the pole I used brackets to mount a board where I screwed in 12 eyelets. I tied ropes to the eyelets which are used to support the ribbons. You can also see the ropes going out in both directions that put backwards force on the pole to balance out the pull of the 12 ropes in front. The ribbons are attached to the ropes with tie wraps. I have to cut the tie wraps off and reattach them every year...a process that takes me about 3 hours. I usually attach a few tie wraps then lift the pole up a few feet and then keep repeating this process until the pole is almost fully extended. The ribbons are about 16' long so I didn't have to go up a full 20'. I used a marker to mark the poles so that next year I know how far to lift each section. This year I drilled a hole through the pole where each section meets as a safety stop in case a section came loose and tried to fall....it can happen.
The base is just an 8' 2'x4' with 3 holes drilled in it to drive steel pins into the ground. With my hard Arizona dirt this thing is rock solid with just the 3 pins driven into the ground. I equally spaced another 12 eyelets which are used to tie the bottoms of the rope. I bought 50' ropes and cut them in half to create each piece and used a full 50' rope to attach to the top for the strands that go backwards.
Another angle of the base:
To keep things easy I run each ribbon on its own output from a J1SYS P12R controller board. My ribbons are the 30/m type so I have 50 pixels per ribbon. I bought the 10' long pieces of 3 core wire and cut them leaving an 8' and a 2' piece. The 2' piece is used to create a pigtail that attaches to the controller while the 8' piece was soldered onto the ribbon. I like to use 1/8" heat shrink on each conductor and then a larger heat shrink that covers up everything I just soldered.
I made this cheap housing from a plastic container from Walmart. There are two 350W 12V power supplies mounted to each side of the container and the P12R board is mounted with standoffs to a piece of 1/8" hard plastic for support and then that is attached to the container. There is a large hole cutout where the cables enter so I put a rock under the upper side of the container and rain water flows off of it. I've been rained on pretty hard and the inside of the container has stayed dry. Even if water got inside everything is lifted from the bottom so it would take an inch of water before anything could get damaged.
I thought this was a fairly inexpensive way to build a 12 ribbon tree so I hope it gives you some ideas.
Watch this tree in action here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ju6eOBwzEsU
