First prop - spiral tree (tomato trellis): questions

[Kotche]

Hey all

This is my first intended prop, to help me on my way to better understanding how this hobby works. It’s not perfect but I’m learning.

This is a spiral tree, with 130x 12V pixels. I plan on creating a star next. My star may have 30-40 pixels (I haven’t built it yet so don’t know exactly).

I’ve daisy-chained 2x 100 pixel strings here.

Questions:
1. Do I cut the string between pixel 130 and 131, then string up my star?
2. Leave the string uncut and then string my star - meaning I’ll have one continuous string of lights?
3. Where do I power inject?

 

[Freman]

That looks damn sweet, personally I'd just mount the star permanently and continue the string up into the star. Don't have to worry about water and joints and all that.

 

[djgra79]

I would continue the string from the 130 on the tree to the 30-40 of the star, then run the lead back down ready to connect to the next prop.
You could either use a TPiece between the props as an injection point, or you could also join the pos/neg wires from the end of the star back to the start of the tree, meaning you probably wont need to add an injection lead.

 

[badger4543]

As others have said above and then in xlights you'll map it so the star starts after the tree and it'll then know that at pixel 131 the star starts. If there are more props after this and the star I would run 3 core from the end of the star back to the base and power inject at the base before moving on to your next prop.. also depending how many more pixels after this you may not even require power injection, power injection isn't always needed you can get many more to light by turning the brightness down but then that's abit of an individual thing with your display and how you wish to present it to viewers?

 

[i13]

That's a decent-looking tomato trellis. Most of them have a spiral with wider spacing an only four verticals.

If you plan to have more than one of these, I would suggest adding a connector between the star and the top of the spiral. The reason for this is storage. The spirals could stack for storage if the star is removable. It would otherwise be fine to leave it as a continuous run of pixels.

For power injection, you may well get away with just powering this in the middle or at both ends. It will depend on factors like the pixel type (regulated versus resistor), the cable spacing between the pixels and the brightness level that you want to run the pixels at.

 

[Kotche]

Thanks for the replies, all.

So based on the feedback:
- I'll continue my string into the star
- Set it up so that I can remove the star and associated pixels for easier storage (cut the string and make a connection between pixels 130 & 131)

My pixels are resistor type, 3in spacing and I'll likely be running them at less than 50% since they're more powerful than the dumb RGBs I'll be using elsewhere in my display.

What I think I'm understanding re: advice of running power back to the base of the prop from the end of the star. My tree has 2x 100pixel strings; let's say my star starts at 131 and ends at 170, I'll have 30 unused pixels on the second string. The suggestion seems to be to:
- cut the string between 170 and 171, then
- run a lead from 170 back to the base, to power inject, then extend to 2nd prop
- repeat for prop 2, run power injection from end of Star 2 to base

Did I catch that right? Something like this diagram?
What about fuses?