G'day from Tassie

[Whitey-]

After a bit of a loose test mount on the roof (1 clip per 400mm or so), we had success:



The clips hold really well. I've tested with about 5x 1.2m lengths now (connected with conduit connectors) each with 3x magnets on them, and they hold pretty strong, even in the wind. I marked on the roof their spot, and so far they haven't moved a millimetre!



Unfortunately (??) around this time I ended up buying a fire truck at auction. Very cool, but I had to organise transport, storage etc - all tricky when you don't have room for a fire truck or a license to drive one . Unfortunately it won't make it into this years display, but hopefully I've got it resprayed and looking mint by next year.

 

[Whitey-]

After that, I realised I didn't have a single logic/distro node built completely, despite needing at least 5 of them, so I focused up on that.

I find soldering pretty tricky, so I soldiered on and tried to get the job done as best I could. Those solder connectors you heat up with a heat gun (or lighter in my case) are incredibly strong and functional though, big fan of those!



The 'final' result is pretty good! I still don't have air flow in it yet, but I have what I need, just need to sort ouf my mounting. Here you can see 4x power/logic cables on the top, and 4x power injection cables on the bottom. The fuse block has 12 total - 8 used mentioned, + 1 running the 3.3v for the ESP32. There's still room for 3x more injections (possibly data, but I think 4x outputs is plenty off a single ESP32).

At this stage I'm running a single 25A rated cable from the power supply, but I'm planning to stack 3x of equal length to ensure roughly equal distribution between them.

 

[Whitey-]

One of the neighbours last weekend saw me working on the distro box and asked if I wanted 4x 1.8m folding tables he was going to throw out, so now I have a pretty firm 'Whitey's Workshop' . The car will make it back in one day



We've done a couple of testers of the lights the last few nights to lock in placement.

 

[Whitey-]

This was really helpful, because yesterday I ended up sending out the DJI Mini 2 I've got gathering dust and doing some photogrammetry - my first time trying! I took about 150 photos, used WebODM to combine them, then sliced in Blender. Unfortunately I couldn't work out how to export the textures in Blender (I said before I wasn't a great 3D modeller!), so I just used the non cleaned up version in xLights. That said, I think it looks pretty good!




In hindsights, I should have taken the photos after I moved the big dirt pile and the old Audi sitting there (both done today), but oh well, it gives a good enough idea!

 

[Whitey-]

Today I've been out getting ready for the megatree. I've marked a spot based on where we tested and dug out a hole about 30cm down. I mixed some concrete, cut down some 50mm PVC so it's tighter on the pole, heated it with the heat cut and wrapped it in cable ties.



I'm not sure if this is the right approach - I've never really done any construction - but it seems to hold the pole well!



I've taken the pole out, and hopefully I'll have a winched setup to test by the time it's properly firm in a day or two. That's next on my challenge list - working out exactly how to do that

 

[Whitey-]

So here's my master 'todo' list. All is probably doable, but I'm aiming for a December 1st show (why couldn't the first Friday in the month be the 6th?), so I might be cutting it tight. We'll see how we go!

If anyone has any criticism, concerns or general thoughts, I'm very open to them. I'm winging it as I go, and I guess that'll keep working out until it doesn't

• Set up 500 chromatrim lights and test power injection points
• Add fans to build distro box
• Fix data output 1 on first distro box (wrong pin on ESP32?)
• Build second distro box
  • Test with ethernet ESP32s
    • Might need to change pins, see https://github.com/Aircoookie/WLED/issues/2807
• Get on roof
  • Work out exact chromatrim lengths for shorter (< 1.2m/48 light) sections
  • Test assumed placement along roof lines
  • Work out mount for P5 panels
• Push pixels for megatree strips
• Confirm amps for megatree and distribution (two power supplies?)
• Work out how to attach winch + topper to megatree pole
• Fix trampoline base
• Buy hooks for trampoline/megatree
• Push second singing tree
• Organise ACMA radio license
• Work out power distro placement locations
• Create first arch to test
  • Work out feet
• Push spinner
• Push window frames
• Set up Megatree
  • Add ratchet straps to fence, house and tent peg behind
• Push remaining arches
• Create remaining 3 distro boxes
• Buy temporary fencing
  • Mount singing faces
• Set up all models correctly in xlights (channels)
• Start sequencing

 

[Skymaster]

I ended up buying a fire truck at auction.

I love how you say this so casually as if it is something that normal folk do regularly

That's awesome. What's the long term idea behind the truck?

 

[someoneAUS]

I was just replying to the same thing... casually buying a firetruck. Sometimes I feel like I dont have the funds to do this hobby.

Organise ACMA radio license

Interested to know whats involved in this. I was under the impression most people kept the power low and attempted to fly under the radar.

 

[Skymaster]

You won't get an ACMA licence. The best you can get is an APRA narrowcast permission that allows you to play the music without paying royalties.
ACMA licences for using spectrum are quite difficult to get and very costly (of memory the auction reserve is $2k, and that is just to be in the running for it against everyone else with a bid) https://www.acma.gov.au/auction-summary-87-88-mhz-low-power-open-narrowcasting-licences-2001

 

[Skymaster]

Work out how to attach winch + topper to megatree pole

My winch is just two 12mm diameter bolts, four washers and two nuts. Finger tight. This is sufficient for the load on it.


The topper is only hanging by the steel cables from the winch. It goes up and over the pulley and is attached using a D Shackle onto an eye bolt I have attached just behind the star.
A second wire cable comes from the back of the topper, and is anchored to the trampoline. This serves 3 purposes.
1. allows me to tension the back of the topper so that it's level and the front is not facing to the ground
2. Angle and rotate the topper as I'm reading it so the top outer points in the Star can clear the guy wires
3. Similar to 1/ keeping it level, but when lowering the topper, otherwise it binds to the pole and stutters or gets stuck

 

[Whitey-]

I love how you say this so casually as if it is something that normal folk do regularly

That's awesome. What's the long term idea behind the truck?

I was just replying to the same thing... casually buying a firetruck. Sometimes I feel like I dont have the funds to do this hobby.

Ha, it's actually been pretty satisfying to just insert into an email or text lines like 'yep, I'll head over after I pick up the fire truck' or similar things.

Initially I'm planning to get a 'special interest' license (similar to heritage on the mainland I believe). For vehicles over 30 years old (this is) it's fairly easy, but I need to respray the panels, replace any rusty bits (which is pretty much just the steps), clean up the dials and redo the upholstery. I also need to get a medium-rigid so I can drive the thing! I figure I'll see if I can get involved in some local charity events etc and just have fun with it.

We're planning to buy a good sized acreage in the future, so long term I want to build a workshop big enough to be able to work on it and completely swap out the engine with an electric motor + batteries. It'll probably take me a few years, but I enjoy a challenge. I'm actually picking up a 1987 Ford Telstar from the mainland next week, as I found a good deal on one, and I figured I should practice electric conversion on something smaller and simpler first.

All that has to wait though, as I've got lights to do, and December/Jan I'm fitting out a new fish and chip shop which I'm hoping to open in early Feb . But it's nice to have the vehicles there, ready for when I am.

Interested to know whats involved in this. I was under the impression most people kept the power low and attempted to fly under the radar.

You won't get an ACMA licence. The best you can get is an APRA narrowcast permission that allows you to play the music without paying royalties.
ACMA licences for using spectrum are quite difficult to get and very costly (of memory the auction reserve is $2k, and that is just to be in the running for it against everyone else with a bid) https://www.acma.gov.au/auction-summary-87-88-mhz-low-power-open-narrowcasting-licences-2001

Yeah you're right, an ARPA one is what I'm after. When I was making my notes, I probably wrote down ACMA because they're in my head. I run a telco as well, so they're who I think of for radio spectrum. I'd love to own some radio spectrum, but I've got enough on the go currently!

My winch is just two 12mm diameter bolts, four washers and two nuts. Finger tight. This is sufficient for the load on it.
View attachment 24540

The topper is only hanging by the steel cables from the winch. It goes up and over the pulley and is attached using a D Shackle onto an eye bolt I have attached just behind the star.
A second wire cable comes from the back of the topper, and is anchored to the trampoline. This serves 3 purposes.
1. allows me to tension the back of the topper so that it's level and the front is not facing to the ground
2. Angle and rotate the topper as I'm reading it so the top outer points in the Star can clear the guy wires
3. Similar to 1/ keeping it level, but when lowering the topper, otherwise it binds to the pole and stutters or gets stuck
View attachment 24541

Thank you, that's very helpful. I just went and watched your 2022 behind the scenes too for some more visual. I noticed some people have cut their own metal plates to mount to the pole - looks great, but I don't have the tooling or skillset for that and it was stressing me a bit. I also just had a moment of panic when I realised I wasn't sure how to pull my winch hook through the topper - your topper has a lovely big semi-circle cutout for it. Turns out mine has a larger-than-the-rest hole on the inner diameter - phew!

When you say a 'second wire', is that the one parallel with the pole itself in the photo? That's a great idea, thanks. I've noticed the topper getting stuck on the pole seems to be a problem everyone encounters when tensioning. I'm guessing you cut this to length and it's not adjustable once up?

the Star

Doh, I knew I was forgetting something. I bought a 1.2m star for the top of the tree. Guess I'll add that to the list!

I also noticed that you're using a 24v backbone and 5v lights. I'm experimenting today with how many pixels I can get away with injection wise at 60% brightness. There are a lot of numbers online - what have you found works for you?

Also - dumb question - your arches are basically exactly what I plan to build (differing in footing only). How did you secure the strips with the tubing? Did you glue the backs and push them through? I'm not quite up to this yet, but I have been thinking and wondering how I stop the strips from twisting or sititng unequally within the tubing.

Cheers!

 

[Iain]

Do you have a link for the magnets you purchased?
Your speed and ability is blowing me away! I’m struggling to finish just a simple display. Can’t wait to see your vids!

 

[Whitey-]

Thank you! We'll see, but I think the actual putting up the props and lights is the easy part for me, it's understanding the underlying show and power that's tricky. My ambition is a lot higher than what I'm going to get done next year, but I think once I've got the basics covered I'm going to do some pretty good stuff next year.

Yes, these are the magnets I got:

N52 Cuboid Neodymium Magnets Block Super Strong Super Strong Rare Earth Magnet | eBay

N52 Super Strong Magnets Block Rare Earth Cuboid Neodymium Super Strong Magnet. N52 Super Strong Magnet Block Rare Earth Cuboid Neodymium 30×10×5mm DIY Magnets. 5-100X N52 Super Strong Magnets Block Rare Earth Cuboid Neodymium 30mm×20mm×10mm.

www.ebay.com.au

They were more pricey than I'd like. You can find similar ones on Chinese sites or eBay shipping from overseas, but given I was in a rush I ended up paying about $1 per magnet, shipping inc. With 32 odd pieces of coro and 3 magnets per mount, we'll see how well my 100 will last .

Also, I did some voltage testing this morning on 350 lights I had handy already pushed. I added T intersections at each 50 connection point so I could measure voltage from wherever.



In the first image, I'm only doing power in 3 points - start, middle(ish, 200) and end at 100% white. The measurement of 3.38v was at the 100 pixel mark.

The second image, I'm adding power in 4 points every 100ish - start, 100, 200 and end (350) The measure of 4.09v was at the 200 pixel mark.

I actually don't see much colour difference between them - the pink tint still remains and I'd imagine I have to inject every 50 to completely remove that. That said, I don't intend to run the show at 100% - likely around the 60% mark. It also looks a lot worse in the photo than it does in real life.

The difference is much less noticable in other colours (here's green for example at 100%), although as you can see on the meter over by my distro box, the amperage draw and voltage loss is a LOT less!



I think based on this, I'm comfortable with injecting every 200px or so. Whites and pinks (that's the only other one I found that doesn't look perfect) might suffer slightly, but we'll see how we go. Once my roofline is up, I might test it and hate it, and then have to recable everything - hopefully not!

 

[Skymaster]

When you say a 'second wire', is that the one parallel with the pole itself in the photo? That's a great idea, thanks. I've noticed the topper getting stuck on the pole seems to be a problem everyone encounters when tensioning. I'm guessing you cut this to length and it's not adjustable once up?

Tensioning is not the problem, it's bringing it back down where it binds. The wire pulling from the top of the side that's angled down counteracts the binding.
However when lowering, the winch wire when loosened doesnt prevent the binding. So by pulling on the back of the topper levels it back out and prevents that binding.

It's 100% adjustable, it's fixed onto the topper side, but once the tree is up, I loop it on the base ring and clamp it off. It needs adjusting if I raise or lower the top.
The topper side is fixed into the center at the back, but that was a mistake, as I need to pull it to one side due to my ground / base ring not being totally level causing them star to sit wonky. So I've cable tied it across onto the right-hand side when looking from the back, which allows me to pull it level from both front-to-back as well as left-to-right.



This is the tree with annotations as to what's what.

 

[Whitey-]

Hi all,

Hope you all had a great season and a good new years!

Apologies for not posting for a while - things got a bit hectic near the end there. I think I ended up doing 8 all nighters in the month before Christmas, either doing Christmas light related things or catching up on other things I'd neglected due to Christmas lights!

It's all a bit of a blur, but I believe I ended up doing 3 nights of full 50 minute shows with everything up (which we advertised in the local community Facebook group and got a good number of people down for), along with a handful of nights with partials or mostly for testing. Yesterday I finished taking everything down, and today I've finished editing up a video I did a few nights ago - filming in silence at midnight and editing the audio in after. I'll post a few final build things and the final product here. Before I do, massive thanks to all of you for your help, it was sincerely appreciated and kept me going.