Hi from The Hunter Valley

[Kurt87]

Hi there. New to the wonderful world of pixies but seems Iv caught the bug that so many of you guys have. From Branxton NSW and apart from one sequenced display that Iv seen in the Maitland area there is no one around here that is into it.
I havnt purchased anything yet so far but merely gathering as much info as I can so I can make a more informed choice on what I want out of my display for Christmas 2021 , which at this stage I’m thinking of a mega tree and some house outline lights for my first display and then hopefully move into more props and singing elements in the following years to come.
I’ve read lots of threads on here which seems like a very welcoming forum and helpful (which is great as I am bound to need a lot of help until get a good grasp on my setup) aswell as hours of vids on YouTube and even had a good play on xlights. Iv downloaded the 101 manual and had a quick flick through and intend on reading that over the coming week or so.
My initial thoughts on a controller would be a falcon f48 with a few 4ch receivers and add to as my display increases. 5v strings for my mega tree and 12v strings for my house outline as injecting would be harder over the long runs as my house has approx 20 m wide frontage and double story. Thanks for who ever suggested in another post about contacting old uncle ray ray direct instead of going through AliExpress.
So thanks for having me and I’ll try not to be too much of a pest, Cheers Kurt

 

[Old Salt]

You are going in the right direction. Watch out for 'sticker shock.' Megatrees (and matrices) are probably the most expensive parts of a display. DIY megatrees start at roughly $1500, and go up fast. I'm pricing one out now...

for a 180° DIY tree, 25 x 100 pixel strips, 5cm spacing
$618.20 - 55 x 50 pixels strings (5 spare)
$130.00 - 1 x Boscoyo Megatree Mounting Roll 500′ Heavy Duty Max
$ 25.00 - 100 x Boscoyo MISR Clip - for ends of strips
$150.00 Kulp K16A-B Controller (with Beaglebone Black)
$110.50 2 x MeanWell MW 5V 60A 350W AC/DC Switching Power Supply LRS-350-5
$500.00 misc parts (topper base, pole, enclosures, anchors, etc)
________________________________________________________
$1533.70 USD + shipping + customs

This will give you a tree just over 16' tall from the base to the topper. Toss in a top ornament for about $100 USD. Note that with 5V power supplies, the total current for the strips will be about 150A at full brightness. It will take about 7A at 110V or 3.2A at 240V, so it can be run through an extension cord.

You can go for the Minleon 31′ Ultimate RGB Megatree at only $28,500.00 USD from Boscoyo, or DIY your own version of it for about $8K-$10K USD.

 

[i13]

I think I see one possible long-term problem with this plan. The Falcon F48 is able to support 12 receiver boards but they can't have as many pixels per output when there are that many. The receiver boards are arranged in three rows of four. If you're only using one row (four receivers) then they can have 1018 pixels per output on each receiver. That's a total of 16 outputs of 1018 pixels. If you use a second row of receiver boards (total of eight receivers) then the number of pixels supported doesn't increase; it is divided up between the two rows. If you set the first row to have a limit 500 pixels per output on each receiver, this leaves the capacity to have a limit of 519 per output on the remaining four receivers. It's 519 and not 518 because at least one pixel must be allocated to each of the three rows at any time, even when no receivers are connected. Using three rows means sharing the same capacity with even more receivers. Decreasing this to 678 pixels for one row and dividing this up accordingly allows you to have the pixels running at 40 frames per second instead of 20.

I recommend reading this thread before buying 12V pixel nodes: https://auschristmaslighting.com/threads/12161/

 

[Chrisekert]

Hi there. New to the wonderful world of pixies but seems Iv caught the bug that so many of you guys have. From Branxton NSW and apart from one sequenced display that Iv seen in the Maitland area there is no one around here that is into it.
I havnt purchased anything yet so far but merely gathering as much info as I can so I can make a more informed choice on what I want out of my display for Christmas 2021 , which at this stage I’m thinking of a mega tree and some house outline lights for my first display and then hopefully move into more props and singing elements in the following years to come.
I’ve read lots of threads on here which seems like a very welcoming forum and helpful (which is great as I am bound to need a lot of help until get a good grasp on my setup) aswell as hours of vids on YouTube and even had a good play on xlights. Iv downloaded the 101 manual and had a quick flick through and intend on reading that over the coming week or so.
My initial thoughts on a controller would be a falcon f48 with a few 4ch receivers and add to as my display increases. 5v strings for my mega tree and 12v strings for my house outline as injecting would be harder over the long runs as my house has approx 20 m wide frontage and double story. Thanks for who ever suggested in another post about contacting old uncle ray ray direct instead of going through AliExpress.
So thanks for having me and I’ll try not to be too much of a pest, Cheers Kurt

Hi Kurt - Newbie here too - we are in Bellbird so not far from you guys and next year will be our first. If you need to order OS and want to save freight let us know as we might jump onboard. Cheers Chris

 

[Kurt87]

You are going in the right direction. Watch out for 'sticker shock.' Megatrees (and matrices) are probably the most expensive parts of a display. DIY megatrees start at roughly $1500, and go up fast. I'm pricing one out now...

for a 180° DIY tree, 25 x 100 pixel strips, 5cm spacing
$618.20 - 55 x 50 pixels strings (5 spare)
$130.00 - 1 x Boscoyo Megatree Mounting Roll 500′ Heavy Duty Max
$ 25.00 - 100 x Boscoyo MISR Clip - for ends of strips
$150.00 Kulp K16A-B Controller (with Beaglebone Black)
$110.50 2 x MeanWell MW 5V 60A 350W AC/DC Switching Power Supply LRS-350-5
$500.00 misc parts (topper base, pole, enclosures, anchors, etc)
________________________________________________________
$1533.70 USD + shipping + customs

This will give you a tree just over 16' tall from the base to the topper. Toss in a top ornament for about $100 USD. Note that with 5V power supplies, the total current for the strips will be about 150A at full brightness. It will take about 7A at 110V or 3.2A at 240V, so it can be run through an extension cord.

You can go for the Minleon 31′ Ultimate RGB Megatree at only $28,500.00 USD from Boscoyo, or DIY your own version of it for about $8K-$10K USD.

Thanks old salt and yes I know the tree will probably be a big hitter in terms of a pocket emptier and I definitely won’t be buying a pre-made kit, it will all be home made/fabricated as much as possible. Saying that..... when I put the idea to the boss she was more interested in having a tree than anything else so who am I to deny her the magic of a megatree . I have not sat down and worked out the power calcs yet so thanks for your insight

 

[Kurt87]

I think I see one possible long-term problem with this plan. The Falcon F48 is able to support 12 receiver boards but they can't have as many pixels per output when there are that many. The receiver boards are arranged in three rows of four. If you're only using one row (four receivers) then they can have 1018 pixels per output on each receiver. That's a total of 16 outputs of 1018 pixels. If you use a second row of receiver boards (total of eight receivers) then the number of pixels supported doesn't increase; it is divided up between the two rows. If you set the first row to have a limit 500 pixels per output on each receiver, this leaves the capacity to have a limit of 519 per output on the remaining four receivers. It's 519 and not 518 because at least one pixel must be allocated to each of the three rows at any time, even when no receivers are connected. Using three rows means sharing the same capacity with even more receivers. Decreasing this to 678 pixels for one row and dividing this up accordingly allows you to have the pixels running at 40 frames per second instead of 20.

I recommend reading this thread before buying 12V pixel nodes: https://auschristmaslighting.com/threads/12161/

Cheers i13. I think I’m planning on having a dedicated 4 ch receiver for the tree (32 strings @ 100 plus a topper. Another receiver for the roof outline , and another for the house ( verandah and garage door/window outlines) and one more for a set of yard props which may or may not happen first year. I know I probably won’t use all the ports on the controller but as my yard is pretty stretched out the f48 seemed a logical choice for everything being so far apart. My yard has approx 40m frontage

 

[bpratt]

A different opinion here, as you say in your post that your yard size is only 20m, I'd be tempted to go for a f16v3 instead of the f48, based at the mega tree. You can add a differential expansion card to the f16v3 if you wanted to.

My own opinion is to stick with a set voltage for all of your lights, i.e. 12v or 5v. It's up to you what you choose, however the HP 1200w psu's only come in 12v output (I use them to power my megatree, rather than multiple meanwells).

I'd recommend whatever height megatree you make, you run 24 strands at 50mm pixel spacing. Being your first year, and your megatree is going to be your showpiece, chances are it will be your matrix as such, and sequences which I'm sure you'll be buying rather than creating in your first year, are designed to look best on a 24 strand tree. This also assumes your tree location will be within around 20m from the road and your spectators.

 

[bpratt]

Cheers i13. I think I’m planning on having a dedicated 4 ch receiver for the tree (32 strings @ 100 plus a topper. Another receiver for the roof outline , and another for the house ( verandah and garage door/window outlines) and one more for a set of yard props which may or may not happen first year. I know I probably won’t use all the ports on the controller but as my yard is pretty stretched out the f48 seemed a logical choice for everything being so far apart. My yard has approx 40m frontage

Ah, that changes my earlier reply a little.

32 strands of 100 pixels each, would be using 8 ports in my setup here. I run 12v and power inject between pixel 200 and 201 here.

Oh, 40m yard frontage, I must have misread your first post. Your choice in smart receivers is making even more sense.

 

[Old Salt]

@bpratt Would those 24 strands be for a 180° megatree or the full 360° megatree.

 

[bpratt]

@bpratt Would those 24 strands be for a 180° megatree or the full 360° megatree.

You're right, I should have said for a 180 degree tree.

 

[Kurt87]

Hi Kurt - Newbie here too - we are in Bellbird so not far from you guys and next year will be our first. If you need to order OS and want to save freight let us know as we might jump onboard. Cheers Chris

Hey Chris. Ah good ol bellbird. We moved from Necknock out to here about 7/8 months ago. Kids have been playing for the bombers a few years now not sure about next year we’ll see. I would like to pull the trigger on an order from ray soon. I heard that they are going to send falcon gear directly to aus shortly so will wait for that to happen I guess. Yea let me know what your thinking and I’m sure we can sort something out cheers

 

[franky_888]

G'day Kurt,

We're over at Medowie so kinda close by, I'll have to keep an eye on you and Chris so we can check out your displays next year when we visit HVG!

I've got a 270 degree Megatree (36 strand/60 nodes strand at 3 inch spacing). Have a look at my display videos if you want an idea, it's mounted on a 6.5M steel flag pole. This is 5V, everything else in my current display vids are 12V, so it's quite OK to have mixed voltages, so long as you can keep tabs on this yourself and not mix them up. This year we added a bunch of 5V where it made sense, for me it will generally be dense props will be 5V due to more lights, less voltage drop issues, and sparse props (like roof outlines etc) will remain 12v due to less power injection required. At least for now

The tree currently runs off two differential receivers connected to an F16, but next year I think I'm going to reverse this setup, and have the F16 run the tree. My reasoning for this is that with the receivers there were 6 strands per port. We had a lot of rain this year, and whenever I had a dodgy pixel, I'd lose around a 6th of the tree, due to the height I couldn't fix some of them without pulling it back down again.

TLDR: My current opinion is that you should try to maximise the number of strings you use if you can, so that in the event of something breaking, you don't lose it all in one go.

 

[OzAz]

Hi Kurt, I'm in Newcastle as are quite a few others. Gee family are in Aberglassyn their close.
As you've probably already noticed, for every question you'll get at least 3 different answers. Bottom line is, whatever works best for you (taking into account other's recommendations).

 

[Kurt87]

G'day Kurt,

We're over at Medowie so kinda close by, I'll have to keep an eye on you and Chris so we can check out your displays next year when we visit HVG!

I've got a 270 degree Megatree (36 strand/60 nodes strand at 3 inch spacing). Have a look at my display videos if you want an idea, it's mounted on a 6.5M steel flag pole. This is 5V, everything else in my current display vids are 12V, so it's quite OK to have mixed voltages, so long as you can keep tabs on this yourself and not mix them up. This year we added a bunch of 5V where it made sense, for me it will generally be dense props will be 5V due to more lights, less voltage drop issues, and sparse props (like roof outlines etc) will remain 12v due to less power injection required. At least for now

The tree currently runs off two differential receivers connected to an F16, but next year I think I'm going to reverse this setup, and have the F16 run the tree. My reasoning for this is that with the receivers there were 6 strands per port. We had a lot of rain this year, and whenever I had a dodgy pixel, I'd lose around a 6th of the tree, due to the height I couldn't fix some of them without pulling it back down again.

TLDR: My current opinion is that you should try to maximise the number of strings you use if you can, so that in the event of something breaking, you don't lose it all in one go.

Hi Franky just checked out a couple of your vids and very impressed well done. You guys might have to correct me but I was planning on using 4 channels to run the tree ( 3200 pixels for tree and approx 50-100 for topper) can anyone see a problem with running 800 for 3 channels and ~900 for the 4th. Other than what franky had stated about loosing large sections of your tree if you get a dud pixel. Haha sorry in advance for the newbie over here ...

 

[Kurt87]

Hi Kurt, I'm in Newcastle as are quite a few others. Gee family are in Aberglassyn their close.
As you've probably already noticed, for every question you'll get at least 3 different answers. Bottom line is, whatever works best for you (taking into account other's recommendations).

Thanks mate yea your right, there’s always plenty of ways to skin a cat (sorry cat lovers) and I think for the most part I’ll learn the most from the mistakes I make on my own which is all part of it and I’m sure you all have too. Will be all worth it next year when Iv got something mashed up next year and see the kids get into it. I think it must be the gee families display that Iv seen in aberglassyn few years back but think they moved into a new house. dianella way from memory