Lawrence Drive Lights - Flat Pixel "Wall Trees"

LawrenceDriveLights

Senior elf
Joined
Jan 16, 2018
Messages
581
Hi following on from my Build Thread here is the basics of my Flat Pixel Matrix trees or as I refer to them "Wall Trees".

I had the idea of having some sort of matrix on the front walls of my house as there is no windows on these walls (yep a bit weird but hey thats how the house was built).

I did however wanted to keep the "traditional christmas light look" so to speak and went with some Mini MegaTrees.

They ended up being 12 stands of 42 nodes using Boscoyo strip and square nodes.
Approx 1200mm wide at bottom x 2200mm high
Like the rest of my display I was after a way to easily mount these to the walls, without having to drill holes etc and also a have a way of helping with a quicker set up and pack up as my Display was growing.


I decided the easiest way was to have frame for these Wall Trees, so I knock up a very rough frame from some cheap timber and gave it a even rougher coat of black paint (which will probably was off in the first rain, but you never know).

A pic of the basic frame
View: https://www.dropbox.com/s/n5b9azialbt66e4/Photo%2023-5-18%2C%203%2024%2012%20pm.jpg?dl=0


Then I used a scrap piece of aluminium equal angle for the top with the strips simply cable tied to it

View: https://www.dropbox.com/s/0q27duu703t4cds/Photo%205-6-18%2C%207%2010%2026%20pm.jpg?dl=0


The bottom I simply drilled holes through the bottom frame (I will probably add another piece of aluminium on the bottom and drill holes like the top to stop the timber spitting)

They ended up like this
View: https://www.dropbox.com/s/s48mrq1lpv7jxet/Photo%2027-8-18%2C%201%2004%2020%20pm.jpg?dl=0


Now I wanted a way to secure them to wall and simply used a Ratchet strap attached to the top of the frame and for testing a brick as a weight at the bottom (update: I will use a star dropper stake at the bottom)
With the combination of the angle of the wall tree leaning back against the house, the edge of the garden bed it is nice and secure.

View: https://www.dropbox.com/s/oyxzv8rlsi8tjs6/Photo%2027-8-18%2C%201%2005%2015%20pm.jpg?dl=0


I then had some Boscoyo Stars to fit to the top of the Wall Trees and have used a simple conduit T cable tied and screw to the top frame.

View: https://www.dropbox.com/s/jluw1ja4nl9f68s/Photo%2027-8-18%2C%2012%2051%2037%20pm.jpg?dl=0


I will also probable use another Brick Clip to help mount hold the Star against the wall, but all looks ok (I assume time will tell ).

They will look like this (sorry for bad picture ,sunlight and dodgy iPhone not a good mix).

View: https://www.dropbox.com/s/pcl5wbbd4yol5dp/Photo%2027-8-18%2C%201%2006%2045%20pm.jpg?dl=0
 
Last edited:

scamper

Dedicated elf
Joined
Jan 5, 2014
Messages
1,225
Location
collie
I like it, Nice and simple yet effective.
Being against a wall should be OK with the brick as weight, but from experience there is a lot of wind loading with these strips, so a more permanent mounting point would be better, just for piece of mind.
 

jamesski

Apprentice elf
Joined
Oct 6, 2018
Messages
85
Hi

I have a question about this tree as I’ll be looking at making something like this next year.
How many data/power points are you using all
Up? Thinking of running one of these off a differential receiver so will be 3 Ports for tree and one for the star. Would this work?
 

LawrenceDriveLights

Senior elf
Joined
Jan 16, 2018
Messages
581

LawrenceDriveLights

Senior elf
Joined
Jan 16, 2018
Messages
581
Hi

I have a question about this tree as I’ll be looking at making something like this next year.
How many data/power points are you using all
Up? Thinking of running one of these off a differential receiver so will be 3 Ports for tree and one for the star. Would this work?


Hi, I am running each "wall tree" of a Falcon differential receiver board including the star.

Basic set up is

42 x 12V square WS2811 Nodes per Strand.
With 3 Strands per String (giving a total of 168 Nodes per String),

I am utilising one output from the Falcon differential receiver board per string (4 x outputs available per diff receiver board) and the other output for the star on top of the "wall tree". The star has 50 x 12V ws2811 bullet nodes with no power injection required.

I have also utilised power injection at the end of each string via a Falcon F8 Distribution board.
 

jamesski

Apprentice elf
Joined
Oct 6, 2018
Messages
85
Hi, I am running each "wall tree" of a Falcon differential receiver board including the star.

Basic set up is

42 x 12V square WS2811 Nodes per Strand.
With 3 Strands per String (giving a total of 168 Nodes per String),

I am utilising one output from the Falcon differential receiver board per string (4 x outputs available per diff receiver board) and the other output for the star on top of the "wall tree". The star has 50 x 12V ws2811 bullet nodes with no power injection required.

I have also utilised power injection at the end of each string via a Falcon F8 Distribution board.
Hi thanks for this. So do you thinking running 12 strings with 4 strings off each of the 3 ports and then doing the star on the 4th port will work?

Obviously will power inject Along the way
 

Derf

am now a 5v hypocrite
Joined
Dec 1, 2016
Messages
251
Location
Narellan Vale, NSW
ARe the Boscoyo strips no good in windy conditions? what else can you use?

My 5.5ish meter tree withstood the 90kmh Winds we had here at the beginning of the month. They are very strong and are used as secondary tie downs with bungee cords in my display

Spoiler content hidden. Log in to see this content.
 

LawrenceDriveLights

Senior elf
Joined
Jan 16, 2018
Messages
581
Hi thanks for this. So do you thinking running 12 strings with 4 strings off each of the 3 ports and then doing the star on the 4th port will work?

Obviously will power inject Along the way

Yes I assume if you have your controller / xlights (or other sequencing software) configured it should work.

There is a couple of different ways of setting up pixel type matices (essential what these are),
Most people tend to use 5V pixels for matrix type element / props etc but everybody likes to do things there own way.

Also lots of people run more pixels per output than this, but again this was just how I set it up and it seems to work for me at the moment.
 
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