Lighting novice

Pooch

New elf
Joined
May 29, 2018
Messages
31
Hi Scamper.
I was looking through some older threads and saw one from afew years ago where you posted a link to a video you made in 2016 at Christmas. I was wondering how hard you found it to make your own mega tree and small arches ?
Eventually I would like to have a say 10 foot tree and a couple of arches ( front lawn isn't too big) but I might have to pic your brain on how you made them if that's OK.

I've been watching so many videos on youtube just getting to grips on how to put everything together that I'm anxious to start.

Just got to remember to take small steps I guess.
 

scamper

Dedicated elf
Joined
Jan 5, 2014
Messages
1,225
Location
collie
Hey Pooch.
The mega tree is one that can be made a million different ways. and for me it was about the price!
I started scouring around for anything I could get my hands on for cheap or free. I unfortunately gave away a small round trampoline only months earlier, otherwise I would have used that, so make a note... If you see any road side cleanups coming down there, look for the small round tramps, as they make an excellent base for your mega tree.
I had a few old clothes lines and some other bits of steel from a square tramp, and the poles fit nicely inside each other, then I found a piece of pvc pipe that slipped over the largest steel pipe and dug a hole and concreted that into the ground. I bought a length of flat bar and bent it round for the base and welded loops to it to attach the wires. I bought plastic coated clothes line as that was cheaper than any wire you can get, and cable tied all my bullet nodes to that. I then found a round disc of steel and welded a bunch of hooks to that and also welded another cut down piece from the tramp which slots into the main pole. (trampolines are designed to slip into each other piece to be put together)
Now I don't recommend the flat bar idea as it is too weak and bends out of shape too easily, in saying that, this will be my 3rd or 4th year and I haven't replaced it yet. :confused:
The arches are also just bits of pvc, whatever I had laying around (I assume you are talking the roof ones) 2 lengths of pine decking board with some bolts bolted through the board on slight angles then the pvc slips over the bolts. I have attached rgb strips to them and then to give them a glow attached 5mm coreflute to the strip all with cable ties.
Again, I really want to redo those this year, as they were a throw together to give some more height to the display and are not very symmetric.

Small steps??? Bugger that, go big! The first year I did the mega tree, it was not pixels, and it only had 16 strands, but it certainly made a statement.
I have spent the last few years just cleaning up old props and adding little bits here and there. The tree got everyone in town talking, and now people come from far and wide.
Once you get the hang of it, you will be amazed at what you can accomplish.
 

Pooch

New elf
Joined
May 29, 2018
Messages
31
Hi Scamper,
I was wondering if you could please give me a little help if possible to set up my network using a raspberry pi..... If you are using one yourself that is......
Ive watched heaps of videos about setting up the IP addresses eth0 and wlan0 but I'm not sure but when I go to ping the addresses I put in the boxes I get another screen showing results of that actual ping.
On every video I've watched whenever the person making the video hits the ping their video doesn't show any results.
Most of the info I see says to use a different address so that it frees up your home network but whenever I input a different address and ping it the results say that it sent out packets of data but it didn't find a host. Where if I put in my actual address the results show a time and how much data went through.
I was using 192.168.1.4 (in eth0 which is my pi address) and that ping is good. Any different and results show no connection In wlan0 I used 192.168.1.5 with same ping results. So I assumed it was all connected and saved the changes, I disconnected the cat 5 cable and tried to connect with the pi wirelessly using 192.168.1.5 but it didn't work.

Most videos say to use a higher number like 192.168.1.199 in eth0 and maybe 192.168.1.200 for wlan0 which I tried but when I ping them it won't connect..

Sorry for the ramble but If I can't even get the pi connected then I doubt I'll be able to get everything else to connect as well.

Thanks for your time.... If I was a bit vague in my description I could upload a pic to show you..... I'm using Windows and the latest version 1.8 if that helps at all.

Cheers
 
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