Mega tree using strapping and strip light

logandc99 said:
Ok thanks. I'll go with 25mm.

Shell, thanks for the name. Hopefully that's his usual price and not a mates rate. :)
Prices vary widely and wildly around here.
The quotes I have had so far around Auckland for the same product per 4m is $50, $31, $25, $22 and the cheapest from Cory's was $16.50.
Crazy variation and way more expensive than Oz or Takanini.
Time for a Road Trip south :)
Click to expand...

Ask for a bundle price you may find its cheaper that way (bundle = 10 lengths)
 
Kane said:
I've bought a bunch of PVC pipe lengths from this place, but I think they're based in Perth so probably not viable for others.. But should at least give you an idea of how cheap they can sell it for
http://www.pipeonline.com.au/listProduct/ELECTRICAL+CONDUIT%2C+FITTINGS/ELECTRICAL+CONDUIT+PVC
20mm - $2.68+gst per length
25mm - $3.66+gst per length
Click to expand...

Go on, rub it in! :)

( After the first quote I got, it might well have been cheaper to fly to Perth and pick some up! :) )
 
Hi guys. I have used fibreglass battens which are basically thin pieces of fibreglass which are used in sails. They work great as they have rigidity and are very thin so don't have much wind resistance. They also come with ends which have holes so you can cable tie them. Any place that sells fibreglass battens should have them and from memory they were reasonably priced but that was several years ago. Anyway, here is a link to where I got mine from in western Sydney and the guy cut them to size, although any hack saw can also achieve this.

http://www.permex.com.au/product_list.htm

Cheers
 
ɟɐsʇǝppʎ said:
I have a few pics at home which ive been meaning to post
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Heres a few pictures of my tree and how it was constructed

The tree after a season.
A main 50mmOD Galvanised pole helped make the tree rock solid
The conduits are all straight the lefy side is actually the strip has just moved around the conduit when i was moving the tree and just needs to be straightened up. So the aluminium cross bars give the conduit the strength to not flex and bend in the wind.

[attachimg=1]



Aluminium cross bars bought from bunning gave the conduit support and helped with over rigidity

[attachimg=2]



Mounted additional bars to give additional support, notice that the 3 bars are screwed togrther

[attachimg=3]



Top of the tree where the guy wire was attached. I used 2 guy wire kits bought from bunnings, one for the top and one for half way down the tree

[attachimg=4]



Guy wire attached 1/2 way dowm the tree.

[attachimg=5]



This design proved to be solid with no movement during high winds and was not too expensive or hard to create
 

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Thanks for posting the pictures. They will come in very handy when I try to construct mine for this year ( hopefully).

Just received my first lot of pixels and intelligent strip from Ray ( 12v WS2811) ... Exciting! Now just have to wait for the J1sys boards to come available so I can play with the new lights.
 
Hi Guys,

Thanks for posting the information including pictures, I am new to all of this and it helps to get an idea of how to setup rigs for such a project.

I had found some pictures of a mega tree using rope as the supports and was looking at this to base my build on for a tree I was possibly planning for this year.

I suspect however that Eddy's system would be much more rigid.

Eddy can you advise if the strips you have used are the full length or are they shortened to match the 4m conduit length?

It also looks like you feed most of the system from the bottom and join 2 strips together looking at the direction of the arrows on the strips and the close up picture of the joints under the star.
SuperStar_FullView.JPG
SuperStar_BottomOfRope.JPG SuperStar_AluminumCrossingRope.JPG
 
Couple of quick questions.
1) can you run two strips of 5m WS2811 per output from the ECG-P12 or do I need to inject power. At the end of the second strip. I see posts about injecting power between strips 2 & 3 if you are running 3 strips per output but I was thinking about running only two per output (one strip up and the next down and then using a new output for the next two strips and so on using 6 of the P12 outputs for the tree).
Or are my options only one strip per output vs 3 strips per output with power injection ( sorry if I'm not explaining this very well).

2) I see fasteddy has nice matrix pictures on his tree using 12 strips. Has anyone used less(I.e 8 or 9) and can still get descent images in the matrix tree?
 
logandc99 said:
Couple of quick questions.
1) can you run two strips of 5m WS2811 per output from the ECG-P12 or do I need to inject power. At the end of the second strip. I see posts about injecting power between strips 2 & 3 if you are running 3 strips per output but I was thinking about running only two per output (one strip up and the next down and then using a new output for the next two strips and so on using 6 of the P12 outputs for the tree).
Or are my options only one strip per output vs 3 strips per output with power injection ( sorry if I'm not explaining this very well).

2) I see fasteddy has nice matrix pictures on his tree using 12 strips. Has anyone used less(I.e 8 or 9) and can still get descent images in the matrix tree?
Click to expand...

I use 2 strips per P12R output and i inject power at the end of strip 2. So basically what your thinking of doing

I am using full 5 metre length strips placed on 1 and a bit conduit sticks, total length of conduit is 4metre + 1.2 metres = 5.2 metres so that leaves 100mm left at each end of the strip when attached to the conduit.
 
Ok, so I got my conduit and laid it out on the garage floor. Now I'm just wondering whether to do 9 strips or 12.
Is any particular number of strips easier to get matrix type animations on the tree using LSP? (I.e am I going to struggle to get recognisable images on 9 strips).
Also, as Ray now seems to have that new 48leds/m WS2811 strip available, am I likely to achieve as good animations on a 9 strip tree compared to a12 strip using the 30led/m strip.
The reason I'm wondering about 9 strips instead of twelve is not only a matter of cost but also the size of the tree to handle compared to a 12 strip tree.
Maybe this is difficult to answer as the 48led/m are so new and nobody has tried these out.

And can I just apologise in advance for the many silly questions I will be asking as I learn about LSP and pixels :-|
 

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logandc99 said:
Ok, so I got my conduit and laid it out on the garage floor. Now I'm just wondering whether to do 9 strips or 12.
Is any particular number of strips easier to get matrix type animations on the tree using LSP? (I.e am I going to struggle to get recognisable images on 9 strips).
Also, as Ray now seems to have that new 48leds/m WS2811 strip available, am I likely to achieve as good animations on a 9 strip tree compared to a12 strip using the 30led/m strip.
The reason I'm wondering about 9 strips instead of twelve is not only a matter of cost but also the size of the tree to handle compared to a 12 strip tree.
Maybe this is difficult to answer as the 48led/m are so new and nobody has tried these out.

And can I just apologise in advance for the many silly questions I will be asking as I learn about LSP and pixels :-|
Click to expand...

There is no real rule on how many strips are needed but i would think 9 would still work well. Paying the extra for the higher resolution strip may not give you a great benifit when doing a tree like this mainly because your resolution and gaps between the strips in the verticle is still limited to 9 or 12 strips depending on what you choose, so a higher resolution strip will not give you a better ability to generate things like text.
The other thing to consider is using the matrix tools with LSP and the lower the resolution the quicker and easier it is to make up your own simple animations.
 
Thanks fasteddy.
I had thought about it afterwards that the new strip will only increase pixel density vertically but not horizontally as the latter is determined by the number of strips I use and how close they are together. So it would actually be more "cost effective" for me to go 12 strips at the 30leds/m rather than the 48leds/m as the cost difference is nearly $20 US per strip.
Anyway, I have seen your mega tree in the vids and can see that your system works well so I'm probably best to stick with what is proven to work well.

With regards to your comment about the pricing of the conduit being criminal.... sadly the cost of most stuff here in little old NZ is "criminal" compared to elsewhere which is why Internet shopping is flourishing ( unless you live in Takanini like Shell where pricing seems to be so much better than a few kms north... for some unknown reason ;-) )


Shell, I didn't end up doing the big drive south down your way as planned due events beyond my control. But i did find somewhere that wasn't quite so criminal in their pricing and they were only 5mins away.
And yes the guy you mentioned would have sold the conduit "close" to the price you gave ( he quoted me $7.68 per 4m so I guess I was missing out on the eyelash fluttering discount ;-) )
(My wife always gets better discounts than I do)
 
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