Mega Tree

[thecrazylightlady]

i have decided not to use my Big W lights for my mega tree this year, instead i would like to go RGB lights. Heres my problem, ive been to 2 of the Adelaide minis and came out none the wiser. i have one of Alans Mega 60's and i have a trial version of LSP ( still waiting for my licence). ive been looking at purchasing from Ray Wu, but there are so many things to look at im getting confused
So what i need from anyone who can help is someone to tell me exactly what else i need
eg;
i need a power supply, how many do i need and what voltage?
i want to do 24 strings, 5 metres long each of RGB pixels. are the lights waterproof and how many lights are in each string?
i need 24 sets of pigtails, what length do i need and do i need a 3 or 4 pin one?
is there anything else i need?
sorry to ask so many questions, but i need to order things asap

 

[mborg10]

have a look at these 2 topics (same tree) and this will give you an example of what has been done by other people.
https://auschristmaslighting.com/threads/mega-tree-guide.5440/
https://auschristmaslighting.com/threads/my-2013-tree-plans.3711/page-2#post-39135

Power supply, you can either go cheap and use ray wu or go expensive and reliable with a mean well power supply. With rays power supplies I wouldn't push them past 80% capacity. How many and what voltage depends on what pixels. I personally use WS2811 dc12v pixels. So in this cad you would need a 12v power supply. Ray sells these light standard with 50 pixels about 10cm apart and according to Ray they operate at 0.3w per pixel (when white) so 50x0.3 x 24 strings = 360w I would go with 2 x 350w power supplies as most controllers suited for a mega tree has 2 separate power inputs. Yes the lights are waterproof, to a degree, well sort of, sometimes. Take it with a grain of salt. These lights are cheap for a reason and yes sometimes they get water in them but there clever ways you can go about making them water tight. If you want too. I haven't, I just buy extra lights.

pigtails if the are 3 or 4 depend on what protocol you use. I use WS2811 for just about everything as it has no clock cable so only needs the 3 pin. 150mm ones should be fine. How many... Get heaps more than you plan for. They can be used on everything in your display and best never to run out.

And of course you need a controller. You mentioned that you have Alans mega60 controller. If you want to use this controller you would need dumb RGB strings not pixels and you could only run 20 strings not 24. It can control 60 channels. you need 1 red 1 green 1 blue for each string. So 3 channels per string x 20 strings is 60 channels. The entire string would change the same colour.

If you want to control pixels where you control each individual light. I would recommend the J1sys P12R or the pixlite16. These are pixel controls with 2 power inputs. Fused outputs with more than enough channels to do what you want.

These are just my opinions and what I have done and Im sure you are aware there are countless options to achieve the same result.

Hope it helps

 

[thecrazylightlady]

thankyou Michael for your fantastic help, this was just the exact info i needed and the links you sent me are excellent