My 2013 tree plans

[vincerules]

Spread it out and you'll be fine, I think I did mine over a month or so, just do a few when you get a spare minute.
The part I found the worst was the pixels ray sent me were shorter in the bulb than the first lot I had.
This meant that some didnt click in fully so I chose to silicone each one in as well.
That was a pain

Ugh, that's a big concern for me now. Did you happen to ask him about this?

A couple other questions if you don't mind.

1) how thick is the steel you used for the frame?
2) how do you actually connect each strand to the bottom and top? I can see the top is at a fixed height, is the bottom ring being held up by all the nylon strings? Or is it at a fixed height also?

Thanks!

 

[Snicko]

Thanks for the tour Rod!

 

[Benslights]

this post is so last year

 

[ԆцряєсϮ]

Ugh, that's a big concern for me now. Did you happen to ask him about this?

No havent bothered yet.

A couple other questions if you don't mind.

1) how thick is the steel you used for the frame?

40mm x 3mm flat bar rolled into a circle and braced with 20mm x 20mm square tube.

2) how do you actually connect each strand to the bottom and top? I can see the top is at a fixed height, is the bottom ring being held up by all the nylon strings? Or is it at a fixed height also?

[font=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Each string has a D ring sewn into the end. I use a link of Jack Chain to hook the D ring to a hole drilled in the rings.
[/font]both the top and bottom rings are mounted on a 50mm square tube that slides up and down the 40mm square main pole
The top is fixed and what I did is hung all the strings from the top, stood it up and then connected all the lower ends.
then I lent on the lower ring to tension and drilled a hole through the main pole for a pin.




Thanks!

 

[vincerules]

Thank you very much for the response.

• Here is my idea for my tree, what do you guys think?
• 180 degree tree
• 28 strands of 90 pixels spaced 40mm on centers
• top ring: 30mm spacing
  • total length of 900mm (30mm*28string+60mm for extra length on the ends)
• bottom ring: 80mm spacing
  • total length of 3000 (80mm*28+200 for extra length on the ends)

I think that gives me a bottom width of about 1500mm

I think that makes the tree height be around 3500mm. How much would you recommend concreting into the ground to support it? Would 500mm be enough?

 

[mborg10]

With a 180 degree tree you might have to add something on the back to tension everything.

500 should be plenty. I concreted a gal pipe in the ground about 100mm below ground level and used 2 bags of rapid set. Normal concrete is stronger but rapid set is easier. Being its 100mm below ground the grass just grows over the top and it's very hard to see. It does full with water so if I was to do it again I'd put some sand at the base of the pipe before I concreted it in.

I used pipe because my centre pole is fiberglass pipe and the top ring is on pulley.

 

[vincerules]

With a 180 degree tree you might have to add something on the back to tension everything.

Good point, I hadn't thought about that... I will have to think up something to address this.

How tall is your tree?Also, did you find the eyelet punch to be useful after all, since it didn't punch through the nylon?

 

[ԆцряєсϮ]

28 strands of 90 Pixels? - I would make them 85 Pixels that way you would have 2 strands per universe.
which would make 14 universes, what are you controlling it with?
If you dropped it back to 24 strands you could use a P12 or even back to 22 strands which would leave you 1 universe for your topper star ( if your having one)
a 180 degree tree of 22 srands at 40mm centres is still pretty dense.


I assume as its a 180 tree then the top and bottom rings will actually be semi circles or 'D' shapes
These along with the centre pole would need extra bracing as all the weight is going to be on the front of the tree, you may need to go up a few sizes. Mine has a 40mm square tube for the pole that sits in a 50mm square tube base sunk into the lawn 500mm.
Maybe consider using some 50nb pipe which is around 60mm od, that may be enough to support the weight.

 

[vincerules]

28 strands of 90 Pixels? - I would make them 85 Pixels that way you would have 2 strands per universe.
which would make 14 universes, what are you controlling it with?
If you dropped it back to 24 strands you could use a P12 or even back to 22 strands which would leave you 1 universe for your topper star ( if your having one)
a 180 degree tree of 22 srands at 40mm centres is still pretty dense.


I assume as its a 180 tree then the top and bottom rings will actually be semi circles or 'D' shapes
These along with the centre pole would need extra bracing as all the weight is going to be on the front of the tree, you may need to go up a few sizes. Mine has a 40mm square tube for the pole that sits in a 50mm square tube base sunk into the lawn 500mm.
Maybe consider using some 50nb pipe which is around 60mm od, that may be enough to support the weight.

I was/am up in the air on the 85 or 90. I decided to go with the 28/90 so I could have 200 "extras" to use in my star topper and also thinking of doing a row of lights straight up the pole in the middle of the tree... not sure if that would give a good effect or not though...

I am planning on using 2 P2's.

I do like how the 85's make it nice (2 string per universe). If I do 28 strands of 85 that would give me 2 universes to work with, that would be plenty.

 

[mborg10]

How tall is your tree?Also, did you find the eyelet punch to be useful after all, since it didn't punch through the nylon?
[/quote]

My tree is about 5m out of the ground. The eyelet punch was still needed to put the eyelets in after the holes were cut with the wad punch.

I used a p12 48 strings by 42. This maxed out the p12 and I think a p12 is 3 times the price of a p2
$300 worth if p2 gives you 24 universes
$300 worth of p12 gives 12 universes

 

[vincerules]

My tree is about 5m out of the ground. The eyelet punch was still needed to put the eyelets in after the holes were cut with the wad punch.

I used a p12 48 strings by 42. This maxed out the p12 and I think a p12 is 3 times the price of a p2
$300 worth if p2 gives you 24 universes
$300 worth of p12 gives 12 universes

Yea, I have 5 P2's and 1 D2. I keep considering the P12 but can't come up with a reason to use them over the cheaper P2's.

Thanks for the info, I will get an eyelet punch ordered.

Any idea how thick the webbing is that you guys use? 1mm? 1.5mm?

I am thinking of getting green poylypropelene nylon, that would make it look more christmas treeish during the day. but don't know if it is as thick as the black you can get.

 

[vincerules]

I don't know anything about drill presses... would something like this be good enough for this job?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/5-SPEED-DRILL-PRESS-620-3100-RPM-1-2-CHUCK-TILTS-45-DEG-/160872740426?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2574c3364a#ht_139wt_919
or
http://www.ebay.com/itm/PRECISION-MINI-DRILL-PRESS-1-4-CHUCK-3-RANGE-VARIABLE-SPEED-UP-TO-8500-RPM-/360759965223?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item53fef83627#ht_1100wt_919

 

[mborg10]

The first press looks ok. Doesn't really matter about the motor it's just the up and down action you want with decent leverage on the handle. It also has a 1/2" chuck. You will have to find a punch that fits. I'd try an find something with a slight bigger chuck. Maybe 3/4" if you can.

The second one won't work as you will be hard pressed to find a wad punch to fit into a 1/4" chuck plus it only has 1 handle so cross this one off the list.

 

[Gilrock]

I know I had a couple posts here but I guess they got lost. I've ordered stuff to do one of these trees for next year. I've already received the grommets, vinyl strapping, and a press. Still waiting on D rings, pixels, and I need to order a punch. It's concerning that I read above that some of these pixels from Ray wouldn't snap in properly. That's the whole purpose of ordering these particular pixels. I just sent a message for my order and said I expect my pixels to be able to snap into a 12mm hole as advertised...I'm sure it probably won't help one bit.

Regarding using P2's instead of a P12 I don't think I like that idea. I'd rather spend a little more for a P12 and have a cleaner setup. I used a P12 to run my 12 ribbon tree and I used an entire universe for each ribbon so I only used 50 pixels per universe. But I didn't have to do any power injection anywhere. The P12 is mounted very nicely inside a 15 qt container along with two 350W power supplies. If you use multiple P2's to do the same work you will end up using a lot more network switch ports to feed them. I like having a single network cable feeding the P12. I guess for me I don't try to squeeze every possible pixel out of the E1.31 controllers. I locate them more inclined towards convenience of the layout.

Gil

 

[vincerules]

Thanks Damicka10, I will look for something with a 3/4" chuck size.

I ordered everything except the punch, drill press and pixels. I have some spare pixels I can use for testing size, but will not order the whole lot until a few months from now. I'm looking forward to getting started on the strands!

As for the P2/P12, I'm just happy that we have multiple devices to choose from (including the sandevices line and many others). We all have our own way of thinking and things we like and dislike. In my opinion you can't go wrong with any of the controllers from J1sys. Great products and great support!