Pixel Mini Tree

David_AVD

David_AVD

Grandpa Elf
Community project designer
Generous elf
Joined
Jun 12, 2010
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Victoria Point (Brisbane)
I thought I'd better get my bum into hear and get some lights organised for my display. I headed down to Bunnings to see what tomato cages I could use to make up some mini trees.

They had 2 metal types. The thin green ones were $10 for the 90cm version and seemed quite flimsy. Then I spotted a much sturdier black one (still 90cm) marked as "Plant Trainer - Obelisk" for the same price.

I thought I'd try a different variation on the mini trees I'd seen already and just have one line of pixels per frame leg.

Here's what I started to do. The problem is that I'd need a pixel spacing of ~ 160mm towards the base. Then I thought "Derr!" and switched to running the string up and down. I'm hoping that cable tying the pixels upright to the frame will prevent any water getting into the pixels.
 

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Those are the frames I used for my minitrees last year. I just wrapped green BigW lights around them instead of Pixels. Would be interesting to see how it looks turned on with only a few strings attached though.
 
Yeah, I realise that it's not a mini tree in the conventional sense. It should be a snap to do some basic rotations and rising ring effects on though.
 
I dropped into Bunnings on the way home and found they have a taller (120cm) plant trainer with a spiral for about $15. Maybe some 12V DC strip or 6803 pixel strip would look good on these?

davidavd Mini pixel tree construction using 120cm plant trainer.jpg
 
thats the one I have but the 1500mm version :) (actually 2 of them) it will be wrapped in 6803 strip.

I worked out 1 roll per tree
 
Just tried a 5m roll of DC RGB strip on the 1200mm one and there looks to be about 500mm left over. If I can find the 6803 strips I have somewhere, that would be even better.

The 1500mm ones were not in stock, but I could try another store.
 
My good wife pointed out that the spiral is not very even on this frame. Now I can't stop seeing how bad it looks. Arghhh!!!! :eek:
 
That was just a test and the power into the top was just because that's where the "left over" part of the strip was and the wires reached the power supply. On the "real one", the power (or power + clock/data) would be at the bottom.
 
David_AVD said:
My good wife pointed out that the spiral is not very even on this frame. Now I can't stop seeing how bad it looks. Arghhh!!!! :eek:
Click to expand...

She's Right you know
 
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