Pixel Tree coming to life slowly

[Henedce]

A productive afternoon spent in the shed today. Started bringing the Pixel Tree (or half tree) monster to life.

My Concept:
I wanted a way that I could mount my pixels at even intervals along the full 5.5 mtrs (18ft), but I also wanted to be able to rotate each upright to any angle as well as be able to tilt them out or in at will to increase or decrease the circumference of my base.
I have spent the last month or so reading others posts, costing supplies and asking questions. I discarded multiple ideas before finally settling on this.

Pixel Tree the beginning

 

[JonB256]

I like the semi-circle design.


Questions, though;


Signal injection (controllers) at the top?
Power injection at the base?


How is it stabilized? 5.5 meter PVC is like spaghetti.

 

[reitan_family]

Very nice. I like the thought..........

 

[Henedce]

Signal injection (controllers) at the top?

Plan is to have the controller at the base in the middle to keep wiring runs down to 1 metre, with power injection at each string.

How is it stabilized? 15.5 meter PVC is like spaghetti.

It is going to be attached to my chimney at the top . Base will eventually have short legs at each tee then pegged to the ground. At 5.5 metres I still have room to mount my bethlehem star above the tree.

 

[Henedce]

After thinking about it a bit more I really didnt want to be hanging from a ladder 5.5 metres in the air so I decided to build a stand alone frame for my tree. Also allowed room to put my Beth Star at the top. Plan now is to assemble at ground level and then tip up into place.
Here is the frame and it really makes the shear size of the project stand out.

Pixel Tree part 2.wmv

 

[Goose]

Looks great....damn huge!! I like it

 

[mick8248]

That's one mega-mega tree how many pixels will it have?

 

[Henedce]

Currently set to have 24 strings of 42 pixels . Once I have that set up Ill decide if it needs more but based on my current testing 1008 on half a tree is enough

 

[Henedce]

Had to have a rethink today. I had everything except the lights assembled, set my winch up and lifted the whole structure. About half way up it got the wobbles up with all the weight up near the top and scared the bejesus out of me so.......

Redesign time: The base structure is still the same, I cut off the top mounting and redesigned it so I can stand the base then winch the lights up as per a more traditional mega tree. I got the carriage unit built the base up and secured today so tomorrow is the big test . Then attach my first 6 strings and have a play if all goes well.

Pixel Tree The Redesign

 

[Henedce]

Spent yesterday finalising the carriage head, attaching 6 strings to conduit, spending 2 hours trying to nut out a communication issue with my P12 and then another hour nutting out why the lights wouldn't work.

Communication issue seemed to be a 30 metre solid core cable although testing fine with my tester just refused to work but 2 15 metre store bought worked with my router/modem in between.

Lights not working was simply the strings I bought changed their wiring pattern randomly depending where you cut them.

But here it is. Only 6 strings atm as thats all I have until my budget allows me to buy more. Sequencing was done using Nutcracker (Awesome software) and Emmanuel's Addins.

Pixel tree test

 

[Benslights]

job well done henedce look forward to seeing your end result

 

[DeeJai]

that is excellent.. well done.

now i might need to get me some pixel strings! damn you!!!