Spacing of pixel strips on base ring

bert-nc

New elf
Joined
Jan 8, 2012
Messages
35
Location
central North Carolina
I have been looking at several of the mega tree builds posts for over a year now and am considering building a mega tree, though only 10 foot tall. One build in particular that got my attention was a build by a member called Kartman. If I done the math correct, going from meters to feet, from a 360 degree tree to a 180 I believe the spacing of the pixel strings on the base ring was 5 inches apart.
was wondering what the spacing on the base ring was for others who have built mega trees before?
I know the closer the better, however what is realistic to have good effects?

bert-nc
 

merryoncherry

Senior elf
Generous elf
Joined
Apr 2, 2022
Messages
633
Location
Cherry St., Hudson MA USA
My 360 degree tree with 64 strands is also about 5" apart at the base. I'd say 5" at the bottom looks decent (kinda 3" apart in the middle of the tree, which matches the 3" vertical spacing on mine). The strands get a bit crowded at the top... that's one of the tradeoffs of putting them closer together. The 32-strand 120deg tree is very crowded at the top, but this has a bit more to do with receiving the wrong (smaller) topper from the vendor, not just the 4" spacing at the bottom.

That said, lots of combinations look good. It might depend a bit on whether you are doing swirls and sparkles, or if you have superstar tree sequences or something with graphics that benefit from a squarish aspect ratio.
 

Mark_M

Annoying Elf
Joined
Dec 30, 2018
Messages
914
Location
Christmas Light world
I would suggest having a play around with the mega tree calculator on lightshowhub.com:

I used that before committing to build a mega tree.
Certainly keep looking at others display photos/videos, because their real-world spacing helps you judge what you want your tree to be.


My mega tree:

Base ring width2.2m - 7.2ft
Base ring strand spacing100mm - 4"
Tree height4m - 13ft
Pixel spacing per strand50mm - 2"
 

bert-nc

New elf
Joined
Jan 8, 2012
Messages
35
Location
central North Carolina
I am definitely going to try out the calculator mentioned aboved this evening.
However one conclusion I have made. To get to a 5 inch spacing on the base ring
I am going to have to increase the number pixel strings on the tree I had originally thought about.
To do that I will have to either make the topper bigger, or decrease the spacing of the pixel strings on the topper.
Probably a combination of both.
Fedex has just left two packages on the back porch. One from Boscoyo, and one from Wired Watts.
:)

bert-nc
 

Mark_M

Annoying Elf
Joined
Dec 30, 2018
Messages
914
Location
Christmas Light world
However one conclusion I have made. To get to a 5 inch spacing on the base ring
I am going to have to increase the number pixel strings on the tree I had originally thought about.
Haha, it always leads back to more pixels in this hobby!

Just stick to a number of pixels and shuffle around the strand height and number of strands.
I wanted more than 30 strands for my tree, but ended up at 30 because the height of 80 pixels was the perfect length for my tree's height.
2,400 pixels is what I set in my mind before starting the build it, because I wanted plenty of spares avaliable.
 
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