Megatree design

[NogginBoink]

I finally got my 8-spoke megatree up. The pole is 15' tall, each spoke is an inverted 'V'. (So I guess maybe 'spoke' is the wrong term but I'll use it anyway.)

While it looks good, it doesn't look GREAT. The space between strings is too wide.

I've decided that next year I gotta do better. My question is how many spokes do y'all think is 'enough' for a megatree?

I heard one person suggest 4 inch spacing, but wow! With a 10' diameter tree, that's about a hundred spokes. Multiply that times four colors per spoke and we're talking LOTS of lights. Yikes! That's a budget-buster.

[random_rodder]

Go to this PlanetChristmas (http://www.planetchristmas.com/Megatrees.htm) link and download the Megatree Calculator. It's an Excel spreadsheet that calculates several aspects of Megatrees...

[Anarchtica]

I have a 20 ft. mega tree with 64 channels and 3 strands of 100 count mini lights per channel. So that is 192 strands of lights spaced a half inch from each other. So that is 19,200 lights plus another 800 on the star. 20,000 lights just on the mega tree!

[Macrosill]

I have 32 spokes around my 14 foot tree. This winds up with about 7 inch spacing. 2 spokes next to each other is on one channel. 16 channels around the tree for each color, red, blue and green.

[Xccentric]

The one we made has.

A base ring of 9m dia or 29ft. I am going a lot bigger next year
50mm dia base pole @ 4.5m tall
35mm dia top pole @ 4m tall that slides inside base pole.
This way I can adjust the height. Around 7m or 23ft for this year
120 channels of clear only lights
3 x 48 channel custom made controllers link via LAN and using UDP packets to control the controllers.
10,800 bulbs
So we have 1 string of lights every 3 deg
Or every 75mm or 3" around the base ring.

The cheapest way to buy these types of lights in a Australia (OZ) is in long sets pre-packaged.
I paid AU$40.00 + del. for each.
20 off x AU$40.00 = $800.00

I then had to cut them up in 6 sections.
6 sections of 90 bulbs and 2 section of 30 bulbs (left overs)
Total of 600 bulbs

6 x 7.8m and
2 x 2.8m (The left overs)

So I get 6 strings of 7.8m long for about AU$45.00 del. Plus all the work to make them.

This is the 600 bulbs package. .

http://i12.ebayimg.com/02/i/000/b2/6b/79eb_2.JPG


Modding the Bud Lights. Cutting them shorter and adding Fig 8 tails on the end to run them into the controllers.
This was the cheapest way of fitting out the Mega Tree.

http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg24/Xccentric/MegaTreefromroof.jpg


The 3 three brown boxes are the controllers.
The black box is the 2 KVA 24V Transformer to run it.

So as you see. It cost a lot of money
A bit of it here as well as other stuff

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k16_BUSwv18

Photo's of it getting built
http://picasaweb.google.com/xccentric

http://megatreezone.info
For web cam. Need to modify Active X in IE to watch it.
Sorry this is the best I can do with cam.
Remember I am in OZ.
Different time zone here.

[Wayne J]

I have 32 spokes around my 14 foot tree. This winds up with about 7 inch spacing. 2 spokes next to each other is on one channel. 16 channels around the tree for each color, red, blue and green.

Ditto! and it looks great. When all of the clear channels are on, it lights up the whole yard. 8)