Author Topic: Nutcracker: How i built my megatree  (Read 14772 times)

Offline smeighan

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Re: Nutcracker: How i built my megatree
« Reply #15 on: January 04, 2013, »
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Try nutcracker123.com.  I think that is where Sean's show stuff is.

Kurt

Pictures, but no videos yet. im sure he is busy so i will be patient.

I have not made a video yet. I first used my still camera, it dodnt work very well.

I will have my display up until jan 11th. I will take a video before taking it down.

thanks
Sean
Littleton, CO
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Offline kgustafson

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Re: Nutcracker: How i built my megatree
« Reply #16 on: January 04, 2013, »
Sean,

I completely understand.  My first couple of videos this year were terrible.  I have since replaced them and have yet to finish posting (to Vimeo) the rest of my show.  I will -- hopefully -- get that done this weekend.

Kurt
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Offline taybrynn

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Nutcracker: How i built my megatree
« Reply #17 on: January 05, 2013, »
Sean I have some videos of your show, but not he entire thing.  But it does show how great it looks!
Scott - Castle Rock, Colorado   [ 2 homes, 100% RGB in 2016; since 2008; over 32k channels of E1.31 ]
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Offline taybrynn

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Nutcracker: How i built my megatree
« Reply #18 on: January 05, 2013, »
And as usual, the video does not reflect how good it really looks.
Scott - Castle Rock, Colorado   [ 2 homes, 100% RGB in 2016; since 2008; over 32k channels of E1.31 ]
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Offline smeighan

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Re: Nutcracker: How i built my megatree
« Reply #19 on: January 05, 2013, »
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Sean I have some videos of your show, but not he entire thing.  But it does show how great it looks!

Scott; feel free to post what you have. I will get a video before this next week. I want to remember this season.

People need to know i did not use any sequencers this year

I just had Nutcracker => vix file => xlights

This is because i was still building things the first week of december. Hopefully this next season i will be able to start early enough.

The tree looks awesome, that was a focus this year. get it built.
Sean
Littleton, CO
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Offline ronp5683

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Re: Nutcracker: How i built my megatree
« Reply #20 on: May 17, 2013, »
Wow, you did a nice job on building your tree. I am curious what type of electronics you used for driving each string. It looks like you supplied power over the Ethernet cable to each of the controllers. Also, curious what is in the two big boxes at the base. I assume it is power, and some other electronics.
« Last Edit: May 18, 2013, by ronp5683 »

Offline smeighan

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Re: Nutcracker: How i built my megatree
« Reply #21 on: May 19, 2013, »
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Wow, you did a nice job on building your tree. I am curious what type of electronics you used for driving each string. It looks like you supplied power over the Ethernet cable to each of the controllers. Also, curious what is in the two big boxes at the base. I assume it is power, and some other electronics.

my show had 2 active hubs, one passive. 16 ports each
The hubs and the power supply are in the battery cases i bought from walmart. this maed them waterproof.

Since i am using an etherdongle and 32 smart string controllers v3, the power is carried over the cables.

my half megatree was 20x120 flex strips.
Sean
Littleton, CO
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Offline taybrynn

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Re: Nutcracker: How i built my megatree
« Reply #22 on: October 25, 2013, »
I need to find my video of Sean' tree -- it was stunning ... and honestly everything he did last year in such a short time, quite unbelievable!
Scott - Castle Rock, Colorado   [ 2 homes, 100% RGB in 2016; since 2008; over 32k channels of E1.31 ]
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Offline duane.mosley

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Re: Nutcracker: How i built my megatree
« Reply #23 on: October 26, 2013, »
did you use 3/4 emt or 1/2? did you use regular emt couplers to connect the 2 sections of pipe? I like your idea and will implement it in my new mega tree build. I am using 20 strings of 50 nodes so I will be at about 15' per section


thanks for all your hard work and dedication to helping others.



duane
Florence, KY


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Offline smeighan

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Re: Nutcracker: How i built my megatree
« Reply #24 on: October 27, 2013, »
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did you use 3/4 emt or 1/2? did you use regular emt couplers to connect the 2 sections of pipe? I like your idea and will implement it in my new mega tree build. I am using 20 strings of 50 nodes so I will be at about 15' per section


thanks for all your hard work and dedication to helping others.



duane

i used 1/2" metal emt. i used normal emt connectors to hold them. i drove a 3" piece of oak doweling into each end.
Sean
Littleton, CO
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Offline rfallatt

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Re: Nutcracker: How i built my megatree
« Reply #25 on: November 14, 2013, »
Sean,
if the ground has an x and y axis, I understand how you adjust the angle for one direction (say x axis), How do you adjust in the other direction (y axis)?
 
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I have been asked by a few eople how i built my megatree.

I used 3" abs plastic for the base and pole. I have 60 smart rgb nodes in the coro star on top.
I attached my 20 x 120 flex strips to 1/2" emt pipe. I drove a 3" oak dowel into each end of the emt. On the bottom i screwed eye bolts. On the top i screwed in eye hooks.

I recorded two videos describing the tree.

This week we had 50 mph winds and the tree didnt move at all. We will see if i get higher winds. For now, i am happy it all came out.

i like the fact that i can easily (less than 30 seconds) remove any segment from the tree if i have to repair any bad pixels.

Here are links to two videos

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thanks
sean

Offline smeighan

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Re: Nutcracker: How i built my megatree
« Reply #26 on: November 14, 2013, »
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Sean,
if the ground has an x and y axis, I understand how you adjust the angle for one direction (say x axis), How do you adjust in the other direction (y axis)?
 
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I have been asked by a few eople how i built my megatree.

I used 3" abs plastic for the base and pole. I have 60 smart rgb nodes in the coro star on top.
I attached my 20 x 120 flex strips to 1/2" emt pipe. I drove a 3" oak dowel into each end of the emt. On the bottom i screwed eye bolts. On the top i screwed in eye hooks.

I recorded two videos describing the tree.

This week we had 50 mph winds and the tree didnt move at all. We will see if i get higher winds. For now, i am happy it all came out.

i like the fact that i can easily (less than 30 seconds) remove any segment from the tree if i have to repair any bad pixels.

Here are links to two videos

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thanks
sean

I rotated the base so that one set of legs was perpendicular to the down slope , I then rotated
the other set to get level. My vertical is exactly level in all directions.

Sean
Littleton, CO
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Offline rfallatt

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Re: Nutcracker: How i built my megatree
« Reply #27 on: November 14, 2013, »
OK... I get it... Thanks

Offline IndianaChristmas

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Re: Nutcracker: How i built my megatree
« Reply #28 on: August 24, 2014, »
Sean,
I have bought the star you used.  I was thinking about how to sequence this.  I was thinking that I would place the individual lines of lights on separate controllers and using "SingleStrand" option in XLights as a start. But then I looked and you only had a single controller going into the star.  What xlights model could be used to get the individual lines of lights (there are three lines of lights to fill out the star) to light separately and also act together as one unit?
Thanks.

Offline smeighan

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Re: Nutcracker: How i built my megatree
« Reply #29 on: August 24, 2014, »
You may have missed a comment from two years ago. I replaced the dumb rgb rectangles with smart rgb. My star has 10,20,30 smart rgb modules connected end to end. So 60 nodes and 180 channels. There is one ssc at the back of the star. I am able to do many more effects now.
Sean
Littleton, CO
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