This year's show videos

[rogerwh]

Are those zip ties securing the strap to the D-Ring?  Or, some other method of attaching?

[lonewolf41]

WOW, that is some real good sequencing. Very clean.
How did you make your arches?
How did you attach your flexstrips to your roof line?

THANKS!!

For the arches, I mounted (with electrical tape) nodes to 15 feet of 1/2" or 3/4" (I think it was 3/4") PVC slid onto re-bar driven in to the ground.  I use the nodes for everything.  For the house, see here and following:

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Thanks again,
-Keith

Keith,

How many nodes are on your arches? Are they 10' sticks of pvc?

Thanks,

Ryan

Well, that is a story unto itself.  I was not too worried about numbers when I started...until I went to sequence.  I had 2 with 50 nodes, I think a couple had 52, one had 53 and one had 54 I think (the node spacing on the strings was not equal).  That may not sound like an issue, but when you go to create nutcracker effects, it means I had 4 models for essentially the same element.  And copy and paste was out for most things.  At any rate, the 2 on the ends are 50 and the ones in the middle are (thanks to null nodes) all programmed for 52.

I used 10' sticks of PVC to make them, but they are 15' long.  They make 10' diameter arcs.  One 10' piece looked too small to me so I used a coupler to make them 15' long.  The 15' arcs made the scale correct with the rest of the yard.  I just cut 3 sticks in half to make the extra 5' since my store did not carry anything longer than 10'.

The joint at the coupler did prove problematic however as the PVC collapsed due to the pretty sharp bend.  radius.  It then caused the arch to deform at the joint...it had a "point".  I added a short piece of 1/2" EMT inside the PVC at the coupler to strengthen the joint.  I also strapped a longer piece of conduit bent at the same radius to the outside at the joint, but I don't think it is really needed.  It was more just a belt and suspenders kind of thing not knowing how it would work for sure and not wanting my arches to spring apart in the middle of my show. 

That may be more than you needed,  but hopefully I answered your question(s). 

Thanks,
-Keith

[lonewolf41]

Are those zip ties securing the strap to the D-Ring?  Or, some other method of attaching?

Yes, well...sort of.  The strapping is folded twice and the zip ties hold the strapping together which in turn holds the d-ring.  Here are a couple of pictures.

Thanks,
-Keith

[bcstuff]

I used 10' sticks of PVC to make them, but they are 15' long.  They make 10' diameter arcs.  One 10' piece looked too small to me so I used a coupler to make them 15' long.  The 15' arcs made the scale correct with the rest of the yard.  I just cut 3 sticks in half to make the extra 5' since my store did not carry anything longer than 10'.

The joint at the coupler did prove problematic however as the PVC collapsed due to the pretty sharp bend.  radius.  It then caused the arch to deform at the joint...it had a "point".  I added a short piece of 1/2" EMT inside the PVC at the coupler to strengthen the joint.  I also strapped a longer piece of conduit bent at the same radius to the outside at the joint, but I don't think it is really needed.  It was more just a belt and suspenders kind of thing not knowing how it would work for sure and not wanting my arches to spring apart in the middle of my show. 

Not to hijack, but I had similar problems with PVC joints and arches.
The fix was to use the grey non metallic EMT conduit. I stole the idea from here:
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I used 1" conduit instead and it has a 2.5" bell on the end. I also heated the non bell ends up and slid them into the bell to form them and make them easier to put together and take apart too. Mine are 8ch 4 section free standing arches.

For complete circles with a lot of tension I drop a screw into the bell after the end is slid into it for extra security. </hijack>

[Segull]

Keith,
Like many have stated, I just want to also say Very Nice. You did a great job sir!!!

Thanks for posting.

Joe

[bhays]

Amazing.  Clean layout, super tight sequencing...

[sittinguphigh]

Very cool.

[Jeff Messer]

Lonewolf,
Your tree has set me on fire. The tree is programmed perfect and my wife so go for it. Thanks for all the information you have provided and your tree video's are perfect. What are the spacing of the pixel on your tree?  Thanks again.

Jeff

[Steve Gase]

Keith,


You have done an EXCELLENT job all around.  Music, sequencing, layout, and construction. 
You've created a new standard.


Nice.

[Jeff Messer]

Keith,

If you had to do this tree again would you use the flat pixels on the string? Can you post the string that you used or location you got them from.

Thanks,
Jeff

[lonewolf41]

Lonewolf,
Your tree has set me on fire. The tree is programmed perfect and my wife so go for it. Thanks for all the information you have provided and your tree video's are perfect. What are the spacing of the pixel on your tree?  Thanks again.

Jeff

Thanks!  And send you wife my apologies      Well the spacing was determined by the strings.  I could not go larger than 3-5/16" between nodes and have everything evenly spaced.  I wanted to do 3-1/2" but I had some strings with sections that were less than that so I had to mix and match to get everything to come out even to keep the tree looking right.  All the strings had at least 3-5/16" between nodes so that was what I used.  I was actually going to put up 2 trees again this year, but could not come up with enough strings that had the 3-5/16" spacing.  Some were close to 3-1/4" which may not sound like much, but by the time you reach the ground, the lights end too far up the string to look good in my opinion.  1/16" over 84 nodes is 5".  Hope that helps.

-Keith

[lonewolf41]

Keith,

If you had to do this tree again would you use the flat pixels on the string? Can you post the string that you used or location you got them from.

Thanks,
Jeff

If by "flat pixels", you mean these: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login

I did consider them; however, if I remember, the cost was going to be about double what the nodes would be for the same height tree.  I use these for all my RGB stuff:  You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login . 

While the horizontal resolution of the tree would have been about 3X what the nodes gave, I didn't feel that I needed that..especially for the extra cost involved.  The nodes to me had a more uniform look with the vertical resolution being what it was with the 1/2 tree.  I am one of the cheapest people I know so the nodes gave the best "bang for the buck" in my opinion for me and my layout.  That is also, however, why I did 1/2 a tree this year though.  I doubled the vertical resolution from last years whole tree for the same cost.  I am toying with adding a few more strings...maybe 4 more for a total of 20 or so, but that would mean that I would need to redo this year's sequences to use them again.  Not the end of the world, but I am ready to settle on a layout and stick with it.  This year's is close, but I may still want to bring back my 2nd megatree. 

Ironically enough, I actually have 3 songs picked out for 2013 already.  I wasn't for sure what songs I was doing this last year until around the end of October and didn't start sequencing until November 2nd or 3rd.  Actually, if I had a memory and Winter palace had not come out at the end of October, I'm not sure what I would of done.  I might still be trying to decide.     The first time I listened to those songs, I was like....I gotta use them!!  I was so focused on getting elements built and strings built and burned in that I got behind...which may have been a blessing after all...but being able to re-use sequences would help me out in situations like that.  I don't like to make this a year around thing so that my wife doesn't disown me so I try and limit Christmas to the last 6 months or so of the year.

That was probably way more info than you needed, but hopefully I managed to answer your question.

Thanks,
-Keith

[Jeffl]

I think those strips are 4M or 120 LEDs so they stay below the 128 limit RJ imposed.  I don't think this will give you the height you need.  For that matter I don't think you could get enough pixles on a strip that could be controlled to hit 22' can you?

[Jeff Messer]

Keith,

If you had to do this tree again would you use the flat pixels on the string? Can you post the string that you used or location you got them from.

Thanks,
Jeff

If by "flat pixels", you mean these: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login

I did consider them; however, if I remember, the cost was going to be about double what the nodes would be for the same height tree.  I use these for all my RGB stuff:  You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login . 

While the horizontal resolution of the tree would have been about 3X what the nodes gave, I didn't feel that I needed that..especially for the extra cost involved.  The nodes to me had a more uniform look with the vertical resolution being what it was with the 1/2 tree.  I am one of the cheapest people I know so the nodes gave the best "bang for the buck" in my opinion for me and my layout.  That is also, however, why I did 1/2 a tree this year though.  I doubled the vertical resolution from last years whole tree for the same cost.  I am toying with adding a few more strings...maybe 4 more for a total of 20 or so, but that would mean that I would need to redo this year's sequences to use them again.  Not the end of the world, but I am ready to settle on a layout and stick with it.  This year's is close, but I may still want to bring back my 2nd megatree. 

Ironically enough, I actually have 3 songs picked out for 2013 already.  I wasn't for sure what songs I was doing this last year until around the end of October and didn't start sequencing until November 2nd or 3rd.  Actually, if I had a memory and Winter palace had not come out at the end of October, I'm not sure what I would of done.  I might still be trying to decide.     The first time I listened to those songs, I was like....I gotta use them!!  I was so focused on getting elements built and strings built and burned in that I got behind...which may have been a blessing after all...but being able to re-use sequences would help me out in situations like that.  I don't like to make this a year around thing so that my wife doesn't disown me so I try and limit Christmas to the last 6 months or so of the year.

That was probably way more info than you needed, but hopefully I managed to answer your question.

Thanks,
-Keith

Keith,

When I was talking flat I was talking this type. You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login 

Thanks for all the information you have provided. I did send you a PM if you have time to chat.

Jeff

[lonewolf41]

Keith,

If you had to do this tree again would you use the flat pixels on the string? Can you post the string that you used or location you got them from.

Thanks,
Jeff

If by "flat pixels", you mean these: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login

I did consider them; however, if I remember, the cost was going to be about double what the nodes would be for the same height tree.  I use these for all my RGB stuff:  You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login . 

While the horizontal resolution of the tree would have been about 3X what the nodes gave, I didn't feel that I needed that..especially for the extra cost involved.  The nodes to me had a more uniform look with the vertical resolution being what it was with the 1/2 tree.  I am one of the cheapest people I know so the nodes gave the best "bang for the buck" in my opinion for me and my layout.  That is also, however, why I did 1/2 a tree this year though.  I doubled the vertical resolution from last years whole tree for the same cost.  I am toying with adding a few more strings...maybe 4 more for a total of 20 or so, but that would mean that I would need to redo this year's sequences to use them again.  Not the end of the world, but I am ready to settle on a layout and stick with it.  This year's is close, but I may still want to bring back my 2nd megatree. 

Ironically enough, I actually have 3 songs picked out for 2013 already.  I wasn't for sure what songs I was doing this last year until around the end of October and didn't start sequencing until November 2nd or 3rd.  Actually, if I had a memory and Winter palace had not come out at the end of October, I'm not sure what I would of done.  I might still be trying to decide.     The first time I listened to those songs, I was like....I gotta use them!!  I was so focused on getting elements built and strings built and burned in that I got behind...which may have been a blessing after all...but being able to re-use sequences would help me out in situations like that.  I don't like to make this a year around thing so that my wife doesn't disown me so I try and limit Christmas to the last 6 months or so of the year.

That was probably way more info than you needed, but hopefully I managed to answer your question.

Thanks,
-Keith

Keith,

When I was talking flat I was talking this type. You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login 

Thanks for all the information you have provided. I did send you a PM if you have time to chat.

Jeff

As of now, nodes that meet our requirements have not been available in that form factor.  I hear that something similar may be in the works, but nothing up to this point.  All approved/official smart string types are listed in the wiki.  Anything except those may or may not work and are not recommended for use with Lynx equipment.

Thanks,
-Keith