{"id":4498,"date":"2017-12-31T21:48:51","date_gmt":"2018-01-01T02:48:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summet.com\/blog\/?p=4498"},"modified":"2017-12-31T21:53:59","modified_gmt":"2018-01-01T02:53:59","slug":"megatree-materials-costs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.summet.com\/blog\/2017\/12\/31\/megatree-materials-costs\/","title":{"rendered":"Megatree: Materials &#038; Costs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/RTekhQCerqE?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" gesture=\"media\" allow=\"encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>So, what do you need to build a large digitally color controlled LED outdoor Christmas tree display? (Commonly called a &#8220;megatree&#8221; by people in the Christmas display community.) And how much will it cost?<\/p>\n<p>First, you need strings of color controlled RGB LED lights, wires to connect them, and a few power supplies. I bought 16 strands that have 50 lights each, with 6&#8243; spacing (PixaBulb w\/ Strawberry lens) from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.diyledexpress.com\">http:\/\/www.diyledexpress.com<\/a>. (I also got a 17th strand as a spare, and am using it as my tree topping star right now). This cost me $650 (including extra connection wires &amp; two 12 volt power supplies).<\/p>\n<p>Then you&#8217;ll need a light controller. I bought a Falcon 16V3 from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pixelcontroller.com\">https:\/\/www.pixelcontroller.com<\/a> for $210, and a <a href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/2DDe8bv\">CableGuard CG-1500 outdoor enclosure<\/a> to protect it from the elements. (This enclosure holds the controller board, but is not large enough for the two power supplies, which I have under a better ventilated anti-rain plastic storage box)<\/p>\n<p>Then you&#8217;ll need a lot of mounting hardware (lag eyes, quick connect links, etc) and wire ropes (small cables, cable thimbles &amp; crimp connectors) plus zipties, lots and lots of zipties. I used stainless steel hardware from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.e-rigging.com\/\">e-rigging.com<\/a> except for the galvanized wire rope that I bought at Harbor Freight (shipping a 500&#8242; spool of stainless 3mm cable was prohibitively expensive). Including miscellaneous pieces of wood I used for my mounting ring and star tree-topper, a few extension cords, tent pegs and a 100&#8242; run of Ethernet cable, all of this hardware cost me around $245.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m not including the cost of all the tools needed, plus a laptop to sequence and control the show.<\/p>\n<p>So all in, for a &#8220;mid-sized&#8221; megatree (20&#8242; tall, 16&#8242; diameter at the base) you are looking at a little over a thousand dollars (plus a hundred hours of work). On the plus side, this cost can be amortized over multiple years, so it&#8217;s cheaper than multiple years of fireworks. Plus, with some creative work, you could re-purpose the lights for Halloween, weddings, parties, etc&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>A more specific list of mounting hardware:<\/p>\n<div class=\"invoice-items\">4x 1\/2&#8243; x 6&#8243; Stainless Steel Lag Eye Bolts &#8211; Mounted in my tree. Completely overkill for supporting my relatively lightweight megatree, but may be re-purposed in the future for heavier loads. Holds up 4 support cables that allow me to raise\/lower my top support ring.<\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"invoice-id\">\n<div class=\"invoice-id\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"invoice-items\">20x 3\/16&#8243; Stainless Quick Links &#8211; for connecting and disconnecting the four support cables and top ends of the light strands to the top ring. I bought a 50 pack from a Chinese seller on ebay, as stainless steel quick links were quite expensive otherwise.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"invoice-items\">40x 1\/8&#8243; Light Duty Stainless Steel Wire Rope Thimble &#8211; Used at the top and bottom of each light strand, plus for the cables that lift the top ring.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>40x 1\/8&#8243; Zinc Plated Copper Sleeve &#8211; Crimp connectors that hold the cable in place around the thimble. (Buy the proper crimping tool for these.)<\/p>\n<div class=\"invoice-id\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"invoice-items\">16x 3\/16&#8243; x 1&#8243; Stainless Steel Lag Eye Bolt &#8211; For connecting the top of the light strands to the top ring.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>4x Eye bolts, washers &amp; nuts to mount in the top ring for the support cables to connect to. (forgot the exact size, bought them at Lowes)<\/div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>4x 4&#8243; Stainless Steel Flag Pole Cleats &#8211; My jury-rigged solution for holding the four cables that support the top ring. I&#8217;m sure you could come up with a better solution.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>16x 9&#8243; tent pegs (bought at Walmart) for staking down the ends of the light strands.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>8 packages 100&#8242; 3mm galvanized wire rope from Harbor Freight (16 26&#8242; light strands, 4 50&#8242; support cables, leaving several 20&#8242; seconds left over&#8230;) I seriously considered buying a 500&#8242; spool of 1\/8&#8243; stainless cable from e-rigging.com, but the added shipping cost made it prohibitively expensive. I&#8217;m willing to pay double for stainless, but not quadruple to get it shipped to me. Plus I figure the LED light strands will probably fail before the 3mm wire rope rusts through&#8230;.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>800-900 black zipties from harbor freight (to hold the lights to the light strand cables.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Misc deck screws to hold the top support ring together (made of 2&#215;4&#8217;s) and mount the flag pole cleats and cable guard enclosure to the tree.<\/div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><span hidden class=\"__iawmlf-post-loop-links\" data-iawmlf-links=\"[{&quot;id&quot;:410,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.diyledexpress.com&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:411,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/www.pixelcontroller.com&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/pixelcontroller.com\\\/store&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:412,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/amzn.to\\\/2DDe8bv&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/www.amazon.com\\\/gp\\\/product\\\/B00EKKDRTM\\\/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8\\u0026psc=1\\u0026linkCode=sl1\\u0026tag=burningorg-20\\u0026linkId=1f720a6784185598a1d206226880aa4c&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:413,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/www.e-rigging.com&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/e-rigging.com\\\/&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;}]\"><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>So, what do you need to build a large digitally color controlled LED outdoor Christmas tree display? (Commonly called a &#8220;megatree&#8221; by people in the Christmas display community.) And how much will it cost? First, you need strings of color &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.summet.com\/blog\/2017\/12\/31\/megatree-materials-costs\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,13],"tags":[127],"class_list":["post-4498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary","category-projects","tag-megatree"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.summet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.summet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.summet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.summet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.summet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4498"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.summet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4498\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4523,"href":"https:\/\/www.summet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4498\/revisions\/4523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.summet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.summet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.summet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}