Mast for the Mega Tree - Army surplus camo netting support set - Aluminum poles are about 4 feet per section. I got this at a local HamFest.
3D Wireframe Star to top the Mega Tree.
I bought this here.
3D Star bolted on to the top section of the mast.
3D Star with 2 color rope light attached. The 2 color rope light has a common neutral, and 2 hots - 1 for each color. I got the rope light here.
This will take 6 channels to animate.
Curtain Strobes for the Mega Tree and the 4 large trees in the front yard.
I got them here.
Close up of one of the strobes.
07/02/08 - It took HOURS to dig a
2.5 foot hole through the Carolina
rock and clay. At 2.5 feet, I stopped
and decided to cut the pipe :)
Cutting the pipe a bit long worked
out well - I flipped the cut end over,
and put it on top and banged it in
even further with a sledge hammer.
After banging it in, I put the fence
post level on it, and poured two 50
pound bags of QuickCrete around
it and then topped it off with a sprinkler valve cover so you don't
see anything during the rest of the
year.
With the cover on...
Mini Trees:
50 Tomato Cages for the Mini Trees.
I got the tomato cages at Lowes for 1.29 each
Each Mini Tree will use 2 which leaves 2 spares.
Test tree - No wire ties on the lights - Just quickly wrapped around to see if 1 strand of each color will fill it up.
There will be 24 of these in the yard, each with 4 separate dimmable color channels.
48 tomato cages cut down.
I cut the bottom ring off which makes
natural ground stakes, and then I cut
1 foot off each of the 3 top wires.
The higher ring will be cut in between
each vertical wire to cinch it in a bit
and make it more Christmas tree like.
The tops will be gathered together
with zip ties.
Another view of the final 48!
Rope Light:
Some of the Red and Green rope light - many of the spools were damaged in shipping - I have not tested it all yet, and won't be able to until I can figure out the lengths - I'd love to power up 150 feet at a time, but that's too many watts / amps. I got this here.
Testing a piece to figure out the wiring order. (Common neutral in the center, hots on the edges.)
This rope light will go around all my front windows, edge the driveway and sidewalk, and go on the Mega Tree star.
This is the power cord I ordered from Action Lighting - Notice the 3 heavy wires coming out of the female socket. I NEED THESE - I was going to cut the male end off, and connect them to my SSR's.
This is what I got when I ordered the part to the left - Notice only 2 wires are coming out of the female socket. This makes both the green and red on all the time as they are joined in side the female socket. THIS WONT WORK.
I called Action Lighting, and the pictures were wrong - they changed suppliers and no longer carry those. So They sent me the female to female cords above. By cutting it in half, I'll have 2 of what I need.
Leaping Arches: