Pixel Treeline 2014

In 2014 the new big thing for my display was adding RGB pixels to my treeline. Here are some details and notes on the project:

• The Trees: Holiday Time 6' LED Twig Trees purchased from Wal-Mart. 7 were bought in 2008 and 6 were bought in 2009. Each year Holiday time changed the design a bit. I alternate them every other one and hardly anyone notices. I like having an odd number of trees so there is a center.

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• The Pixels: I used WS2811, 12mm bullet, 12 volt, IP68 pixels 3.5" spacing. The pixels were purchased from Seasonal Entertainment LLC in the spring as part of their pre-order sale. The pixels have 3 wires. One for V+, Data, and ground.
• The Strands: Each tree has 125 pixels on a single strand. The strands are simply wrapped around the tree, then zip tied at the bottom and the top of the tree.
  • The pixels come in strings of 50 so each strand has 2 strings of 50, then half a string of 25. You can cut and resolder strings together.
• The strings come with plugs. When I connected the strings together I sealed the connectors with silicon and then heat shrinked the entire connection, and put more silicon on either end of the heatshrink. On the top of the string I also put heat shrink tubing to terminate the string.
• On the bottom of each strand cut off the plug that came with the pixels and soldered on a 4 wire pigtail, also bought from Seasonal Entertainment. I could have used a 3 wire pigtail, but wanted to future proof my cabling a bit.
• I used 125 pixels because with this number I could use 18' cable runs without voltage drop or having to use null pixels.
• The Cables: Between the pixels and the controllers I used 4-core, 18 guage security wire. I soldered on a pair of pigtails to each end. Only 3 core is needed, but this is what I had so I used it.
• Pixel Controllers: 2 SanDevices E682 pixel controllers
  • I chose SanDevices because it supports E1.31 (DMX over Ethernet), which is good for me since IP network is an old friend of mine and I knew it could handle the traffic. Also SanDevices support a wide-range of pixel types and have a good reputation for quality and support. Plus it seems to be the product many people are gravitating towards for pixel controllers.
  • I used the Season Entertainment pigtails to connect to the 16 outputs on the board.
  • Used 350 watt, 19 amp PSUs
  • I configured the E682's to use unicast because that is the right way to do it.
  • The pixel controllers are then simply connected to a cheap Ethernet switch. On this same switch I connect my show computer. I did not use a router.
  • Pixel controllers and PSUs were plut inside CG1500 enclosures.
• Software:
  • Used Nutcraker123 to generate pixel effects. I then exported the effects into LOR LMS files
  • Used Light-O-Rama S3. Here I would load the exported LMS files into the sequence editor and then copy/paste the effects data into my sequence.
  • Used Light-O-Rama S3 software to run the show.
  • Software Models:
    • Link to Xlights model for treeline. [XLtreelinemodel.xlst]
    • Link to LOR Visualizer fixture file. [PixelHtree.lff]

Links:

Light-O-Rama : S3 software

San Devices : E682 RGB Pixel Controllers

Seasonal Entertainment LLC : WS2811 pixels, pigtails

DIY LED Express : CG1500 enclosures

WayTek : Heat Shrink

Tektel : LOGiCO 18AWG CL2 Security Cable - 4 core (PLC4503)

Nutcracker123 Software

Demo: