How to build a L.E.D. Mega Tree - Step by Step

hi everyone in this video I'm going to show you step-by-step how to build an LED Christmas tree or mega tree just like this one we're going to see which lights to use how to plug them together the wiring the controller and how to inject power to these lights so please stay with me you hi everyone thank you for watching this video and for subscribing to my channel so finally we are ready to start building our mega tree so these are the components that we're going to need first of all Falcon controller f-16 v3 1200 lights this is the model ws 2018 24 strengths we're going to need an internet court a Raspberry Pi this device is going to be running our show and FM transmitter because we're gonna be transmitting the music so people can listen to it from their cars and also I want to show you this plastic strip it already has the lights mounted also it has the pigtails solder to both of their size so we have all the components so let's get started this is an ex like software and we're gonna be using the layout tab to design our tree so we're gonna click in this icon and then we can lay it down just like this now knowing that we are going to be using 1200 lights and that our controller can only take a thousand and twenty four lights per port well we're gonna have to break it in half meaning that we're gonna be using two ports port number one it's going to be controlling six hundred lights and port number two it's gonna be controlling another six hundred lights now we need to change some parameters on this side because the software needs to know that the sign of our tree so first of all we cannot tell the software they're gonna be using two strings one two port number one and the other want to port number two each of those strings is going to be made up of six hundred lights and each of these strings gonna have twelve strengths there we go so now we have 12 strands in the front and 12 strands on the back now this is a round tree 360 degree tree I went this way because my house isn't in a corner lot so the tree can be view from any side you can also go with 180 degree tree this is half a tree this design works well if you house it's only facing to the front of the street and you can lay down against the wall but in my case 360 degree tree so from now on all of this video is going to be referring to a tree just like this and everything we're gonna build is taking this aside into account these are the lies that we're going to be using in our project the model is ws 28 and it lights are amazing they can produce more than 16 million different colors inside each of the slides has three LEDs one red one green and one blue so by combining those three colors in their different intensities we can get any color that we want now these are waterproof it's set for the connectors we're gonna have to replace them all so they come in a string of 50 lights I would probably is going to take 24 of these lights now when it comes to power consumption and don't quote me on this but I think I'm very close each of those LEDs inside consumes point zero two watts so all three together are point zero six watts that means that a hundred of these will be six watts and a thousand will be 16 watts so that's how we're going to calculate how many power supplies we're going to need to power these slides so we're ready to start so let's see the next video so these are non waterproof connectors and we will need to replace them with pigtails just like this one so we're going to cut just right here and then we're going to solder them together [Music] so here we have positive data and ground positive data Ingram [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] and here we have the final product please note that this slide have a data port in and a data poured out so data is going to flow from this side to that side usually the female is the one that is taking the data in so make sure that you solder a female pigtail on this side and a male pigtail on that side also in the light itself it will be marked di for data in and in some cases it will have an error pointing to the side that is taking the data in so make sure you plug him the right way if they will not work the other way around you may even burn the lights so be very very careful the way you plug them so now that we have solder the pigtails to both side of our string the next step is to mount the lights on the plastic strip note that I'm leaving one empty hole in between the lights there are two inches between each of these slides so let's finish inserting the lights and the strip there we go please note that I have left three holes on the top of the string this is because all of the strings are going to meet on the top so we need to leave enough space for all them and at the bottom I'm only leaving one hole this is the one's gonna be attached to the floor it is a very important that you note the way you are installing the lights on the strips remember that these strings are connected in a serial way meaning that this is our strand number one so the data flow is going to start from the bottom it's gonna all the way to the top and then it's gonna flow to strand number two starting on the top so on the top they're gonna be plugging like this so strand number two is gonna be connected to strand number three on the bottom and so on so the data flow remember starts on the one goes to the top goes down on number two and then connects on the bottom to number three and then it goes up and so on and so on so please note the order you're installing these lights on the Strand this one is going up this one is going down okay so now we have 24 of these strings ready to be mounted but before we do so we need to make sure that they work so let's test them and see if we build them the right way let's see the next video okay so here we have 600 lights 12 strands 50 lights each strand so let me give you a close-up of how this is connected so here's with with the signal camp scene with power then it goes all the way to the top connects to the second string and then it comes down and then it goes up again number 3 connects to number 4 on the top and then it comes down and such and such now notice that I have one input here for power and another at the end of the string so this is how the strings are connected in a serial way so now let me put the controller in demo there we go so this proves that all of our connections are ok signals traveling up and down through all 12 strengths now let me show you something right now I'm injecting at the end of the string let me put the camera down and let me show you what happens when I take the energy out so this is 12 volts coming from this power supply so this is with power injection no power power injection no power so this is how important it is that you have injection at certain points of our mega tree and again I had an extra one right in the center of these 12 strands because I'm going to eject energy in that one because I want to make sure that they glow as much as I can okay so now we move outside so let me show you what I did first of all I painted a circle in the place where I want the Christmas tree to be from side to side this circle measures 78 inches from side to side and then I use metallic anchors and I spaced them approximately 10 11 inches all around circle and that gave me exactly 24 strands now at the center what I use is an umbrella base and here's what I put the pole and this is fantastic because I don't need anyone else help and it will stand by itself without you know having issues that will tip to one side and I don't know if you can see on the top but there's what all the strands meet and you can see how they are connected to each other I'm going to give you more detail on that topper okay so this is a tree topper there's what all the connections are being made on the top let me show you the top this is how all the strings end up on the top of this topper that might not be the best thing to do but what I did is I just use a piece of twisted wire and it worked real nice for me in case I need to remove them real quick some people use zip ties I like this way better [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you and this is a detail of the bottom of our mega tree you can see the pigtail how is connecting from one strand to the other one and also what I used is this rubber band to give tension to all of our strands and it works real nice okay so what project is finished the only thing left to do is to show you how to inject energy so for that we're going to put a power supply at the bottom of our tree and that will connect a different points so let's see that part so here we have our power supplies we have two of them we're only going to be using one so from here we're going to connect the cable and then we're going to inject 12 volts at different points of our mega tree so here we have the controller and if you recall from our design video we decided that we're going to use two long string of 600 lights each so one of the strings is going to be connected to port number one and the second string is going to be connected to port number two and the connection is very simple here we have power data and ground the we're skipping down that one because that is the clock and these lights do not have a clock so again positive data and ground and we just plug in right into port number one and we're going to do the same for port number two and we are done our mega tree is ready so the last thing I want to do is show you a small demo and also please stay tuned because in part number two I'm going to show you how to use X lights to bring this mega tree to life thank you very much for watching [Music] the Christmas tree and Christmas party on this Touhou way and you can see every couple tries to stop knocking around because frustrate the Christmas spirit the you were sand the when you hear the voices sing middle it's big child [Music] until you panting bell Jingle Bell Rock taking the best swings in without break a snowy

Channel: Trevi Lights

Views: 139,359

Keywords: Mega Tree, christmas tree, led tree, L.E.D., Led tree, ws2811, christmas lights, raspberrypi, singing tree, falcon tree, falcon controller

Id: 8W1vriknbB8

Length: 18min 53sec (1133 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 01 2020