Love the way you explained everything. Already sent the video to my husband so we can start getting our hands dirty. We’ve been trying to do a Lights tree for the past 2 years and we haven’t got around to it.

Now that is getting in to the spirit! Really cool display. I thought the make shift lathe using the drill press was genius.

@MattHeere

4 жыл бұрын

The rule seems to be if you do something stupid and get away with it - then it's genius :)

What a great video! So appreciative of you taking the time, it makes life so much easier when trying to make!!!

OMG, this is too beautiful. I love the light show. You are a very smart man!

One of the most well done how to's on KZread! Thank You!

That looks awesome!! Can't wait for part 2!!

Great job with this video Matt, was easy to follow and really helped answer some questions I had about putting this all together!

Great job on your mega tree... I'm preparing to build one myself this year and your video really helps!

Now that is cool! On so many different ways, I am ham also. I have been wanting to build a crank up tower. This gives me some ideas. Thanks. I can’t wait to learn about the programming of the LEDs. 😁🛫

Great job, very professional Thanks for sharing with the community.

Great tips on building a large tree. Thanks for the tips.

Wow wow ! Fantastic, wonderful , beautiful ❤ Love your job 🎉Love decorating Christmas Day, Christmas season 🤶

This is amazing!

Its amazing a big salute sir.

You are awesome, thank you for sharing, have a great day!!!

Wow, so worth all that work.

Awesome Job!!!

Amazing job mate.. Great video very well explained

very nice. I did an asap p[ole a couple years back love it

Great set up, the lights are awesome. I used 1/2" rebar, heated and formed a 6' circle and welded 3 -1/2" rebar legs to it.

@MattHeere

2 жыл бұрын

The PVC 1/2 circle is decidedly the worst part of this setup. I keep intending to replace it with conduit and then of course never get around to it...

very very impressive!!!

Excellent video...I like the presentation seems like I was watching this old house for Pixels.

Awesome video!!!!!

wow what a lovely display I dont know how you done it but its really a great tree , thank you sharing ,

@elemeno0pee

Жыл бұрын

The man literally explains exactly how he did it lol

Looks awesome!

@MattHeere

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks Jeff! Looking forward to next year already, when the fabrication is done and I only need to assemble it. Any tips on storing these heavy-duty strips when it come down?

@CanispaterChristmas

4 жыл бұрын

@@MattHeere I use a very expensive and highly technical solution - contractor trash bags I throw up into the attic. 😂🎄

..Bloody Fantastic !!! A Heat Gun will bend the PVC. Easy does it or it will kink. i am amazed at what can be done with LED's. Great job Matt & Crew...!!!!!

@MattHeere

4 жыл бұрын

Howdy James! Thanks a bunch man. Question for you - I asked for a lathe for Xmas and if I get it I want to make a marking knife out of that metal you sent me. What can you tell me about that stuff?

@oljames1687

4 жыл бұрын

@@MattHeere ..apologies for the delay Matt. It's 5160 Spring steel from a car coil spring. i hardened the edge but the rest of it ought to machine out. Test it with a file to be sure . If it won't work let me know and i'll send a chunk you can work down. Happy Turkey Day to you & yours...

Do you have a video explaining the electronics and LED control process?

This guy engineers!

you said it is expensive... well, What is the final price tag for this project? looks like you got great toolbox to accomplish this great task.. it's not complicated if you got all the tools, time, money and determination to get it done.. great job...

Steeler Nation! Thanks for the video!

Walter Munkhouse would be proud. You did a nice video based on his design. Great guy if you ever get the chance to talk with him.

Hi I loved your set up and we do something similar, we go up 20 feet with all LED lights but I would love to do it in a light show like yours. What was your cost for the lights? And how many strands did you use?

Dude...nice. Poor man's crank up tower. Cheers! Chris - NI7I

Great video!! Question, how many pixels are in your strips?

I am new to this LED thing but would love a video on how you set up the controllers and wire everything up.

@richardcdldriver

3 жыл бұрын

I second that.

How well does this handle wind and snow? Does it shake very much?

Merry Christmas. Wow, great work! Can you tell us which controller and software you are using?

I love it grate job ….

What are the dimensions of the winch mounting plate (length, width and thickness)?

1:41 Nothing like rolling your own. 😉

I would really love to learn how you do this! Do you have wiring diagrams and tutorials? Any help is greatly appreciated.

It says the template can't be found for the holes to drill

How long are you light strips

Matt, well done! I am in the finishing stages of replication. I just had a few questions I was hoping for the short answers to: 1) I have 24 strips of 100 - What was your topper radius? And how far in did you drill holes for fasteners? 2) how big was the pin/bolt in 1 1/2 extender pole? And how far up/down did you drill them? 3) if you can offer suggestions on what size guy wire you would use? Thinking 3/32 SS 7x7 would work. Thoughts? Appreciate all the feedback and more importantly this video. It was much needed and glad I found it.

@MattHeere

2 жыл бұрын

Hi Michael. Couple of things: for sizing I used the MegaTree calculator over at lightshowhub dot com (stupid Google won't let me link to it). That's the easiest way to get the diameter for the top and bottom given your strings and planned pole height. My pin is just a 1/4" bolt. Size isn't critical here but use a quality bolt for the pin so it doesn't sheer off. I've been using rope guys (550 paracord) with two sets (one from the top and one from the joint between poles), but will likely move to steel cable this year. The rope is plenty strong for the tree, but is prone to being chewed by the dogs.

Simple question - how do you keep the 1.5" pole elevated? Does the winch hold it up or do you pin it somehow?

@MattHeere

2 жыл бұрын

Both. The winch and push pole can hold up the top section. I drilled the 1.5" pole for a pin anyway and let the tension off of the winch once the pin is installed.

Hi where did you get the lights and how do they make them amazing patterns, would love this in my garden this year

@MattHeere

3 жыл бұрын

Well it's a combination of parts. The lights are what's known as "Pixels" or more technically "individually addressable RGB LED bullets" The software that makes all the patterns is called xLights (xlights.org). In between the two is a controller of some kind. I built my own (see last years video on the lights) but you can buy them as well. It's not difficult once you get the hang of it, but there's a lot of building/configuring to get it working, and then quite some time in xLights to get the show right

@RoughSoundz80

3 жыл бұрын

@@MattHeere I'm from the UK, and I'm used to using logic for programming systems at work so I think I can get my head around software, its just finding parts in the UK 🇬🇧 😀

Where did you buy the lights and controllers?

@MattHeere

2 жыл бұрын

I recommend Wired Watts (you'll have to search...CommieTube won't let me link to it) for hardware. I built my controllers, but any controller will work

Matt, do you have a video wiring up the tree?

@MattHeere

2 жыл бұрын

Not yet. I've been debating whether to do one or not because my wiring is needlessly complex. I used 5V pixels because I had them and that's not really how I'd recommend anyone go about this if you're starting from new today.

Electric conduit (Rigid Pipe) is different from plumbing pipe. Plumbing pipe has a inside weld down the length of the pipe with a welding bead that sticks up. Electrical conduit doesn't have an inside weld so electrical wires will not be cut. Plumbing pipe has tapered threads. Electrical conduit has no tapered treads so the threads go all the way in and butts up to the connector leaving no sharp ends to cut the wire.

can you help me where to buy the lamps in 1 set and at what price. because I guess for an iron pole I can assemble it myself.

@MattHeere

4 жыл бұрын

Well you don't just "buy the lights" for a thing like this. It requires the LEDs themselves (usually called "pixels"), then the controllers and the power supplies, then the networking, and finally there needs to be a computer that you setup and program to run the whole thing. Check out my video from Nov 2018 where I go through all the pieces needed for these types of lights.

Like the set up, where did you do for the LED, or where should I look?

@lmjhalloween

3 жыл бұрын

What do you mean “where should i look”

@extremeelectricinc

3 жыл бұрын

Was just wondering where should I look to get everything, not only the pole, the RGB, the driver, etc

Great video on the construction, I would definitely be interested in how its powered, and how to get a pre programmed loop of effects for the lights. Btw, did you have some re adjusting through the season? Here we have heavy winds sometimes and 1st year I have anything new it has to be tweaked.

@MattHeere

4 жыл бұрын

The only issue I had was something I knew going in wasn't great and that's the PVC conduit around the base. It wasn't strong enough the really keep the strips taught in the wind. I'll be replacing it with an individual stake for each strip next year.

@confinisher67

4 жыл бұрын

@@MattHeere I use the big barn nails to hold everything down, the thicker ones, the skinny ones pull out to easy. I've wanted a pixel tree for over 5 years, but not computer savvy. I've heard you just download some free adrino load it on a sd and pop it in.

@MattHeere

4 жыл бұрын

@@confinisher67 Well there are two ways to go about it. The easy way is to just buy a controller such as a a Falcon (pixelcontroller.com). That eliminates all of the electronics building and also the complication of maintaining an appropriate WiFi network (which is much harder than it sounds). The harder way is to get into a microcontroller chip and build the receiver yourself. The code for the chips is already available (look up PixelStick) but you still need to assemble the hardware. Either way, the big investment of time is in the sequencing. Learning the xLights software and customizing things to whatever your layout ends up being is where 99% of the time goes.

Hey Matt, where's the next video?

what type of lights are those ? i had made my own mega tree years ago with 2 welded together 10ft poles so i had a 20ft tree. made a plate at the top to attach all lights to with zip ties. all said and done it was 40, 100 light strands = 4000 lights and weighted a TON would love to have these light strips. look much simpler!!!

@MattHeere

4 жыл бұрын

They're addressable RGB LEDs - generally known as "pixels". They don't come in the strips. You buy the strip material separately with whatever hole spacing you want and push the pixels into it. I would love to have just welded two pieces of DOM together for this, but it has to store in a 16' long shed.

Hello, congratulations on the project. Amazing! U have some docs or videos about the electronic parts and program code?

@mattsherif

3 жыл бұрын

xLights or Vixen for the "sequencing" - that's the programming part. The electronics you can do with controllers from HinksPix, AlphaPix, Falcon, or any other controller supported by the sequencing software.

@lmjhalloween

3 жыл бұрын

@@mattsherif or Hinks Pix PRO like I use

hi Matt, Great job and nicely done. I'm currently building mind here just few question your lower half moon PVC. What is the length and diameter? No. of light in the Strip? What is the Total length of the strip? and how many strip in total?

@MattHeere

Жыл бұрын

I have 75 pixels per strip, and 20 strips evenly spaces around 180 degrees in the front. Whole thing is ~17.5 feet tall. What you need is the mega-tree calculator (Google that if YT kills the link I'm pasting here): mattosdesigns.com/pages/mega-tree-calculator

How much money would you say you have in it so far? This is awesome.

On minute 5.12” on your video you mentioned a 90 degree offset hole. Does Walters pdf mention that because I thought all holes were all in a line.

@MattHeere

3 жыл бұрын

I don't have the PDF handy, but if the holes are in line then the push pole is right in the way of the pin hole(s).

@aaronpalusso

3 жыл бұрын

@@MattHeere thx for your response. His document is not clear. Because I see his drawing and looks like all holes are in line. Do you have a photo of what yours looks like.

@MattHeere

3 жыл бұрын

@@aaronpalusso Nothing better than what's in the video at or around 5:20.

@MattHeere

3 жыл бұрын

@@oneidalights The reality is that it doesn't matter much. I find having the hole for the hold pin and the hole for the push pole offset keeps them from getting in the way of each other, but it will work no matter where they are.

How well has the epoxy and flange fitting in the 4x4 held up? One word of advice is to spray paint the epoxy, uv breaks down epoxy.

@MattHeere

Жыл бұрын

It's stronger than the wood really. The UV is a non-issue for me. When this thing is assembled all of the epoxy is inside the fitting and covered by the pole. The rest of the year, it's stored inside a dark shed.

Last question. What is the height when standing?

@MattHeere

8 ай бұрын

Sorry for the delay here. Total tree height is 17.5 feet.

I’ve really started thinking about... Isn’t this pole a really nice lightning rod? Rarely does anyone address grounding. Oh... and... #steelernation

@MattHeere

3 жыл бұрын

It's gonna depend on lot on your situation Devin. Here in WPA lightning isn't a thing in the winter. Even if it were, this tree is only 1/2 as high as the house (which is covered in lighting rods) or any tree in the vicinity. If you live in Florida and put up a 30 footer next to your ranch patio home, then a ground rod or two is probably a good idea. Alternatively you could use wire for the guys. All you're trying to do is bleed any static charge off of it. You can not engineer this thing to be ready for a direct hit. At some point you have to accept some risk in order to get out of bed in the AM.

@devinhedge

3 жыл бұрын

@@MattHeere good point. The construction is amazing and thanks for the great video.

I wish I had the time to build this . Does anyone build and sell ? I want one I’ll pay the price

@yrot1123

2 жыл бұрын

@@oneidalights it's around $30K without the installation

which controller use this programming,,?

@MattHeere

3 жыл бұрын

I'm using xLights software and an E1.31 protocol receiver of my own design. It's based on the ESPixelStick hardware.

@kamallajohn2867

3 жыл бұрын

@@MattHeere Hello Praise the LORD Goodmorning, Thank you very much for spontiuos responding. Iam useing t 1000 controller & t8000 controller. It's run with LEDedit 2014 software. I need mega tree pixels making .so Pls gaid me.

The lights are for sure verry expensive

Would be great if the instruction is a little slower