Spiral mini-trees, strips or nodes

B

Buckeyelights

New member
I bought 12 spiral mini-trees (see picture or this link: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Holiday-...-Tree-Sculptures-Clear-Lights-2-Pack/12080735 ) to replace my mini-trees that use incandescent minis. I’ll replace the bulbs on these with pixels. They’re 3 and 4 ft tall; so viewers will still be able to see over and through them, as they sit in front of the other props.

My initial thought is they’d look best with pixel strips; however people seem to have more problems with strips than pixel nodes. I don’t understand why; maybe because I haven’t used any strips? The leds are encased in heavy plastic sleeve or tube, only the two ends are open. Unless they aren’t sealing the ends, what else could cause problems? Condensation?

One advantage with strips is that the pixels would align on each mini-tree. If I use nodes, it would be difficult to make the spacing the same.

I know others have used this type of spiral tree with pixels. What did you use and are you happy with your choice. Any video, I’d appreciate seeing it.

So strips or nodes? If nodes, flat back or bullet style?

Oh, has anyone opened up these stars and put pixels in them? Can they be opened or are they glued together? I haven’t tried yet, so I’m a bit premature in asking. Hoped someone could save me the time, breaking one probably, and have a hint on how to open them up.

Tks!!!!
Joe
 

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Buckeyelights said:
I bought 12 spiral mini-trees (see picture or this link: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Holiday-...-Tree-Sculptures-Clear-Lights-2-Pack/12080735 ) to replace my mini-trees that use incandescent minis. I’ll replace the bulbs on these with pixels. They’re 3 and 4 ft tall; so viewers will still be able to see over and through them, as they sit in front of the other props.

My initial thought is they’d look best with pixel strips; however people seem to have more problems with strips than pixel nodes. I don’t understand why; maybe because I haven’t used any strips? The leds are encased in heavy plastic sleeve or tube, only the two ends are open. Unless they aren’t sealing the ends, what else could cause problems? Condensation?

One advantage with strips is that the pixels would align on each mini-tree. If I use nodes, it would be difficult to make the spacing the same.

I know others have used this type of spiral tree with pixels. What did you use and are you happy with your choice. Any video, I’d appreciate seeing it.

So strips or nodes? If nodes, flat back or bullet style?

Oh, has anyone opened up these stars and put pixels in them? Can they be opened or are they glued together? I haven’t tried yet, so I’m a bit premature in asking. Hoped someone could save me the time, breaking one probably, and have a hint on how to open them up.

Tks!!!!
Joe
Click to expand...

My spiral trees are made from those. I use standard bullets

https://vimeo.com/248722131
 

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Last edited:
I had WS2812 strips. I had to replace them three times in one season. The next season I moved to WS2811 3: strips and have not had an issue since.
 
I tried bullets, in varying mounting patterns, then settled on strips for ease of install and neatness.
I believe the main drama with strips is they tend to break at the join or where the pigtail is connected. This just means you need to be mindful and take extra care and precautions. I soldered the pigtails on, then added heat shrink and a small amount of silicone inside before shrinking, Then cable tied the pigtail to the frame when assembled to stop any movement. Also I cable tie the strips at the joins and don't make them too tight as they will expand and contract to some extent and I don't want any unnecessary force on the joins.
 
Depending on how tightly you want the wrap to be on the tree, I wonder how something like 3/4" Pex tubing would work with bullets to help protect them from the elements? I would imagine that you would want to make sure that all the bullets face the same direction as you pulled them through the Pex too.
 
On all of my dead WS2812 strips my issue was never the pigtail. It was always the WS2812 chip generating too much heat and the solder from the chip to the board letting go. My temp fix to keep a string going while the show was actively running was to use a small C clamp to hold the chip to the PCB. You could not see that pixel but the rest of the strip would work until I could swap the strip with a spare and then repair it. In most cases all I did to repair was to resolder the chip to the PCB. After three repairs on a single strip I always just discarded the strip. Now I have almost no WS2812 strips in my show (my front arches are the last elements to have WS2812 strips and they will get WS2811 strips once these die).
 
beeiilll said:
Depending on how tightly you want the wrap to be on the tree, I wonder how something like 3/4" Pex tubing would work with bullets to help protect them from the elements? I would imagine that you would want to make sure that all the bullets face the same direction as you pulled them through the Pex too.
Click to expand...

You won’t get bullets through 3/4”. And you won’t get too far with 1”

But why would you need to protect bullets? Strips yes, billets no
 
Bwinter said:
You won’t get bullets through 3/4”. And you won’t get too far with 1”

But why would you need to protect bullets? Strips yes, billets no
Click to expand...

I've got bullets in 1" pex on all my arches. Longest one is 30ft+. Its called a fish tape :wink2: But yes I agree, no need to protect bullets
 
Bwinter said:
You won’t get bullets through 3/4”. And you won’t get too far with 1”

But why would you need to protect bullets? Strips yes, billets no
Click to expand...

Ya, I was just throwing that out there.
I went and checked and 3/4" is too tight but I can get bullets through 1" without too much trouble.
Part of my thinking was to make it easier to route the tubing and fix it to tree frames. Easier to attach the tubing rather than the actual bullets. Although, that tradeoff in ease is offset by any repair work that might have to be done.

I was also thinking that it might be quicker to replace a section of tubing with lights in them on a frame rather than having to replace a string of bullets but replacing a single bullet or two is not that big of a deal.
Just throwing out ideas.
 
Those of you that used bullet or square pixels, how many pixels per mini-tree and how tall was that tree?

The spiral trees that I bought have 70 mini-lights on the 3 ft tall ones and 100 mini-lights on the 4 ft tall one. I'm wondering how many pixels I'll need?

Tks!
Joe
 
beeiilll said:
Ya, I was just throwing that out there.
I went and checked and 3/4" is too tight but I can get bullets through 1" without too much trouble.
Part of my thinking was to make it easier to route the tubing and fix it to tree frames. Easier to attach the tubing rather than the actual bullets. Although, that tradeoff in ease is offset by any repair work that might have to be done.

I was also thinking that it might be quicker to replace a section of tubing with lights in them on a frame rather than having to replace a string of bullets but replacing a single bullet or two is not that big of a deal.
Just throwing out ideas.
Click to expand...

I can also get bullets through 1". However, I couldn't get a strand through a length long enough for an arch, without having to pull WAY too hard. This may be dependent on exactly which vendor's bullet you use.
 
i don't recall my exact lengths, I think it worked out to get 100 on two trees and use one channel from my 682. I have connectors between them, and inject power on the other end. mine are 5v. I have several more to make for this year.
 
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