Mega Tree with ASAP pole

[@Sparklecupcake51]

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.

[@stuwalton1384]

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

[@ozzstars_cars]

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

[@MattHeere]

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

[@mikeyandalyssab4782]

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

[@ladyknu-knu9906]

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

[@tmead9471]

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

[@oljames1687]

..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]

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]

@@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...

[@TheFalconJetDriver]

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. 😁🛫

[@eddiepaniagua7977]

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]

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...

[@mrcreedslights]

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

[@cincingr]

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

[@DWR6]

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

[@davidshepard2372]

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

[@NaturesChild]

Wow, so worth all that work.

[@hookedonchristmas]

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

[@paulwood6686]

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

[@BoB10]

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

[@elemeno0pee]

The man literally explains exactly how he did it lol

[@CanispaterChristmas]

Looks awesome!

[@MattHeere]

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]

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

[@vivianpham7291]

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

[@seanjpatel]

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

[@yrot1123]

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...

[@davidwert4451]

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

[@richardcdldriver]

I second that.

[@elguero7096]

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

[@bobgrandi1163]

Very detailed. This is great step by step instructions. I noticed one thing. You are using 2" GALV Pipe but it looks like the exhaust clamps are 2-1/4". Am I missing something? Wouldn't you use a 2" clamps on a 2" pole? Or is the 2-1/4" clamp used on purpose ?🤔

[@MattHeere]

2" is the I.D. O.D. is supposed to be 2 3/8" but the 2 1/4" clamps seem to work.

[@usahome]

1:41 Nothing like rolling your own. 😉

[@prabhakarratnagiri7265]

Its amazing a big salute sir.

[@rashmedo]

Amazing job mate.. Great video very well explained

[@evelynpineda8159]

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?

[@wolverineds]

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

[@carolweston2969]

Where can I buy the steel plate ready-made for the bracket please? Thanks!

[@michaelmetzler2443]

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]

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.

[@johnromero1557]

Where did you buy the lights and controllers?

[@MattHeere]

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

[@jproudheli]

Do you have the specs of the bracket for the ASAP winch? I see the PDF, but it doesn't have the measurements on there.

[@cgsouthern]

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]

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.

[@silnath4162]

very very impressive!!!

[@Uncle_Buzz]

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

[@jamesflores1625]

Last question. What is the height when standing?

[@MattHeere]

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

[@bryan767]

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

[@titustitus7105]

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.

[@LogicBob]

Hey Matt, where's the next video?

[@jamesflores1625]

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]

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

[@biggie2182]

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

[@williamackerman4912]

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

[@MattHeere]

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.

[@BigScottTheNetworkGuy]

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.

[@maplecreekfarm]

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

[@christianallender246]

How long are you light strips

[@sandasylum2503]

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]

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.

[@gerejatorajamamasa]

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]

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.

[@itsptadeu]

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

[@mattsherif]

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]

@@mattsherif or Hinks Pix PRO like I use

[@fevgg]

what the software did you use for programming the effects?

[@confinisher67]

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]

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]

@@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]

@@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.

[@djiceman9915]

Hi question that controller are 16 port right? do you using all 16 port just for that megatree? how did u setup?

[@MattHeere]

I use controllers that I built myself based on the ESPixel Stick concept. There are two controllers for the tree, each of which is a single port, so each 1/2 of the tree shows up as an IP Address/Controller in XLights.

[@RAZER.MUSIC21]

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

[@MattHeere]

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

[@RAZER.MUSIC21]

@@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 🇬🇧 😀

[@rikz_TV]

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

[@extremeelectricinc]

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

[@lmjhalloween]

What do you mean “where should i look”

[@extremeelectricinc]

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

[@STidrvr]

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

[@devinhedge]

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

[@MattHeere]

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]

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

[@dtorbit]

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

[@MattHeere]

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.

[@mannymhd]

Awesome Job!!!

[@nathanielbrown2893]

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

[@yrot1123]

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

[@aaronpalusso]

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]

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]

@@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]

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

[@MattHeere]

@@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.

[@tinamorris9102]

This is amazing!

[@codyg4318]

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

[@devinhedge]

Steeler Nation! Thanks for the video!

[@kamallajohn2867]

which controller use this programming,,?

[@MattHeere]

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

[@kamallajohn2867]

@@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.

[@ANas-xq3ly]

This guy engineers!

[@stormchazer6655]

Awesome video!!!!!

[@adrian.gyemant]

The lights are for sure verry expensive

[@FIREBALL5307]

I love it grate job ….

[@supergirl2997]

Would be great if the instruction is a little slower

[@tedebayer1]

While I appreciate a good diy project, I can't imagine this costing less than half a months pay or more. Also recognize that half the diy-people out there will cut corners, and blame you when that pole falls on a neighbourhood kid.

[@MattHeere]

The lights themselves are ~$400 now. You can build the rest of it for that much or less, so I'd budget $800 for one this size at current prices. It's was obviously a LOT less that that 5 years ago before the inflation we've had in recent years.