Watching TV is a bad idea for many reasons. Over the past few years I’ve caught random episodes of various TV shows featuring Christmas decoration and outdoor lighting. The people featured on these shows have gone totally over the top (big surprise). But they’ve introduced new technologies I wasn’t aware of – computer controlled lighting and Mega Trees made with this lighting.
The basic idea is that each individual light is separately controlled – not only on/off, but also brightness and color. The lights can be updated 10-30 times a second. Individual control plus rapid updates means that you can create dynamic effects – even do video on your Christmas lights!
All of this technology finally got me into the Christmas spirit. As a bit of background, I admire The Grinch. The only thing I don’t like about him is how he went soft in the end. Ebenezer Scrooge was also OK, at least until he got ghosted. Christmas decorating is something done under duress.
When I first mentioned making a Mega Tree, She Who Must Be Obeyed asked “who are you and what have you done with RussD?”
Step one was a bunch of research. I discovered that there are three components to a Mega Tree: a light string, a controller, and a power supply. Light strings are (wait for it, wait for it…) strings of lights. LED lights. With a tiny computer built into each LED. These individually addressable LEDs are generally called pixels.
There are many types of light strings: 5V, 12V, and 24V. Three to 300 LEDs per meter. Multiple communications protocols. Strips of lights – basically LEDs attached to a half inch wide strip of tape. String lights, with the LEDs connected by wires. Various degrees of waterproof ranging from none to IP68 water resistance. Individually pixels can be controlled, or groups of three pixels are bundled together. Different communications protocols are used with different lights. The pixels might be three color or four color – three color is RGB (Red, Green, and Blue) and four color is RGBW (Red, Green, Blue, and White). RGBW produces a purer white than the white created by combining RGB.
Depending on your needs, pixel controllers range from under $10 to several hundred dollars. Power supplies range from a USB wall wart to several hundred watts.
Finally, Mega Trees are outdoors. In bad weather. Meaning that all of the electronics need to be designed for outdoor use and water/weather resistant.
All of the research left me educated and confused. Fairly common. OK, except for the educated part…
In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is.
With these words of wisdom I began my journey small: rather than starting with a Mega Tree, I would start with a breadboard technology demonstrator to see if I could light up and control a single light string. Based on that experience I could either work up to building a full tree or decide to hide the evidence and move on to the next project.