Department of Villainy tree in situ.

I've got various strips and rings, but they are used to death these days. I went for the bolder approach here.

Big Clive

Clive, this may have been asked before, but do you ever use Neopixel led strips/rings in any of your creations. They are easy to drive and seem to have almost limitless potential in projects like this..

Gordo

Very nice!

Brendan Meteer

I still cannot stop seeing the branches of the tree (green) as monty pythonesque noses.

duck

For indoors use you can get decent intensity from quite a low voltage/current setting. I nudged it down to 11V on the tree to avoid pushing the LEDs too hard.

Big Clive

I ordered 10 meter of the neon LEDs (the smaller ones) so I also can start with sone Christmas ornaments. You made me an excellent example. Thanks! I messured that the cabel needs aprox. 4,6W per meter. If you make the segments longer, there is a drop in brightness. It starts from aprox. 9V.

Hub Rijcks

I did consider fading sections of the tree, but I'm not sure it would have looked good. The use of a simpolke resistor limiter for the strings means that the brightness could be adjusted on the fly without even turning the effect off or opening its control box.

Big Clive

I just love the effect that the star uses when starting up!

These projects of yours just keep on inspiring the creative thoughts in my mind- I am now already planning next years Christmas light show at Chez moi !! hahaha! My bank statement will be all paypal to shenzehn again!

Mike Hughes

Very nice Clive. Well worth your time (and expense) Looks great!

Looks great Clive. Did you consider using PWM to control brightness of each channel rather than resistors?

Chris Parsons

It's not a contest. Just a social thing.

Big Clive

Turn to crime for a fabulous time! Lol! I hope you win dude! (I assume it's a contest)

Aaron Nadler

Politics. Same reason there are pointless earth bonds across every corner. It's designed to tick the boxes of "electrical testers".

Big Clive

That looks really good! And having the reflective floor is a real win.

Nani Isobel

Came out great! One question though, what made you decide to use a CEE Connector for it? A simple 3-prong plug would have done the trick just fine and not be as chunky? Or is it just because you are more used to them because of your work?

Daniel Rotskas

I've used that faux neon tube for Christmas displays this year, also. An angel, a tree, and a reindeer. Can't believe how inexpensive the stuff is compared to glass neon, and it looks great.

Clive, thanks. That's a nice 'build' video. But was there another post showing the schematic (one channel worth?) Curious about the capacitor. (Is it just for decoupling?) I see now that this is strictly on/off and driven from a digital output pin. A variable voltage driving from analog output would have required massive heat sinking. Assume this is driven from some type of Arduino...

I was thinking the same, the marble reflection is even cooler!

Mike Page

It is a great piece of work. You know there are now hundreds of us saying to ourselves, "I've gotta do that, too!"

William, I think you can watch the build of the controller here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/long-build-video-30967263

Paul Schuur

It's so good 😼 I hope you're really happy with it.

This is a neat Town Hall tradition. Quite a variety of displays. With the most technically brilliant one from Mr. LED himself!

Lilla Gubben

Looks great!

Exactly the over-the-top kind of display we expect and love. Good job!

I asked if we could have the same position as last year. The controller is featured in this video:- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfOardiykPs

Big Clive

Clive, great looking animation and geometries. You mentioned the Meanwell supply on previous posts. However, not sure you showed us your 15 or 16 channel MOSFET switcher board / microcontroller. Is that multi-channel unit a commercial device, or your own design? Is it some DMX thingy? Can it do brightness level (adjustable voltage or current) as well as on/off? Etc. I would say your tree got center stage, right in front of the door. The tree to your left is kind of distracting with it's constant fast flashing. I assume there is no choice of how the trees are positioned...