In this lesson, we will show you how to build a two-tiered animated wire tree that looks similar to this:
If you have the Flash plug-in installed, you can see a video of this tree in action.
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Required Materials
- Christmas on a Pole controller or any 8-channel or 16-channel light controller from Animated Lighting
- Pole (typically 12-24 feet or longer with a minimum diameter of 4 inches)
- Tension cable (typically 1/8")
- Hardware (eye bolts, washers, zip ties, etc.) as needed
- Tent stakes
- Lighting strands (e.g. LED, C7, minilights, etc.)
- Extension cords
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Required Tools
- Electric drill
- Screwdriver
- Pliers
- Wire cutters
- Hammer or mallet
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Introduction
These directions give you the basics in building a wire tree. In addition to this information, you will want to consider the program that will animate the lights on your tree. If you use the Christmas on a Pole controller and its pre-programmed shows, you will want to be sure to build your tree to the specifications included in the Christmas on a Pole manual. If you use a 16-channel light controller from Animated Lighting, you can animate your lights any way you want by building a show with our Animation Director software.
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1 |
Attach a pole (minimum eight feet long) to a secure base so that it stands securely at a 90-degree angle from the ground. You can drive the pole into the ground until it is secure or consider using a five gallon bucket of sand or concrete to hold the pole upright.
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2 |
Attach six cables to the top of the pole. Run each one to the ground about four feet from the pole and evenly spaced to form a circle. Secure the cables to the ground and make sure they are tight without any slack.
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3 |
Attach six more shorter cables to the middle of the pole. Run these cables to the ground and attach them to the previous six cables tightly without any slack.
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4 |
Match strings of lights to the length of the cables and terminate them appropriately and safely. Attach the light strands with zip ties to the cables with the male plug at the bottom.
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5 |
Connect each male plug to an extension cord. Connect the other end of the extension cords to the appropriate plugs coming out of the bottom of the PO16-MB.
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| 6 |
Plug the PO16-MB into a power source. Test the connections and show. |
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Variations
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A |
The previous scenario only used 12 of the available 16 channels. Another possibility is the one pictured above that connects two sets of eight light strings to the pole instead of two sets of six strings. This would use all 16 channels.
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B |
You can get different visual effects from the same pre-programmed show by using two different colors on one cable or you can mix and match in any combination you want.
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C |
To assure your light strand is uniform and all of the lights point the same direction, run two parallel cables for each light strand and mount the socket in between the two cables.
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