How I setup my lights – The megatree October 20, 2017December 19, 2016 by Chris Debenham This is the second post in my series on how I setup my christmas lights Links to rest of series: Post 1 – The controllers Post 2 – The megatree Post 3 – Arches, candy canes, small spiral trees and large spiral tree Post 4 – Nativity Scene Post 5 – Windows, Singing Tree and tune-to sign Post 6 – Palm trees, carport and roofline Post 7 – LED Shirt This post focuses on the main megatree. The megatree is made from 13 strings of 50 pixels each (configured in 6 pairs + one that then leads into the star at the top) At the top of the tree is a piece of wood screwed into the tree. Under this block of wood there are 13 eyelets which the strings are cable-tied to. At the bottom each string is pegged to the ground (with cable-tie providing tension) Pixel strings are not strong enough to support themselves at tension (and they would twist around so not always face outwards) To fix this I bought a roll of packaging tape and drilled holes in it at regular intervals. I would drill 56 holes and then cut the tape. This allowed my to double-back the tape for 3 pixels at each end – making a nice strong loop to use for attaching to top/bottom of tree. This is the little jig I made up so that the holes would be the same distance apart – with 13 strings of 56 holes each that meant 728 holes drilled by hand This shows the result of pushing the pixels through a couple of the strips. Doesn’t look too neat here but looks good once hung up. By having all the pixels poking through the strip I can make sure they are all facing the same way.