With the increased power requirements I decided to add an additional 5V power injection cable. Moving on to the controller, the output on the controller can handle 600 pixels. No problem with the original 400 pixel tree, but the upgraded tree is 850 pixels (including 50 pixels for the star). Hmm, the controller has two outputs, so it should be able to handle 1600 pixels. A bit of quick testing showed that both outputs work so I should be good to go.
Between the new power supply, the new power injection cable, and the new controller cable the electronics box was getting a lot of changes. Fine, pull it completely apart, strip it down to bare baseplate, and start from scratch. I might as well go ahead and run everything through terminal blocks to make maintenance and any future upgrades easier.
Drag the tree from the front yard back into the shop, strip it down to component parts, and rebuild everything.
Hmm, I now need a mount for the star. The star mounts onto a piece of pipe – I know how to handle this! Measure the inside diameter of the pipe and make a bushing by turning down a piece of steel rod to fit. Drill and tap the rod. Cut the threaded part off of a bolt. Take the original topper apart and sandwich the topper disc between the two bushings. Slip the original bushing into the upright, slip the star on top, and the star is done.
Carefully rebuild the tree – electronics box, new base, new and old pixel strings, and new star. Plug everything in. Watch half of the tree light up…
Exactly as expected – the controller has to be programmed for the new pixels. Change the settings so that it now has an 800 pixel segment for the tree and a 50 pixel segment for the star. Select some effects and test it.
Success – the entire tree plus star lights up and the various effects programs work! But the tree is dimmer than it should be. Looks like I missed something with the power injection cables. Trouble shoot the power injection cables and everything looks good. OK, what else could it be???
Dig deeper into the controller. Interesting – there are three different settings in three different locations that impact brightness. Including some non-obvious ones that protect the system from using too much power without a good power injection system. Change these settings to fully use the available power. And Viola! there is brightness!
The next-to-last step was to program effects and timing for both the tree and the star. The last step was to drag the tree back into the front yard, hook everything up, and wait for nightfall.
At sunset the timer turned on all the outside lights. The new and improved Mega Tree sprang to life (sprang to light?) – and looked great!
The final result was worth the work. The light show is like something you would see on TV. And it is the only Mega Tree in the neighborhood. Actually, I’ve only been able to find one other Mega Tree in the entire town.
Unlike the Grinch, my heart didn’t grow three sizes. But maybe there is something to this Christmas spirit!