November 2007 Archives
11/15/2007 - "How to make mini trees"
10/16/2007 - "How to animate your Christmas lights using an 8-channel controller"
10/06/2007 - "How to make the cable that plugs into the computer and Olsen 595 controller"
09/29/2007 - "How it all works together using an Olsen 595 Controller and Solid State Relays"
How to make mini trees
We need to gather some parts from our local Home Depot first. What we need are:
1 tomato cage per mini tree we are going to build - $1.30 per cage
Enough chicken wire to wrap each of the mini trees we are going to build - $15 for 25ft.
Welder or J.B. Weld
Wire cutters
This is what the finished mini trees will look like:
First, we need to weld the 3 wires at the top of the tomato cage together to form a cone. If you don't have a welder, J.B. Weld will work.
Next, we need to wrap the tomato cage with the chicken wire. You can just twist the ends of the chicken wire on top of each other to secure the chicken wire to the tomato cage.
Since I am using SSR's that are rated for 3 strings of Christmas lights each, I wrapped each mini tree with 3 strings. You can just start at the bottom and start wrapping towards the top. You can weave the Christmas lights into the chicken wire to secure the lights in place.
Make sure to have the 2-prong plug from the Christmas lights at the bottom of the mini tree.
That's it, pretty easy right?! Here are some more pictures of the build process:
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