The Designing:

This year I wanted to add something new to the display — a Fireworks Tree. The idea is simple: build three spheres out of radiating LED arms, mount them on a trunk like the branches of a tree, and sequence them so all three burst outward together, just like a real firework going off.

Each sphere starts as a steel ball connector with 26 threaded holes, though I’m only using 12 of them. Three go around the top, 120° apart and angled 45° up from vertical. Three go around the bottom the same way, angled down. The other six run around the equator, 60° apart. That gives each ball 12 evenly spaced points to radiate from — the same pattern as a firework burst.

Assemble and Controlling:

To turn the three balls into a tree, a fourth ball becomes the trunk hub. Two 1000mm lengths of M10 threaded rod run from the hub out to two of the spheres, and a 400mm rod runs along the trunk to the third. It’s a simple hub-and-rod design, and it means I can bolt on more branches the same way later if I want to grow it.

Getting it into xLights took a bit of trial and error. My first attempt at a 3D custom model used a plain coordinate list, which isn’t actually a format xLights reads — custom models always come in as a grid of node numbers, layer by layer. Once I rebuilt the file in the right format, the sphere imported properly and the spokes lined up in the 3D preview exactly as designed.

For the sequence, I grouped all three spheres together as “Firework Spheres” and gave each one 12 radial sub-models — one per spoke. With the group’s State Effect set to Radial/Center-Out and the timing pulled right down to a second or two, all three spheres burst outward together, just like a firework. A 20-pixel “fuse” string leads into each burst, timed to reach the top right as the explosion starts.

The whole sequence is driven out of xLights to my HE123 controller with differential receiver boards, which gets the signal out to the spheres. Still to finish: sourcing the fuse-string pixels. More to come once it’s fully wired in and I can get some real footage of it firing.

Original Outlines:

When I first did my roof outlines back in 2018, I used lengths of led strip that I had acquired.

These were 1200mm long and set on aluminium strip and white only running 24v. This meant that I was only able to control them with a dmx controller that can turn them on and off, I did daisy chain them in banks of 3 lengths so I was able to turn them on in groups of 3 which helped to create a wave motion.

On the Eaves, Ridges and Fascia lines I was able to mount these strips with a total of 60 *1200mm strips.

Adding Colour:

These still remain on the roof today with the addition of Pixel leds.

To do this I used a top hat batten drilled at 65mm ctrs and painted to match either the ridge or Hips, this was a neat improvement by being able to keep the pixels alligned.  

The Materials:

I have 2 sizes of Spiral Trees, both are Laser cut 9mm Acoustic Pinboard is made of woven polyester to absorb impacts whilst providing the practicality of a foam board making insert 12mm pixels a breeze.

The smaller is 450mm Diameter Spiral Tree stands 500mm and that holds 75 x 12mm bullet pixels and the large 600mm Diameter Spiral Tree that stands 1.8m tall and holds 166 x 12mm bullet pixels.

Storage:

The one thing that makes great is that when packing away at the end of the season they stack flat, so they don’t take up much space and that I do sell these, this makes it better for shipping.