Cosmic Color Ribbon Tree Construction
The SuperStar is made using 12 Cosmic Color Ribbons with a Star on top. I purchased 13 Cosmic Color Ribbons so that I have a spare. Light-O-Rama is really good about promptly replacing a faulty ribbon, but while waiting for the replacement to arrive I like having the spare. Cosmic Color Ribbons come in a box with 1 controller, 1 Ribbon, and 1 power supply. They are available from:
Light-O-Rama: http://store.lightorama.com/corgbde.html
WOW lights: http://www.wowlights.com/ProductDetail.asp?Category=3&Product=366
Synchronized Christmas (gives quantity discounts): http://store.synchronized.christmas/lor-ccr
I zip tied each CCR to a pair of ropes as you can see in the pictures. I also ran aluminum wire horizontally across the ribbons in five places in order to keep the ribbons facing forward.
The star has 6 concentric stars in it. Each of the 6 stars is controlled by 1 channel from a standard 16 channel Light-O-Rama controller. I made my star from ¼ inch polyethylene plastic as you can see in the pictures. For information about purchasing a star, check out the Star Purchase page.
Dimensions of the Star
The distance from the upper left tip to the upper right tip is 29 inches. The distance from the lower left tip to the lower right tip is 18 inches. The distance from the center to any of the tips is 15 1/4 inches which means 15 1/4 inches is the radius and if you drew a circle on all of the 5 tips, the diameter of that circle would be 30 1/2 inches.
Dimensions of the Ribbons
The ribbons are 16 feet 4 inches long. Each ribbon is mounted on top of a pair of ropes using zip ties. The ropes are about 6 inches longer than the ribbons. The ropes are about 1.5 inches apart at the top and 12 inches apart at the bottom. The bottom of the ropes are staked into the ground in a straight line that is 7 feet from the house. However, you can stake them into the ground in a somewhat semi-circular line and that works well also.
Location of the Controllers
My controllers are at the top. But most people put them at the bottom. Your controllers can be at the top or bottom of your display. You can specify the location of your controllers in the SuperStar software by clicking on the "Tools" menu and selecting "Layout." At the bottom of the "Layout" dialog box is a setting for the location of your controllers. The software will export the sequence appropriately according to the setting.
At the bottom are pictures of a star that a customer sent to me. His star is made by taping strings of LED lights to a wire frame.
Picture Descriptions:
(Click on a picture to view it full size)
Full View of the SuperStar
Close up showing the aluminum wire crossing a rope and CCR
Close up showing the bottom of the rope. Note that the zip ties should be located at a CCR joint so that the zip tie does not apply pressure to any of the electronics in the CCR.
For the ropes on the edge, the aluminum wire can be looped
Close up showing where the CCRs meet the bottom of the star
This is a star that a fellow by the name of Jeffrey Frank made. White strings of LED lights are taped to 4 concentric wire frame stars.
Close up of Jeffrey Frank's star showing how he secured the LED strings to the wire frame.