LED Xmas Lights

[KrazyKuch]

You can cut the string and put in the amount of bulbs you want....You do not need to alter the power supply...the flicker he was talking about is that those light are running off 120Volts AC, now ac cycles 60 times a second so the LED's will go on and off 60 times a second!!!

Also if you want to buy some LED's to make your own moon Lighting the all you have to do is buy some LED's whatever color you want and get a power supply of any voltage ( has to be above 3 volts, LED's have a range or 3 volts to 220 volts) Through in a resistor or proper value.....if that is to bright or if you want like a dimmer to control it then just by a Variable resistor and throw that in line with the whole circuit....then you can control the intensity of the lights!!!

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by KrazyKuch

You can cut the string and put in the amount of bulbs you want....You do not need to alter the power supply...the flicker he was talking about is that those light are running off 120Volts AC, now ac cycles 60 times a second so the LED's will go on and off 60 times a second!!!

Also if you want to buy some LED's to make your own moon Lighting the all you have to do is buy some LED's whatever color you want and get a power supply of any voltage ( has to be above 3 volts, LED's have a range or 3 volts to 220 volts) Through in a resistor or proper value.....if that is to bright or if you want like a dimmer to control it then just by a Variable resistor and throw that in line with the whole circuit....then you can control the intensity of the lights!!!

I will advise against cutting down the LED christmas light unless you plan on altering your power input with a resister.

Some of the stuff in the second paragraph is not nessasarly true or it can be true in certian situations. you cannot use any power source from 3 volts to 220 volts, nore could you use a household dimmer with out risk of blowing up all your LED's. most LEDs have a break over voltage. that means unless you have that Voltage they won't light. once they are lit they can operate down to what ever voltage specified. there are two ways to power LED's the first by limiting the current to the string to the specified amount of the LED. so say 20milliamps. this will light any number of LEDs in series up to the maximum wattage rating of your transformer. the other way is by limiting voltage ~4V for each LED. so if you have a string of 10 LEDs and you want to put 4Volt to each you need a 40V power supply at least but if you go over you need to limit the current. the way I run them is off a DC power supply say from a walkman or something and use a resister to set my voltage. In this situation you could have a variuable resister (which dimmer switches can be) and you can use that to "dim" the LEDs but you have to make sure the resister at its lowest setting will not sent to much voltage to the LEDs or you will burn them out (I went through 20 one day untill I realized I was reading the bars on the resister wrong )

anyways hope this clears a few things up.

Steve

[albert_dao]

Looks like I'm popping by Canadian Tire tommorow to due some tinkering.

[IslandReefer]

Thanks Steve
I thought there might be a complication, but this looks workable for moon (blue)or red (night) lights.
Off to C.T. toooo

[KrazyKuch]

If your gonna use the blue led's then don't go over 16 mA, 20 mA will Blow the blue ones up!!

[KrazyKuch]

I will advise against cutting down the LED christmas light unless you plan on altering your power input with a resister.

Some of the stuff in the second paragraph is not nessasarly true or it can be true in certian situations. you cannot use any power source from 3 volts to 220 volts, nore could you use a household dimmer with out risk of blowing up all your LED's. most LEDs have a break over voltage. that means unless you have that Voltage they won't light. once they are lit they can operate down to what ever voltage specified. there are two ways to power LED's the first by limiting the current to the string to the specified amount of the LED. so say 20milliamps. this will light any number of LEDs in series up to the maximum wattage rating of your transformer. the other way is by limiting voltage ~4V for each LED. so if you have a string of 10 LEDs and you want to put 4Volt to each you need a 40V power supply. the way I run them is off a DC power supply say from a walkman or something and use a resister to set my voltage. In this situation you could have a variuable resister (which dimmer switches can be) and you can use that to "dim" the LEDs but you have to make sure the resister at its lowest setting will not sent to much voltage to the LEDs or you will burn them out (I went through 20 one day untill I realized I was reading the bars on the resister wrong )

anyways hope this clears a few things up.

Steve

Were did you get this info from.....LED's will not burn out from to much voltage!!!!! LED's will not burn out unless given more then 220 Volts but if you give them more then 16mA they will burn out faster then you could possibly think......A resistor is their more or less to restrict the amount of current going to the LED....Also on the LED XMas lights there is a resistor for every single LED.

I am a Licensed Electrician and almost have a EET Degree (Electronics Engineering Technologies Degree)

[StirCrazy]

I made one mistake on the previous post, you want your LED voltage to add up to 80% of your supply voltage so if you have a 80 volts worth of LEDs then use a 100V powesupply with a controled output of 15 milliamps.

so my mistake you can have a higher voltage as long as your amprage is limited. (thats what you get for typing when your tired.. )

Originally Posted by KrazyKuch

[..Also on the LED XMas lights there is a resistor for every single LED.

Is there, thats good to know, now can you be sure of that for every brand? I know the ones out here at walmart are not power smart aproved, while other ones are. what about the ones with 3 cords? is there not one resister for each series?

As for the amprage for LEDs every brand is different pretty much I have some that take 20mA and some that ask for 45mA and I think a couple that are 28ma (and thay are all blue.) but the most commen is 20ma (this is also the max amprage), I usaly run my 20's at about 16mA, but I have run them at 20mA for a year with no problem. It may be a problem if you have them in an area where they can over heat.


Steve

[wrassehole]

what about painting over a good portion of the bulb black. wouldnt that block a good portion of that brightness giving you smaller beams. im gonna try it on the tiny christmas lights.

[KrazyKuch]

The Christmas Lights That I was talking about with the resistors in each bulb are the ones from Canadian Tire brand name is Noma......Other ones I am not sure I would have to get my hands on them to find out for sure!!


Painting over the bulbs could work yes.....The no heat of the LED's means that it won't bake off!!!

[ungp]

Does the x-mas LED have the proper wavelength to simulate true moonlight?
From what i read, the target wavelength should be in the range of 450nm - 470nm for proper moonlight.
Anyone know what the x-mas LED wavelength is?

thanks,