I use a 50m string of white LED lights in the front garden, and it feels like I have to buy a new one every year (but maybe it's every other year) cos a section or number of sections have stopped working or are very weak.
Over the years they've not been particularly cheap, and in getting out the set from last year (which actually seems OK) I came across three of the broken ones.
The controllers are OK and the wiring all looks intact. The bulbs are not removable.
I guess it's more likely to be a wiring/connection problem than a broken bulb, but is it fair to assume it's the first bulb in the not working section which is bad, if not, how would I work out which one? Or is it more trouble than it's worth? ISTR these strings have been in the region of £30 - £40 but apart from the money, with my new green awareness, it seems awful wasteful to just chuck them away when it might not take much to fix them.
These all have one wire running the length of the string and each bulb has two wires in and two out. It's quite tricky following a wire to see the exact route as they are twisted together quite tightly. A failing section seems to be 5 or 6 bulbs, and either side of that work OK.
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they should have resistors in the heat shrinked bit at the bottom of the bulb. They are only soldered, and break.
If they are mains, remember you can get a shock
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So is the first unlit one in a sequence likely to be the culprit? If so I can probably just bypass it.
I suppose I can sacrifice one string for experimentation :-) They are mains, so I'll take care!!
Last edited by: smokie on Sat 3 Dec 22 at 17:04
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>> So is the first unlit one in a sequence likely to be the culprit?
Not necessarily, they are probably not wired in order.
How many bulbs in total are there?
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'remember you can get a shock'
Yeah, £40!
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Indeed!!
Well it's 50m long and the lights are about 7cm apart. So is that 700 isn't it? Though that sounds a lot. Let's go with 500 (though looking at Amazon there are ones with 2000, but they are cluster type lights)
EDIT found a couple of the Amazon receipts, they are 600 lights.
Last edited by: smokie on Sat 3 Dec 22 at 17:58
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Found a use for a short broken multi-coloured set. Part unwound them and hung them on one of SWMBOs hanging basket hooks. It actually looks quite arty now it's dark :-)
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>> Found a use for a short broken multi-coloured set. Part unwound them and hung them
>> on one of SWMBOs hanging basket hooks. It actually looks quite arty now it's dark
>> :-)
The LEDS are now being over driven, bet they look bright. Longevity is not assured.
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It’s not worth the hassle. The lights are usually only IP44 and so do allow moisture ingress over time, causing corrosion. Replace with something labelled IP65 that doesn’t come from Amazon.
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Fault finding on outdoor Christmas lights - Zero
