adrianxw
New member
We have a very long string of white LED's which, in the dark months, are connected to a time switch in the hallway, and run outside. The string is festooned around, over, under, or whatever my wife chooses to do with them this year. At the end of the season, the string comes indoors, and I coil it up, secure the coil with a couple of cable ties, and store it away.
In a bored moment, my wife decided it was time to install this years extravaganza. Using a pair of scissors, she cut the first cable tie. She then cut the second cable tie.... and two small wires leading to one of the LED's. It arrived on my desk. I now need to reconnect these and restore the chain. My assumptions:
1. The unit built into the plug end of the chain contains a transformer, bridge rectifier, and probably some capacitors to drop the mains voltage to low DC chain voltage.
2. Each LED in the chain has four wires emerging from a, presumably heat shrunk, weather proofing surrounding the LED terminations, anode and cathode, presumably two wires, voltage in, two wires voltage out to the next LED along the chain.
3. I need to remove the encapsulation to reconnect the two wires.
4. Trial and error will be sufficient to establish which way the wires connect, either the chain will light, or it won't, if it does not, reverse the connections.
5. I will need to find some suitable compound to establish a weather proof unit.
The chain has a third wire, I do not know what it is for, any ideas?
In a bored moment, my wife decided it was time to install this years extravaganza. Using a pair of scissors, she cut the first cable tie. She then cut the second cable tie.... and two small wires leading to one of the LED's. It arrived on my desk. I now need to reconnect these and restore the chain. My assumptions:
1. The unit built into the plug end of the chain contains a transformer, bridge rectifier, and probably some capacitors to drop the mains voltage to low DC chain voltage.
2. Each LED in the chain has four wires emerging from a, presumably heat shrunk, weather proofing surrounding the LED terminations, anode and cathode, presumably two wires, voltage in, two wires voltage out to the next LED along the chain.
3. I need to remove the encapsulation to reconnect the two wires.
4. Trial and error will be sufficient to establish which way the wires connect, either the chain will light, or it won't, if it does not, reverse the connections.
5. I will need to find some suitable compound to establish a weather proof unit.
The chain has a third wire, I do not know what it is for, any ideas?
