Author Topic: 110 volt operation of Christmas Led Lights  (Read 4215 times)

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Norm

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110 volt operation of Christmas Led Lights
« on: December 08, 2011, 09:36:12 AM »
So here I am with a 60 LEDs Christmas lights that operate from 110 AC.....
they have 3 wires and so far as I have checked they must be in series and
parellel....kind of confusing started off that 4 were in one string....then it changed off
to another one of the three wires and stayed in that string for 26 and that one had
three wires going into it then it probably switched to the third wire for the last 4 LEDs
then goes thru a round cylinder about the diameter of a cigarette and about half-length
before going to the plug, same with the other end,
but I guess all I really want to know is how many those would a small stepper motor
light up?
Stepper motor on a small windmill puts out about 6 volts....very small current.
Norm.

RP

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Re: 110 volt operation of Christmas Led Lights
« Reply #1 on: December 08, 2011, 09:48:00 AM »
Norm,

Take 2 sewing needles and poke them through the insulation across about 4 LEDs and then alligator clip the needles to your stepper motor and give it a spin to get an idea.

Norm

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Re: 110 volt operation of Christmas Led Lights
« Reply #2 on: December 08, 2011, 11:19:56 AM »
Thanks RP, Done that with the pins and determined that it moderately easy to light
up about 8 of them....so unraveled the whole mess and about to determine how many
sets of 8 will work paralleled.....will post the results after I get a windmill made to
power them.
Norm. :)

wooferhound

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Re: 110 volt operation of Christmas Led Lights
« Reply #3 on: December 08, 2011, 01:37:01 PM »
LEDs are DC and will only light up if the polarity is correct, so you will need to run your stepper motor output through a bridge rectifier to get Max brightness. Or you could have a couple of LED strings polarized one way, and then a couple going the other way, then they would flash alternately.

Norm

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Re: 110 volt operation of Christmas Led Lights
« Reply #4 on: December 10, 2011, 05:53:52 PM »
Thanks woofer, forgot to mention that it has a little receptacle with 4 holes
one is ground and I simply plug the white band ends of 3 diodes into the three holes that
isn't ground and the other ends connected together and then it's just half
wave rectifier seems to work satisfactory that way.
But maybe I'll hook them up so they flash alternately...
Norm.